A conversation between a Conservative and his Liberal Daughter.

NO, HE WASNT LUCKY. ITS CALLED REALIZING THAT HE HAD TO DO SOMETHIN WITH HIS EDUCATION IF HE WANTED TO GET OUT OF THAT ENVIRONMENT. WTF WHEN DID I SAY I LOOK DOWN ON PEOPLE WHO HAVE LESS THAN ME? WHY DONT YOU QUIT PUTTIN WORDS IN MY MOUTH BECAUSE YOU KNOW NOTHIN ABOUT ME IN THAT AREA. AND NO, ITS NOT CALLED THE AMERICAN DREAM FOR THAT. THIS IS THE SAME STORY WITH MOST OF MY OLDER FAMILY MEMBERS (GRANDPA, UNCLES, AUNTS) ALL GREW UP POOR AND DIDNT FEEL SORRY THEMSELVES BUT HAD COMMON SENSE AND KNEW WHAT HAD TO BE DONE IF THEY WANTED A BETTER LIFE FOR THEIR CHILDREN. I FEEL LIKE PEOPLE SHOULDNT BE COMPLAININ LIKE THEY DO. WHY IS IT SO MANY MEMBERS OF MY FAMILY WHO GREW UP WITH NEXT TO NOTHIN HAVE DECENT JOBS NOW AND ARE HAPPY WITH THE LIVES THEYRE LEADIN? ANYONE CAN DO THIS IF YOU TRULY WANNA

 

So, when did your Dad go to school? How much was his tuition? Were there any unregulated big businesses making a fortune off his rent, food, utilities and medicine? What percentage of his income went toward providing for these basics? Do you think your father would be able to pull himself by his bootstraps today if he were a below-the-poverty-line employee of Wal-Mart? Would he have been able to afford the tens of thousands of dollars needed for his college education, or would he need some help? Would he even have access to the same quality public school education that you and I took for granted?

His hard work and achievements are admirable. But just like one has to pay one's bills in order to continue to have a house, a car, electricity, gas, water, etc., one must pay one's taxes in order to keep civilization from being shut off. Or does your father's well-earned wealth earn him the right to stop paying all of his bills?

What if every student who gets better than a 3.5 GPA decided to stop paying their tuition, because, well, they were just more deserving than those who were obviously squandering their educational opportunities. How long until the university had to shut its doors and there was no university for anyone? How long until we return to the Medieval model of education for priests and kings only?

Do you really think the Republican economic policy of "every man (or corporation) for himself" is a good idea to which you would like to return?

Do you really think the well concealed Machiavellianism of Neo-Conservative ideal (economic and military power justifies the declining well-being of the average U.S. Citizen - the ends justify the means) is better than the Liberalism that brought you the U.S. Constitution, the abolition of slavery, your mother's right to vote, and the prosperity that allowed your father to rise above his poverty?

I do not think Republicans consciously intend to harm my country, but I am quite sure they have become stubbornly attached to a dangerously limited vision of humanity and history and what our nation and you and I and all of our fellow citizens can achieve.

I sincerely hope you haven't already made up your mind about all of this Liberal idealism, have you?

Peace and Love

 

My Dad Had A Job At Sonic Whole Going To College To Pay For Food And What Not. He Also Had A Scholarship For His Grades To Pay For Some. The Rest Was Paid For By Loans Which He Is Still Paying Off To This Day. By The Way, Im Not A Republican.

 

more ralistic than the original.

i do admit the occasional free loader but i hate them too

 

funny how you have the whole world figured out... in your original post of "republicans suck", i believe that you lump a great number of people into the republican category. so on the contrary, yes you do think of things that way.

your brief statements appear that you cannot see things from a different point of view and that is pretty immature for someone of your "intellect". it also seems to me that you are uneducated from thinking that you know everything there is to know about politics, things are not that easy, but once again, you should know that.

i am very empathetic to many people, and have never once said "screw the poor". it is funny how you like to label people because you are such a genius and know how to fix this country so well. its too bad that bitching about the government on the internet doesnt get anything done. from what you have also professed, you show that you would not make a good friend. many people in the world have different stances on different things, but does not necessarily make them a bad person. you have said that a persons stance on politics directly reflects their character. isnt saying "repulicans suck balls" stereotyping?

