( #rant, #teaparty )
I keep hearing the conservative rally call that the government should be smaller. “Big Government” is bad. “All of these social services are making the country go broke.” At the same time, I have to assume that like most Americans—tea partiers, republicans, and general conservatives (and their extended families) depend on services like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. What happens if/when those services get shut down?
I don’t think that Tea Party members are rich or members of the elite. I think they are average Americans. Which is why I can’t understand why they won’t support tax increases to the wealthy. They say it hurts business. Who wants to tax business? Tax individual incomes. They say “that penalizes success”. Don’t tax the wealthy MORE than I am taxed; the rich should pay their fair share. If you haven’t already, read Warren Buffett’s essay in the New York Times. This guy is loaded and his tax rate is less than most of the people in his office. No more tax accountant trickery, just pay what you owe (I can make a case for a flat tax but I don’t want to blow up the internet).
Instead of being leaders who work together to preserve a decent way of life for Americans, short-sighted trolls with foolish agendas get elected. The conservative talking heads feel like they can say whatever they want and nobody is going to call them out on it:
1. Just let these people have civil unions and shut up about it. It changes nothing except making people happy. It doesn’t take anything away from heterosexual unions.
2. I didn’t really want to use this clip because this woman’s 15 minutes of fame should be over. But if you can’t back up what you write, don’t go on television and run your mouth. This is the exact opposite of how a public figure should act.
3. She planned to walk out. No doubt in my mind. Who has said the name “Christine O’Donnell” since she lost the election in Delaware?
Having a political philosophy based on marginalizing homosexuals, deporting immigrants, harassing minorities, and pushing a narrow Christian agenda is not clever, it is racist. Note to Tea Party Members: Nobody is being fooled, you are just outing yourself as a narrow-minded person. Also, now that I type it, it kind sounds eerily similar to the Nazi movement. Making statements like “the deficit is bad” is obvious and nobody is going to disagree, but supporting government shutdown proves what exactly? That we can get along fine without it?
Really? What do you think will happen when the extreme conservatives take power, farm social security and medical services out to private companies (introducing voucher systems). Service will go down, costs will go up, and some old white man in Washington is going to pad his pockets while utilizing a great private system for himself. Don’t believe me? Look at the war that the US has been involved in for the last decade. Shouldn’t war spur economic growth? Why isn’t that money flooding back into the domestic economy? Private companies are getting hired, off-shoring the manufacturing while creating shoddy materials that are getting our people killed.
I am dancing around saying what I want to say, so I am just going to say it. Look at the people in the video above. They are stupid. People are frustrated with the economy, frustrated with “the government”, frustrated with their lives so the mob mentality sets in.
Enter a pretty woman or a loud mouth guy and people will listen because it caters to the lowest common denominator. Sprinkle in bullshit words like “Freedom” and “Liberty”, maybe a dash of “Values” and suddenly you have people eating out of your hand. The talking heads say the liberals are out to get the “Average Joe”, they are persecuting them because they are Christians. I need to say this: the “liberal” media is not attacking anyone based on their religion; they are attacking stupidity. Don’t hide your lack of intelligence behind organized religion, you are giving it a bad name.
It is easy to listen to the pretty lady or the loud mouth telling you it is going to be alright. But it isn’t. America is in bad shape because we have been electing unqualified people into office for 30 years. They don’t have a vision for America, because that costs money. They serve the agenda of 1% of the population because that is how they get funded and re-elected. You want someone to be mad at? Look in the mirror. Why the hell did you get that 2nd mortage on your house to buy a Hummer 5 years ago? You want to change things? Start at your local level and listen to what the issues are, volunteer in your local government instead of sitting on your ass and complaining about how things should be run. Electing unqualified people who string together crap you want to hear just makes for a shitty culture.
Good luck America.
Here is one last bit of advice: pushing people around to get your way will never end well. Just ask Hitler.
