Welcome to the Republican Party
Here's a story from political-humor website.
http://www.political-humor.org/welcome-to-the-republican-party.shtml
A young teenage girl was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat but her father was a rather staunch Republican.
One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to taxes and welfare programs. He stopped her and asked her how she was doing in school.
She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA but it was really tough. She had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party. She didn't have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying.
He asked, "How is your friend Mary." She replied that Mary was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, but was very popular on campus, went to all the parties all the time. Why she often didn't show up for classes because she was hung over.
Dad then asked his daughter why she didn't go to the Dean's office and ask why she couldn't take 1.0 off her 4.0 and give it to her friend who only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a 3.0 GPA.
The daughter angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair, I worked really hard for mine and Mary has done nothing".
The father slowly smiled and said, "Welcome to the Republican Party".
Sounds to me like it's Mary who is the lucky Republican: gets into school on a legacy, gets a pass on her low grades, gets to party and be a mavericky rebel. Just like McCain and Palin. (hey gettin' in 6 different colleges in 5 years -- hell most of us are lucky to get into one!)
But what really struck me about your story is that sneaky hint of .... *sniff* *sniff* .... bias... could it be the smell of anti-affirmative action? A whiff of Republican, um, elitism? A nostril filled with ....
Why is it you folks are always talking about "welfare and taxes".
Time to un-redistribute some wealth. Let me know you like those new pot-hole filled dirts roads. Made 'em special...
October 28, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know just how hard it was to get into NIC in the 80's ... it's not that hard NOW, and it's a much better school today (today it's pretty damn cool). I can't speak for the others (Moscow is totally different today as well) ... but she hardly went to legacy schools. She's a quasi-moron with an education that reflects her unserious nature AND lack of pedigree (which apparently makes up for much moronitude).
Other than that ... your point is spot-on. A lame republican straw-man of false equivalencies.
October 29, 2008 3:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think I heard this the first time back in the 70s.
October 28, 2008 10:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
A young woman was about to finish her first year of business. Like so many eighties babies, she was self-focused and she considered herself to be a conservative Republican, and was very much in favor of the ownership of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather liberal Democrat, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an irresponsible, idealistic desire to level the playing fields among competitive businesses. In her heart she knew that hard work would be rewarded in a capitalist society.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to corporate welfare and the reduction of social services.
The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors at Regents University had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how her business was doing.
Taken aback, she answered rather indignantly that she had adhered to all the ordinances, restrictions and bylaws. But the competition, being much larger and influential, had skirted the ordinances, and even received tax rebates during years when they had paid no taxes.
Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing at her job at CorporoCo?"
She replied, "Audrey is making money hand over fist. She has expense accounts, a company car, vacation perks and bonuses. She works less than I do. All because her dad the Senator helped CorporoCo get a multi-million government contract for a 'feasibility study'."
Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to your favorite Republican Congressman, and see if he'll help you get a no-bid contract for something that even the government doesn't want or need?"
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That would be an egregious waste of taxpayer money - MY money!"
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, " Welcome to the Democratic party."
http://bondibox.newsvine.com/_news/2007/06/14/782088-welcome-to-the-democratic-party
October 28, 2008 10:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting how "the taxpayer money" -- which represents every taxpayer -- becomes "MY money!"
Interesting how Bushit ran on the slogan agout tax monies in the tresury -- the surplus -- "That's YOUR money!" But when it comes to using tax monies to provide social services to those same taxpayers -- the ones who pay for the social services -- the Republicans preach "keeping the gov't out of your lives" and claims it can't spend money on those social services because it would mess up the budget.
Billions of those tax dollars for unncessary war? OK.
No-bid billion dollar contracts, funded by those tax dollars, to Cheney's Halliburton? OK.
Halliburton taking the money but not fulfilling the other terms of the contract? OK.
In short: Republican party arranging to rip off the taxpayer in behalf of the wealthy? OK.
The taxpayer themselves receiving returns on their tax dollars? Sorry -- there isn't sufficient money in the treasury.
Besides, you should pull yourselves up by your own bootsraps -- and I have a freind who has all the bootstraps you need, for a price . . .
Who, again, fake "middle class", are the UNIDENTIFIEDS who don't pay taxes, but would be given "handouts" if Obama were elected? Might they actually be actual lower and middle class citizens who DO pay taxes -- even if only with blood and life in the illegal war Iraq?