 

Didn't most people who joined the republican party join because they thought people who they knew who were republicans thought like them politically? (Way oversimplifying this I know, but I'm going for brevity, please bear with)

So wouldn't a certain percentage of therepublican party, Dare I say even a majority, fall along the same line of best fit?

and then wouldn't it then be prudent to say that that "line of best fit" this thing that logically describs a fair percentage of republicans, could be used as a fair generalization, if when this generalization was used
1. it was known that there were exceptions
2. you had a fair sounding of an average republican, the top of the bell and not one of the outlying edges on other side and that was what you were using as a generalization......

Granted you'd need statistics, and most people aren't willing to go to that level of work, but if everyone were, wouldn't the world be a more accurate , bell shaped curve place?

 

there are people on both ends of the political continuum. you make a valid point, yes, people in the same political party share similar views. but can the content of one's character be judged by a political stance? i dont claim allegiance to any political party because i think it is stupid to place a label on people like that. there must be some reason that bush is president, maybe because a majority of the people who voted thought that he would make a good president. the issue of bush is beside the point (i do not like him either), but the point is there are many republicans in this country. does this make them horrible people who "suck balls"? no, this just makes them different from you. opinions are like assholes, everybody has one. but you don't have to be an asshole towards other's opinions. every political party has something wrong with it or else all of the population would fall under the same political category. its funny how many people here can't accept the fact that the way they think is not 'perfect' and need to trash others to try and make themselves sound valid

 

You cannot claim membership in a group and simultaneously deny responsibility for the actions of that group. Thomas Paine wrote eloquently about this.

The Rupublican party (the politicians) have waged an unjust war, which they justified by lying to the American people. They also tend to support policies which benefit the rich and screw the poor. They have gutted environmental legislation and robbed us of many of our essential personal freedoms.

So can you say that you you are a republican and say that you don't have a "screw the poor" philosophy? No.
Look at the policies. They are racist, sexist, and classist.
If you support the status quo, which is racist, sexist, and classist -- then to at least some degree, you are also racist, sexist, and classist.

 

I agree. It seems the model the Republicans have created and are following is one of limited vision. It is good that we Americans have our freedoms, but it always seemed to me that the Conservatives interpret that to mean the freedom to sink or swim, to become a millionaire by any means necessary or to suffer from the inescapable poverty that is somehow the just reward for the unforgiveable character flaws of the poor.

This sink or swim model would obviously be much less of an issue in times of prosperity, which seems to be what the Republicans are gambling that they can create with their policies, but we are spending Billions of dollars on a war of revenge while our fellow Americans, our families, friends and neighbors are facing decades of wasteful, crippling poverty in exchange for housing, healthcare and corporate hegemony.

In my experience, very few people are actually looking for a free paycheck at the expense of the (relatively) wealthy. But it seems that there is an unquestioned belief that the poor are somehow parasitic, and the (relatively) wealthy seem to be reluctant to question their adherence to this limited view of humanity. This belief, this dehumanization of a substantial percentage of our fellow citizens, is the fatal flaw of the Conservative worldview and it must be consciously acknowledged, addressed and resolved. If it is not, then Conservative movement may very well become the national error feared by so many on the left. For clarity's sake, a national error can be anything as relatively harmless as the bankruptcy of the Spanish Empire or as sinister as Russia's failed experiment with Communism or Germany's madness of Nazism. I maintain hope that it will never descend to anything as dark and destructive as that, but the fear that it may, on one hand, and the failure to recognize, address and resolve that fear, on the other hand, is becoming a destructively divisive element that looms on the horizon as a potential cause for the fall of our civilization.

The big question that the Conservative Republican administration doesn't address is - Why not recognize the citizenry, rather than the economy, as the primary substance of our civilization and then work to make it as healthy as possible?

 

A parasite by definition is a small organism which attacks the body and causes it to deteriorate or otherwise breakdown in order to fuel the parasitic takeover.

Now if the poor are increasing and the social divide widening thanks to the wanton self interest of the smaller segment of our society, it seems pretty clear who is leeching off the future of our nation for instant gain and thus the true "parasites".

 

a lot of the people on here are ignorant towards people who don't think the way they think. this story shows how no matter how liberal you think you are, you can always can get exposed as the person you really are with a lesson like this.

 

Tell that to the character smearing criminals in control and the intolerant and worldly ignorant constituency they pander to. Those of us who have been listening to the oft regurgitated labels of "antiAmerican" recognise who the truly intolerant and divisive elements of our nation happen to be.

 

This sentence needs serious revision. not only does it make no sense, but it is ambiguous and grammatically horrible.

 

I used to be a conservative wackjob..... (god I'd kick the me I was's {I know it's dilectic} ass) now I'm more educated about the system, I'm liberal\moderate (more issue based on many things, but economically liberal, I don't trust people with their own money)