Vanity: Ask a liberal! (Do Viking Kitties wear boxers or briefs?)

VANITY: A liberal's mind (yea, that's an oxymoron)

[codejack]

Hi there! I'm a liberal, and I want to help you guys out. The fact is that neither side was particularly well represented this year, and in the interest of improving the level of conversation between liberals and conservatives, I thought I would offer to answer some questions and give some advice.

Read the rest before you ask, please, and if I say something that sounds sarcastic, it probably is, but I mean no offense.

[pianomikey]

I 2nd that emotion. My eyes even got a little misty with *real* compassion. Not the kind that makes me want to take from someone who has and waste it.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Um, no.

The greatest calamity in history has just befallen the free world. I don't think I will be reaching out to the scum who perpetuated this abomination.

So take your messiah and try to keep in mind we worked to save you from yourself.

Dance to hussein's tune while you can, with the coming of dawn you and the rest of your emotion driven brethren be paying the communist piper.

[pianomikey]

Exactly! Why should we “reach out” and “work together” when one of us wants to produce and the other one wants to take it away? It’s like having strangers wander through the house, wondering why you don’t have better food in the refrigerator. Get the hell out of my wallet and stay out!

[OB1kNOb]

Sir, your response should be spread far and wide across this nation for all voters to read. If I were in your presence, I would give you a standing ovation and buy you dinner. You sir, have lived through what we here are about to experience. God bless you for your honesty and never allow your message to be squelched.

[Arrowhead1952]

Your replies I looked at in order below.

#52

At the same time, I think the best way to get people off of welfare is to educate them so that they can get better jobs. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

That has to be a very silly point of view. For someone who has been on welfare for years and years, and you expect them to get a JOB?

#59

we voted AGAINST McCain, by which most us mean Bush.

Your problem is that you believed everything the drive by media spewed about the current administration. I hope (but it is not going to happen) that the DBM will blame BO for everything that happens during the next four years.

Yes, they are different, but frankly, Obama’s stated positions aren’t too different from theirs, either.

Apparently, you did not vote on issues, but on emotions. BDS to make it short and to the point.

#99

I wish he favored single-payer universal health care.

If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it's free.

I wish he favored complete withdrawal from Iraq.

I guess you are in favor of having our cities and citizens blown up here.

Then there are my seriously liberal views, like legalizing drugs and making college free for all citizens, but I’m not holding my breath.

Nothing is free. Get a job and pay for things yourself. I’ve worked for almost 40 years, put a daughter through college, paid my mortgage, paid my own and family’s health insurance, put away money for retirement – which BO wants to take away now – plus other Constitutional rights.

[OB1kNOb]

P.S. I’m sending your response to my 3 grown kids for educational purposes. And a few friends and co-workers if they goad me about Obama winning.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Exactly so.

No one takes whats mine as long as I’m breathing.

That’s not a threat, that’s a guarantee.

[martin_fierro]

LOL FTW

[2ndDivisionVet]

Sometimes a lesson can only be learned “first hand” and the next four years will probably teach that hard lesson to 300+ million Americans. This generation doesn’t remember the Carter or Johnson administrations, so they are doomed to repeat them (or worse). By the end of President Obama’s first term, there will be a backlash unlike any ever seen in this country, or there will be a spiral downward towards socialism and Balkanization. We shall see.

[Avid Spectator]

"Can you give us folks who can give him professional references who aren’t controversial?"

"It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier," said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. "It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

[codejack]

OK. Do you believe it’s morally right for the state to take money or property away from one person or entity and give it to another for no reason other than its perception of “fairness”? Actually, maybe we ought to back up to establish whether you believe in the legitimacy of private property at all.

That's what we call a "leading question", so let me sort it out.

I believe that, as a society, we have a responsibility to ensure that everyone has the minimum resources to survive. We elect representatives to wrangle over exactly how that works, but in essence, you can give up your job, go apply to live in the projects (have you ever seen the inside of those places?), sign up for food stamps, and live a sad, hollow life.

Now, if it requires that I pay a little more in taxes to make sure that there are no people starving in the street and looking for someone to rob, I consider that a fair trade. Yes, it's still robbery, but without the numerous holes in my chest and abdomen.

[codejack]

First let me ask that you describe yourself as a Liberal -— big L not little l.... nxt, as far as single-payer universal health care is concerned.... you already have it and have had it in its current organized form since about the mid-1920’s it is called your local Health Department and AHEC’s... today, the scope of services available vary widely primarily dependent on what you VOTE ON LOCALLY!!!!

That doesn't cover medicine, or surgery, or any of the numerous things that are forcing people into bankruptcy.

Anywho, I digress what is terribly amiss with your logic is that in some dream world, you truly believe that government can do it better and for more people.... then let me ask you this, if that is truly the case, then why over thousands of years of history has that NOT BEEN the case???? Tell me, show me, where has it worked???

Sweden.