October 29, 2008 4:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Doc Nebula's response to this a while back:
Incensed, the young college student immediately retorted, "What, so you're equating my Grade Point Average, an objective assessment of my effort and abilities within the context of a college curriculum, with actual material wealth and property? You're saying that my straight A average is the academic equivalent of your vastly swollen bankbook? Is that it?"
"Of course," the conservative father said, nodding smugly. "It's exactly the same. Remember how you insisted on not taking a dime from me because you wanted to get through college on your own? You worked hard for scholarships and got a work study job and studied hard for your grades and resent the idea that someone who hasn't done the same amount of work as you do should get a free ride on your superior talents and greater effort. Well, I've worked hard for the success I enjoy, and like all decent, right thinking, hard working men and women everywhere, I think it's just crazy that I should be expected to give up part of my just earnings to support those who are too lazy to go out and make the same effort to do as well as I have!"
The daughter raised her eyebrows. "Dad, you honestly see no difference between your status in life at the present time and mine? You think they are exactly equitable?"
"Exactly," her father said with assurance. "You've worked hard to get where you are, I've worked hard to get where I am. You deserve your success and I deserve mine. No freeloaders need apply for handouts around here. If your friend Audrey wants a 4.0, she can get off her lazy ass and work for it, just like you did."
"I see," the young woman said. "And similarly, if that homeless man living in a cardboard box in the alley behind the supermarket wants to own his own business like you do, well, he can build a time machine out of old tin cans, travel back to before he was born, and arrange for his mother to marry someone with a million dollar athletic shoe company, so he can start out there as a Vice President when he's 25 and assume control of the whole thing when his dad retires!"
"Wait," the father began to bluster. "That's not... young lady, I worked hard... my grades in college... I graduated near the top of my class... I went to the Harvard School of Business... my management skills when I came into this firm saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars the first year I was here..."
"Daddy," the daughter said, more or less patiently, "you got into Harvard because grampa bought them a new library, and they didn't throw you out when you kept getting drunk and high in your fraternity because grampa bought them three new dorms and a new gymnasium with a pool. You got high grades in most of your classes because you picked really easy classes and hired smart but poor kids to write your papers and take your exams for you. You saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for grampa's shoe company your first year by firing all your American workers and replacing them with kids from Indonesia who did just as good a job for 12 cents an hour."
"But," her father tried to say. His daughter was having none of it; she went on relentlessly, "Daddy, there is no comparison between the way I earn my grades and the way you've 'earned' your success in life. I got into a good school based only on my own grades and SATs, which I got the hard way, by working. I pay my own tuition. I get all As in college because I work my ass off. Remember how you offered to get me into Harvard by endowing some new faculty lounge for them? That's how you do things. I didn't need you to do that for me; I got into my school fair and square. And where you do things like send your hot new 25 year old trophy wife to sleep with Senators for government contracts, then sell shoes to the military for $2,000 a pair that cost you $1.50 each because they're put together in a South Korean sweatshop and made out of pressed cardboard, I actually study and actually turn in my work and actually get perfect scores on my exams because I'm smart and I work hard."
The girl's father looked up alertly as that. "Say, hon, speaking of sleeping with Senators for government contracts, you don't look so bad in a black cocktail dress yourself. I was wondering..."
The young woman flashed her father a furious glare which stopped him dead. She took a breath, then went on, "Plus, I can't understand why you get so pissy about so called 'high taxes on the wealthy' anyway, when you pay your accountant six figures a year to make sure most of your real income and property go through offshore accounts and you end up paying less income tax than a public school teacher!"
"It... I..." the father looked baffled for a moment -- then shrugged and spread his hands. "Honey, that's just how the real world works. Some day you'll understand."
"I understand now, dad," she said. "I understand that your wealth and success and social status all derive from the labor of other people who work for you, whom you pay as little as you possibly can to maximize your own profits. I understand that you cheat, steal, lie, bribe, exploit, and connive at every opportunity to maximize your own assets at the expense of everyone around you. I understand this very well, because I hacked your computer last weekend and have all of this on disc and in hard copy, and I've already sent it all over to the IRS and the FBI, and I think I passed a couple of guys with warrants on my way up to your office today. They should be knocking on your door any second now."
The father's eyes went wide. "What? What? Well... well, that's ridiculous! It's not fair! I have rights! That's an illegal search! You've invaded my privacy!"
The wise... far too wise... daughter sighed. "Yeah, dad. Welcome to the Democratic Party."
October 28, 2008 10:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oy.
Liberals have never, repeat, never, wanted to force equality where it is not found. The "level playing field" is not the same as forcing equal scores on that field.
