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To: Route797
They are vilified as exploiters of the private sector. The so-called governmental class is attacked on the basis of their relationship to a supposedly separate private class.

They are vilified as beneficiaries of the government, which exploits or at least burdens the private sector, which happens to be true. Part of what makes conservatives conservatives is that they are not friends of Leviathan. Does that bug you?

Government employees are demonized by people who may have an influence upon the government.

Which isn't exactly the same thing as being demonized by the government and its friends, is it.

But here's the real nub of all this: the communists saw the kulaks as an enemy class who had no right to even exist. They wanted the kulaks eliminated. Likewise the Democrats (and their media friends) would love for the Tea Party to cease to exist. In their vision of a proper world there is no Tea Party. The attitude of conservatives towards government employees, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. Conservatives don't believe that there should be no government "class", just that it should play its proper role -- i.e. that the govt workforce should be smaller, with pay and benefits more in line with the private sector. Seeking reform and seeking annihilation are not the same thing.

44 posted on 08/25/2011 5:22:19 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Yardstick
The attitude of conservatives towards government employees, on the other hand, is fundamentally different. Conservatives don't believe that there should be no government "class", just that it should play its proper role -- i.e. that the govt workforce should be smaller, with pay and benefits more in line with the private sector. Seeking reform and seeking annihilation are not the same thing.

I understand what you're saying, and the question of reform and adjustments to the public sector is certainly a fair one. If making sacrifices in my pay and benefits was needed for the well being of my fellow citizens then I would have to gladly bite the bullet. Sometimes I dwell on the rhetoric of the most extreme anti-government types and fail to realize that most conservatives, while having a healthy skepticism toward government, do not believe that the average civil servant is actively trying to harm his fellow Americans.

45 posted on 08/25/2011 5:53:45 AM PDT by Route797
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