Top Signs Pope Francis is an Honest Conservative

Juan Cole describes the Top Signs Pope Francis is an Honest Conservative.

Pope Francis has many virtues and strength of character, but he is not a progressive on most issues, and even where he leans progressive he is only willing to consider the individual as a charitable agent, eschewing most specific government-led reform.

Some American conservatives are angry at the Pope for not being far enough right on some issues, or for simply being humane, or for not joining in their delusions. Those aren’t conservative objections to the Pope, they are fascist ones. Italy’s Benito Mussolini, for instance, put in tax and other economic policy that gouged the poor above all. The rejection of science in favor of groupthink is also a far rightwing tradition. Mussolini denounced the barrenness of mere science and reason, and fascists rejected anthropological and biological findings about human universals. Being against the science of human-caused climate change (which is now indisputable) isn’t conservatism. It is something much darker.

Emphasis Mine

Conservatism, in Australia and the USA, is splitting into Fascist and non-Fascist camps. The election of Malcolm Turnbull as PM ruptured the fagile conservative alliance in Australian politics.

The strains of the failure of Capitalism to rebound after the GFC of 2008 are forcing conservatives to seek more radical anti-worker policies and measures. The current Royal Commission into Trade Unions is a manifestation of this. However, the failure of the last two (2) federal budgets shows the limits of this offensive. Even rabid billionaires, like Clive Palmer, are opposed to these measures.

When you have Capitalists publicly denouncing the policies of an extreme conservative government, you see the divisions within the ruling class. One faction is frightened of revolution overthrowing the system, while another wants to keep the system running at full-speed ahead.

The crisis in Capitalism is brought about by its very success, as Marx predicted.

Workers cannot stand idly by. We need to take control in order to protect our industrialised society. Otherwise, a world of hurt awaits as society collapses into primitive villages amid mass death all around.