You know, maybe I'm just a naive liberal. Then again, maybe I just haven't been snookered. After several just enlightening conversations with a conservative via my personal blog I've come to a conclusion: These people really think we're stupid. I don't mean liberals, I mean everyone. And in large part, they are right since so many have the wool over their eyes that they voted these people into power. This guy I've been talking to gives a lot of economic arguments that I'm sure sound convincing. But I'm not convinced. Let me give you an example that shows a greater point...
It's funny to me, these people who talk about how if corporations didn't have to pay the taxes they do (when in fact, they pay about 10% of the whole tax burden these days) we wouldn't have jobs going overseas. If they just weren't hurting so much. "Money doesn't grow on trees." Boo hoo. It might as well for them. You know what? These very same people who say that, at the end of the year, the CEO gives himself a 2 million dollar bonus. What is their point? They didn't get a 5 million dollar bonus. Is that what we define as "hurt" these days? These people deal in *billions* of dollars. How can they be hurting? Ever? That's why they need to send jobs overseas? C'mon. Their profits are unimaginable to you and me, taxes or no. I ask you now, is this convincing?
I grew up lower middle class. Haha. Grew up. I'm *still* lower middle class. Or maybe I'm upper lower class. Not sure anymore. All I know is my dad is in McAllen 'cause that's the only job he could get. My Mom's worked for 30 years, and she can't even get a job anymore. But, besides that, let me tell you something. If I made two million in a year, even if I was taxed 50 percent, I wouldn't care. Why? I've still got a million dollars! I can pay for my whole college tuition, I can buy any car, any house I want. Hell, I can buy anything I want. I can take care of my family and friends. Who needs more than that? What more than greed can drive you to want more? So you know what?
Fuck you.
You're not hurting. There's people who need that money more than you. I'm a poor college kid who's gonna be in debt for years, and I don't bitch about my situation as much as you do. You don't fool me. I don't have the wool over my eyes. Call me a socialist, if you want. I don't care. What a conservative calls a socialist, I call a populist. Maybe that's self-righteous. I don't care about that either. Heh, maybe I'm on God's side here:
"I say to you it is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven."
Ha, I'll take a cue from "Saturday Night Live" of all things and suggest they get to work on engineering some smaller camels... And for the smart asses, I remember Kerry was rich. I also remember him saying he wanted to raise his taxes and use the money to pay for things other people need. What was the difference between Kerry and Bush? That was the difference.
So yeah, maybe I'm a naive liberal. Maybe when I'm 40 I'll be conservative as the saying goes. Maybe. But I've never been more certain of my beliefs as now. Annoyingly so probably. I'll admit it. But who knows? Maybe I'm right.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
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9 comments:
Amen brother!
Seriously though...in my opinion, most of these "conservatives" that we debate have one argument after another that obscures the basic issue, which is that they are perfectly willing to support economic inequality and poverty, so long as they themselves are not experiencing it. Just as there are supposedly no atheists in foxholes, so were there less conservatives during the depression. The fact is they are leeches for the most part; because of the success of liberalism during the 60's they can afford to make specious arguments about high tax burdens and economic "liberty".
Good post, good work.
It's true that they are perfectly willing to support economic inequality. When you hear them talk about absurd things like how welfare prolongs or causes poverty, or how taxation itself is the cause for our economic woes, it's hard to believe that they actually believe the crap that comes out of their mouths. I've even heard shades of these ideas from the most moderate conservatives, people I personally know. It's really disturbing.
I don't understand why you complain about Conservatives thinking that all liberals are "stupid" when, in the same breath, you accuse all conservatives of being stupid.
You're guilty of the very thing you accuse the other side of.
It also seems strange that you often complain about conservative bloggers speaking of only the most extreme liberals when you often, as in this post, speak of conservatives as billionaires. Exactly how many billionaires are there in America regardless of political standing? Not enough to represent a party, that's for sure.
That's completely misrepresenting what I said. I never said all conservatives are rich. I specifically attacked these certain wealthy people (more specifically corporate heads), and their conservative supporters for defending their baseless economic arguments. I said that both must think that people are stupid to believe that, though the latter, in my opinion, is pretty ignorant and misguided. And also, this was more of an emotional statement than a political essay, thus general statements are more acceptable.
And Seamus, I find it amusing that consistently on this site our conservative rebuttals are usually not much more than sarcastic snipes or "you do it too!" Don't get me wrong, sometimes we see good points (mostly from "Whitey"), but here I see a failure to really address the points of the post.
I don't think I was disrespectful to anyone's mental capabilities, just what they choose to do with them. ;)
Dang, I'm late to this argument. Actually Whitey, we all know there are those who believe conservative arguments without their "believing political lies, being ignorant of critical facts or being party to or victim of a conspiracy." It's just that in general we think those people are the heartless bastards who use the common people to advance the agenda of the rich and uncaring.
In that case, then no, there aren't any who are outside of that category. Forget the words liberal and conservative. The vast majority of Americans fall just right and left of the center, with very minor disagreements over what we all want and how we want to live. I just can't see siding with the same people who would use us to keep themselves rich and in power and give us nothing in return. That's why I'm a registered Independent.
What is "just representing special interests"? If special interest groups, as I've said before, are groups of actual citizens, what could be wrong with representing them when they actually get together to take political action? That's a worthless point when your comparison on the Republican side must be their "special interests", which basically amounts to billionaire corporations. You can be damned sure that Exxon-Mobile doesn't have any interests in common with me, but that the NAACP and ACORN do. Special interests my ass.
Welfare fears? That's just a conservative talking point. It's strange that you don't realize that not all of us who side with Democrats are Democrats because the alternative is Republicans, and that's the same as voting against your own interests. Besides which, even if the Dems do pay little more than lip-service to the idea of helping the poor, why would it be better to vote for Republicans who don't even do that much? They just tell you that if they take the welfare money away, magically the problem will fix itself.
I don't support all Dems because they get some pretty stupid ideas sometimes, and the majority of them don't represent my ideals, but they're a hell of a lot better than Republicans are.
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