Being the kind and gentle soul I am, empathy is one of the qualities about my personality that I just can't hide.
It is this empathy that has allowed me to explore and understand the mind of the Republican. You see my friends. Just as much as Republicans are driven by greed. They are also driven by guilt.
The guilt is not what you would think though. It has nothing to do with denying those that can't afford health care health care. It has nothing to do with sending our young men and women to places 6,000 miles away to fight for people that neither care about us or our ideals.
No my friends. Republican guilt is caused by their feeling bad for asking the rich to pay more. They know it's the greediest, most selfish rich that support the Republican Party financially. So Republicans try to make it up to them through getting them big tax cuts and stupid wars that make big profits for Republican companies like Halliburton. They try to assuage their guilt also by giving the tiniest tax cuts to the poor and middle class. But we all know that's just a ruse to keep the most simple minded placated into thinking Republicans really care about them or America as a whole.
Another example of Republicans leaning on the rich is their use of the term "safety net." I think Ron Paul invented the use of this when he called for limited government spending on social programs among other things. He said the safety net would take care of the people most in need.
Many bloggers have taken the term "safety net" and run with it. My good friend Patrick M. of the fine blog, Sane Political Discourse has on many occasions said that the rich could donate money to organizations that help the poor. Doctors could donate their time on weekends.
Other right leaning bloggers have taken this position. What they are really saying is they want the rich to donate more because they don't want to pay for it. To pay the rich back they will support their tax cuts and stupid invasions. I recommend my right leaning friends read this paragraph at least three times and then look in the mirror.
As a Roman Catholic, I can appreciate good guilt. I really appreciate guilt that is properly focused. Focusing ones guilt on rich, greedy Republicans because they bankroll the party of greed and obstruction is misplaced. Harms America and emboldens our enemies.
It's time the average rank and file Republican drive around the most expensive neighborhoods. Drive by the country club. Look at their own bank statements. Health insurance coverage and debt. Then ask himself, WTF am I feeling sorry for Dick Cheney and his friends?
10 comments:
I'd love to know what you ingest (as kindly and gently as possible) in order to come up with this delusion of guilt on the part of people on the right (not just the blithering halfwits of the GOP) concerning taxing the "rich."
The problem is that we believe that when someone earns their money, the government should protect that right. And they should not start punishing the people that succeed in making more money for making more money.
We're talking about the right to property. At a certain point, the confiscation of property by the government ceases to be a necessary evil to maintain a functioning government and becomes, instead a method by which politicians buy votes by dividing people. And when we are divided by class because the politicians want us that way, then nothing else gets solved.
As for the concept of a safety net, it's been around longer than either of us. In practice, it came into being under FDR. And as the government draws more money from your ever-reviled "rich" to pay for these, it lessens the number of dollars that could be more efficiently spent in the form of donations to organizations that were founded to help people rather than a government that seeks to rule them.
To be honest, I don't feel sorry for anyone (except those who have been struck by actual tragedy) because of their choices, which have led them either to prosperity, or to the brink of ruin. It's on them to seek solutions to the holes they've dug themselves into. I know something about this.
In general though, we can't lift people up by cutting others down.
Truth,
I identify with your Catholic guilt. They certainly were masters at inculcating us with the guilt gene. Many times I have wanted to do something and felt the guilt gene kick in and stopped short.
Might I suggest some reading? Far be from me to glorify Bill O'Reilly, but his book "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" is a great book rooted in the experience of growing up as a Catholic in the 50s and 60s. Put on your sunglasses and buy a copy. You'll enjoy it as only a Catholic kid could.
Good day, sir.
What class of people does the republican party fall all over itself to serve Patrick? Sure as ahell not those in our economic class buddy.
And for your information. I have spent time lobbying elected officials on behalf of property owners that were being abused by eminent domain rules. So don't fool yourself, or allow yourself to be fooled into thinking it's only the right wing that cares about property rights or any other individual rights you can think of.
And how is asking those that benefit from the system and largesse of America to pay more than those that have not a punishment? You do seem to have some rudimentary knowlege of economics. It takes money to make money. I can't afford to invest as much as a few of the people that read yours and my sites from time to time. The haves make more. I don't harbor them and animosity. Should I manage to get there I will gladly pay back through taxes more to the Country that made this possible.
Who is lifted by cutting others down. How is helping those that are down lift themselves up so they too can contribute to the system bad for any of us?
I grew up as a Catholic kid in the 60's and 70's LAOT. I had my share of the yardstick. I even had the principal of Holy Family in North Chicago call a little antiChrist. Funny story.
Truth,
Now to your point. I am right-leaning that's for sure, I am a registered Republican, that's for sure. That evil aside, I don't hold water for the Republicans or any other politicians.
I don't register as an independent because I think that's a useless gesture. I vote for my choice, plain and simple.
I hate that politicians peddle BS and the public buys it. That's how they gain power and the public buys it. Disgusting.
All rich people aren't evil and all poor people aren't victims of the system. Absolutes seldom are correct. I wish things were better for everyone, but that probably can't happen.