A level playing field is just like the handicapping all Republicans enjoy when they play golf, or what the horses with lighter jockeys carry.
Remember that Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is not the sage leaders of industry. It is the democratic vote-with-wallet about their products and services. And it looks like the wallets think those guys are pretty stupid.
Again, oy.
October 28, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can imagine a world where the young woman would say, OK to the grade sharing proposal.
What if the conditions for getting a job was a 3.0 gpa? And that 4.0 was superfluous, and 2.0 was inadequate.
What if the young woman's best friend was graduating and only had a 2.0; might not the first woman share her gpa and give them both enough to land employment?
What's so unreasonable about that? It takes a community as Hillary said.
But in the story given us, the two women are competitors and rivals for utility. That's the facile market the right-wingers so love. All against all and devil take the hindmost.
It doesn't have to be that way..we can all look out for each other.
Welcome to the human party.
October 28, 2008 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shove this up your ass, fake "middle class," instead of repeating your bigot's anti-Constitutionalism --
Chap. I., II. Thast private property aught to be subservient to public uses, when necessity requires it; . . . .
IX. That every member of society hath a right to be protected in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property, and therefore, is bound to contribute his proportion towards the expense of that protection, . . . . (Constitution of Vermont, adopted July 8, 1777.)
Taxes are as American not only as apple pie but as American as the Founders and Framers themsleves.
But let's get specific, fake "middle class":
Identify those who you allege are -- first -- who don't pay taxes but are being given tax monies -- second -- without a demonstrable COMMUNITY need for that being done.
If, that is, it IS happening -- which you've also not shown. Rather, you've so far only repeated the usual racism-based Republican rhetoric which blames the powerless and the poor -- especially those who aren't white -- for problems which can only be caused by those with power, which happens to be those who are blaming the powerless and poor.
You're welcome to leave out such as Halliburton and the billions it has received in taxpayer monies, by means of NO BID contracts, at the behest of Dick Cheney, even AFTER it has been repeatedly found that Halliburton has not fulfilled the terms of the contracts beyond taking the monies.
Otherwise, take your racist trash back to freerepublic.
October 29, 2008 3:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I love JNagarya. He rants and raves with his own talking points but never replies to my arguments. Whenever I try to respond to his points there is just silence on the other end. But quoting the Vermont Constitution...???
Anyways, I'm all for having taxes. Like the Founders said, no taxation without representation. But when half the country doesn't pay federal income taxes, we are getting to the point of "representation without taxation". What did the Founders and Framers say about that?
October 29, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude, you're a tool.
Did you know that the "half of the country" that doesn't pay federal income taxes DOES pay sales taxes and payroll taxes?
Do those not count? Somebody who makes, say, $30,000 a year will pay payroll taxes that get taken out of the paycheck before the worker even sees it. That worker will also pay sales taxes in many states, in some, even on necessities.
Yes, I guess there are some Americans who are out of work who, since they're not earning anything, don't have to pay payroll taxes. Some even get welfare or food stamps if they're really hard up. But I bet any one of those people would gladly trade their tax free lives for a millionaire's pay, even with all the "oppressive" taxes the poor beleaguered millionaire has to pay.
Shut up.
November 29, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
We need to go back to pre-Reagan tax rates, back to a top tax rate of 91%.
Since the super-wealthy have done SO well with Bush's tax cuts, let's make the 91% top tax rate retroactive to January 20, 2001, and let's take not just 91% of earned income, but 91% of passive income as well.
While we're at it, since we're facing a depression, that same tax increase needs to make tax evasion treason, and subject to the death penalty.
Put THAT plan into action, and the country will be debt-free in no time. And once it is, we can take the tax rates back to Clinton levels.
November 29, 2008 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes payroll taxes count. Remember two things - there's lots of people in this country paying no federal taxes who you wouldn't consider at the poverty level. And its those people who need incentives to get better jobs, more education, etc. But with Obama's proposed tax "cuts" which are actually just more refundable credits, the marginal tax rate for someone making $40,000 a year is going to go through the roof. Their marginal tax rate will be in the high 30s to 40% because if they make any more $ then a bunch of Obama's credits will expire. Where's the incentive for them to work harder?
Follow this link and read this article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122385651698727257.html
And I'm all for raising taxes on the super wealthy. We do need higher brackets for people making millions of dollars a year. But even Obama has backed off on his tax increases during this recession.
So that all leaves you to wonder how he's going to pay for his plan to give so many Americans a tax cut??
November 30, 2008 8:04 AM | Reply | Permalink