Why am I demonized for wanting a healthy and successful America? Why am I demonized for wanting equality for LGBT individuals and every minority group? Why am I demonized for caring about the education of the children in America? Why am I demonized for wanting others to respect those who teach and take care of us? Why am I demonized for wanting energy independence and to ideally get off oil altogether? Why am I demonized for wanting to make sure that elderly Americans and Veterans are taken care of? Why am I demonized for wanting to solve problems diplomatically and not through violent means? Something about all these demonizations just doesn’t make sense. I think some people in this country need a very loud wake up call, and by some people I mean the people who are shouting “demon!” at those that seem to care about others.
Politics aren’t perfect, you can’t please all people at all time. However, when it comes down to the basic necessities of life such as; food, clean water, clothing, education, and health… suddenly the people that want those things for everyone are demonized and called names. There is a terrible dilemma in all of this. What happens when we only take care of those that can take care of themselves? You’re left with a third world nation. When we give tax breaks to the wealthy and then cut social programs to pay for those breaks, that is a major moral dilemma. When the poor and unemployed are called “freeloaders” because they need some assistance, that is a major moral dilemma. When minority groups striving for equality are told that they want “special rights”, that is a major moral dilemma. “Special rights” are the ones the majority of Americans already have… “special rights” are equal rights. When we give breaks to billionaires and seek to privatize industry and education so that only the wealthy can prosper, that is a major moral dilemma. When those breaks are paid for with money that should be educating our children and treating our sick, that is a major moral dilemma. When the poor and unemployed are being swept under the rug because they are too unsightly to help and/or deal with? That is a major moral dilemma.
The Middle Class is vanishing because they are being indirectly demonized as being not quite good enough to compete with those on Wall Street, and with the wealthiest Corporatists. The Middle Class is being told that they should no longer be able to send their children to public schools. The Middle Class is being told that their jobs are no longer valuable. They are no longer valuable within the public sector which some think should now be private, or in the private sector which some think should now be done overseas with less regulation and for less money. The Middle Class is becoming the poor and unemployed due to either wealthy monopoly Corporatists that downsize or outsource, or due to Public Sector jobs being defunded our ousted altogether.
Who is shouting “Demon!” at all the everyday average Americans and those that stand up for them? The Koch(Tea) Party, a lot of the GOP, and many other conservatives that claim they stand for values. What values? The value of the Monopolistic Corporatist that just outsourced your job? The same party that shouts “Demon!” is the party that says they are for a higher moral integrity in America. Morals for who? Is it moral to deny health care and education to those that can’t afford it? Is it moral to diminish Veteran and elderly benefits? Is it moral to deny basic rights to minority groups? Is is moral to lay off thousands, not because you have to, but because it would be cheaper to hire overseas? Is it moral to give billions in subsidies to oil companies bringing in record profits, then defund crucial social programs to pay for it? Is is moral to give breaks to the wealthy and then deny the poor? If those are your morals… I’d hate to see you on a bad day.
Don’t hate me because I care for others. We need to shift the priorities in this nation from “survival of the fittest” to survival for all. They can call me a demon all they want, but I will never stop fighting for those less fortunate that are demonized themselves. The “American Dream” shall live on. Success should not be turned into what we can only dream about, we need to wake up America and make it happen.
We really need a party that represents the people.
It is time for a revolution!
I don’t think anyone is against your caring about other people. The conservative argument is that you need to do that with your own money and your own resources. You cannot be expropriating other people’s money for purposes that they do not consent to.
Indeed, many individual conservatives may be quite generous on their own account. They just want the right to decide which causes they want to contribute to — not have someone else decide for them.
These people really feel that their money is THEIR money — it’s not your money, it’s not the government’s money. And trying to take it from them without their consent is a form of theft. Literally.
Please respond. I’m not writing this to be mean. I want to find someone who can engage the arguments that conservatives are making on their own grounds. Do you really think that you have the right to seize someone else’s money and spend it on your own pet projects? What gives you the right to do that? Is that really “democracy”? Really?
Margaret,
Let’s call a spade a spade. It’s obvious you are a Libertarian, and that the people you refer to are Libertarians as well. Call it whatever moniker you wish to use, you are describing Libertarianism.
Tell me, these Libertarians, I mean conservatives to which you refer who “may be quite generous on their own account,” but who “really feel that their money is THEIR money,” do they also drive on public roads? I can hardly see how they can get along in life without doing so, unless they are completely agoraphobic and have someone else attending to their needs, in which case they still use public roads, even if by proxy. Do they rely on the city or county in which they live to take their garbage away to a public landfill? Do they expect to be able to call the police if a crime is being committed against them? For that matter, do they expect to be able to call 911 for any emergency, and have police, fire department, or ambulance show up to help them?
I’m fairly certain the answer to all these questions is “yes.” I mean, I think that’s the reasonable expectation of any American or visitor in America. If they feel that taxation is “trying to take (their money) from them without their consent” and “a form of theft,” then they should get their cars off public roads, they need to pay a private garbage collection company to come and retrieve their refuse, and they need to hire their own private body guards, fire department, and a local, private ambulance service to attend to any emergency they may have. There are many other services we all use without even thinking about it, I can’t possibly list them all here, this is just a small cross section. But these are the most common public services most of us use. And I’m being very serious that the people you describe should ideologically stop using them immediately – and so should you, if you subscribe to these beliefs.
The most annoying thing about your assertion, at least to me, is that we all know, even if we will not admit it, that conservatives don’t mind “expropriating” my money, and the money of other liberals, for things that *we* don’t believe in, like the war in Iraq and tax breaks for millionaires, but suddenly when it’s stuff conservatives don’t believe in, well then, taking their money in taxes is theft. They can’t have it both ways – not without giving themselves away as the gigantic hypocrites they are. It’s all or nothing.
Because you didn’t miracle “your” money out of thin air. You made it in a civil society, on top of public infrastructure, protected by civil servants, insured by a social safety net, and within laws that protected your right to do so. This means you have certain responsibilities to maintain the civil society, and the body politic has the right to compel you to live up to those responsibilities. In a nutshell, that’s the answer to your question.
Chris, that is a beautiful pointed answer. *tips hat* I couldn’t agree more.
I agree that my money should not be seized and spent on pet projects I don’t agree with. What percentage of the money “seized” by the IRS is spent on social services and what percentage on the military? Corporate bailouts? How much of the pollution in our ever-more-polluted world is directly attributable to corporate greed? Wake up and smell the death.