Catholic guilt aside, I don't feel any remorse for people who refuse to achieve. America is open ground and I refuse to believe otherwise.
I was taught by my father and mother that I had to work to have a good life. I did and I do. I went into the military because I believed that I owed my country. I did and I did.
Your points are well taken, but I feel they are rooted too deeply in victimhood. We probably had a similiar upbringing and we both achieved. Why, because we wanted to. I have no guilt for that.
Good day, sir.
I see too much rottenness to think optimistically about those that run our largest industries LAOT.
Wall Street bankers are getting their huge bonuses despite the huge numbers of low level bankers and tellers that lost their jobs due to their over zealous greed and lack of proper oversite.
A large employer in my area recently closed a plant and took 500 jobs to Mexico. These weren't union jobs either. $11 to $14 an hour jobs is what they were. Some executive got a big bonus.
You and I were either smart or fortunate or both that our employment was recession and foreign outsourcing proof LaOT. I don't feel guilty about that. I feel sorrow for those that don't enjoy the situations we are/were in. I feel anger at those who throw these good people on to the streets so they can get their bonuses. Ann Coulter wrote a book called " Treason." It's those that do this shit to the American workers who are traitors to our Country. They are traitors to their parents and grandparents that worked hard. Helped form unions to get the benefits that helped put them through college and enjoy a better life.
Remember the4 republican presidential debates? Every republican on the stage said his parent or grandparent was a union member and that the benefits helped them achieve a better life. They are traitors. Even Ronald Reagan once said that corporations should be willing to make a little less in order to keep more people working. He was quickly silenced and his handlers came out the next day and tried to spin his words into something else. If Reagan would have had the fortitude to stand up for what he said even I would join in the chorus of those who proclaim his greatness. He didn't.
I am a product of my upbringing. My Massachussetes, Kennedy Democrat Mom. My career Navy officer Dad. The years I spent in Catholic schools. And by paying attention to the world around me from the time I could read. Responsible, socially conscious greed is a positive thing for our society. Greed for the sake of greed is a cause of misery.
it's really pretty funny.... movement conservatism has either actually spawned and supported or exploited an existing religious culture that refocused guilt away from the inherent pitfalls of capitalism.
the words of Jesus would suggest a modicum of guilt if one found oneself extremely wealthy yet not caring about the less fortunate.
modern fundamentalism/evangalelical/dominionists actually twist that into something akin to the the anti-Liberal "divine right of kings"... specifically, if rich people are rich that is because they are in fact favored/chosen by God to be rich.... forms the ideological basis for a theological versus democratic bent on government as well.
as far as donations of the rich to supplant governmental intervention.... nonsense.... totally capricious, inefficient and ineffective.
government has a function with respect to the "common good" which is a term the "conservatives" hate.
when government is doing its job, and not being undermined by people who don't like government, it does so very efficiently.
health care issue is a case in point.... you can't have health care for "all" in a system that is focused on profit, and therefore focused on specifically NOT providing services to certain demographics.... or providing those services only at bloated cost.
government can run health insurance more efficiently for ALL and the insurance companies know it.... that is why they fight it.
Hi Truth. First, thanks for your visit an comments at Politics Plus. I have you on follow and added you to the blog roll there.
On topic, the problem is that the GOP has stacked the economic deck. The bottom 40% of Americans own 0.2% of the wealth. I have no problem with people keeping most of the money they earn as long as there is a realistic opportunity for anyone willing to work to have a decent standard of living. That opportunity has all but disappeared under the Bush/GOP's only successful initiative: No Millionaire Left Behind.
Truth,
That's what I like about you, passion. I never have said that unionism is bad. My dad was in the postal workers union and I was the president of my police union. Unions in the beginning were good and necessary. Now I'm not so sure.
I fought hard and long against the involvement of my union in politics. The politicians didn't care about us, they needed the endorsement to get elected. I refuse to be used. As for being a traitor to my father and his early union brothers, that's hyperbolic at least.
I don't feel I'm a traitor to anyone to demand that unions put their energy into getting benefits and good working conditions for their members. Politics aren't in the equation.
For example, the SEIU is involved in politics so much that they aren't a union anymore, but a political action committee. My union, the NEA, is a joke. They don't have a lot of problem with selling the teachers and members down the road to get a seat at the table with BO.
Unions have lost their way and now represent a political party. That's why I have for the first time in my life, opted out of my union.
Ohio is a mandatory union state so I must belong. So I have to belong with the proviso that at the end of the year an arbitrator will decide how much of my dues have went to union dues and how much went to politics.
I look forward to the being reimbursed for the political part of the dues.
I don't consider myself a traitor nor will I ever. My dad was a union member and so am I. Traitor, no.
Good day, sir.
You have learned from bitter experience that it is not the union that is bad. It's the people that run it that turn it into a "bad." Ihave experienced that same thing LAOT.
I disagree that unions should not be involved in politics however. It makes sense for organizations to advocate for whom they represent. And money rules politics. There has to be a counter to the millions organizations like the Chamber of Commerce pour into the system.
It's too bad that so many leaders get corrupted and the celebrity of standing next to a president or senator means more to them than the good of those they represent.
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