[BamaAndy]

Why is it okay to liberals for full term and viable babies to be killed? Why do you want to tax me more? Why don’t you support our troops? Why do you think it is okay for judges to venture away—far way—from the consitution? Why are you against drilling for our own oil? Do you really want our society to return to the good old days of an agrarian and barter economy? Why do liberals hate others so much? Why do liberals not want schools to educate students? Why do liberals suck? (Answer to the last question: see the questions above).

[codejack]

Well, you sort of missed my point in that I’m not real wild about Obama, but you are by far the most open-minded person to post, so I’ll go along with you. Also, I’ve met some of those “liberals” (they’re all over Kos, unfortunately), and I dislike them as much as you could hope for.

1. The top 3 changes in an Obama administration:
A. Multilateral foreign policy
B. Fiscal conservatism
C. Pragmatic approaches to problems

1.1 Indicators of success
A. A multilateral foreign policy will improve our ability to combat terrorism and human rights violations worldwide. For example, I believe that our refusal to have direct talks with Iran and North Korea has hampered our ability to negotiate an end to their nuclear weapons programs, while alienating much of the respective regions, making it harder for us to garner support against Al Qaeda.
B. Like it or not, a policy of consistently spending more than we accrue in taxes, for whatever reason, is crippling our nation. With a national debt of over ten trillion dollars, just paying the interest is costing us more than all entitlement programs put together. The current tax rate for the highest earners in the country is less than 35%, when is was over 90% under Eisenhower, just 50 years ago.
C. A pragmatic approach to problem solving means looking at results, not just ideology. A good example is abstinence-only education; granted that, ideally, our children would all wait until they get married to have sex, but our parents didn’t, we didn’t, and they won’t. Safe-sex education prevents unwanted pregnancies, reducing the number of abortions. Isn’t that the ultimate goal?

1.2 Consequences of not changing
A. This amounts to continuing our policy of dictating to other nations. I would suggest that walking into someone’s home and telling them how to live is not a good way to make friends, and a more humble approach might yield better results.
B. Continuing our current spending habits will eventually result in the interest due on the national debt exceeding the national budget. In other countries, they call this “bankruptcy”.
C. Continuing to base decisions on ideology rather than reason will simply exacerbate all of our current problems. Science is neither conservative nor liberal, it is science. If it tells us that something isn’t working, maybe we should consider alternatives.

1.3 Price to make changes
A. I’m not exactly sure who would suffer for this. To me, it seems like common sense, a return to Nixon’s detente, a policy that served us very well.
B. The price of fiscal policy is a limit on maximum profits. There are two sides to this: on the one hand, it inherently limits growth, but at the same time, unlimited growth often exceeds the capacity of the market to accommodate it, as we are seeing now. In effect, rich people are going to pay higher taxes. That includes me, and that’s OK, because it’s the only way it’s going to work. To put it another way, it’s cheaper for me to feed the guy down the street than to build a prison and pay someone to keep him locked up.
C. The people who won’t like pragmatic approaches will be those who are deeply religious and feel the need to impose their beliefs on others, including me. While I respect your right to believe whatever you want, that respect has to go both ways. I won’t impose on your beliefs as long as you leave mine alone.

2. For me, health care is a big issue; to me, record profits for insurers and drug companies while millions are losing their houses and going bankrupt over medical bills speaks to an injustice that must be addressed, and while I don’t like Obama’s health care plan in its entirety, I believe that he will improve things.

As an example, my asthma inhaler recently went from $7 to $42 dollars, because they had to change from CFC propellant to non-ozone-destroying chemicals. You might blame the environmentalists, if they hadn’t had 30 years to make the change, which required minimal retooling and cost, and they waited until the last minute to keep the patent longer. This is the 7th most prescribed medicine in the country that the price increased by 600%, for no other reason than to improve corporate profits.

Sorry for going on so long, but you asked a lot of questions.

[codejack]

I’ll tell you what: If Obama closes churches for teaching anything, I’ll admit that he was wrong. That’s not really a liberal position, though.

[codejack]

Well, since the top 10% own more than 90% of the wealth, I’ll be happy if we just make it proportional.

Here’s a question for you: Given that the bottom half of the population already have to decide between putting food on the table or buying medicine, how much more do you expect them to pay? 10% of a million dollars is still more than 97% of $15000.

[codejack]

Here’s the confusion; the party is not the person.

I’m here because I do not associate all of the actions of the Republican party with all Republicans. We’ve been called things every bit as bad as anything you’ve heard, but I don’t assume that you are the one who said them.

In any case, good luck to you.

[codejack]

One question- What in Obama’s history gives you reason to trust him on any of his promises?

Nothing. In fact, his reversal on filibustering telecom immunity during the FISA vote almost turned me against him. That being said, I don't trust McCain, Bush, Pelosi, Reid, or Ron Paul, either, so all I have to go on is what they say. In any case, if he breaks bad, I'll do my best to ruin him in 2012.

The hyperbole about how bad he is going to be is ridiculous, though; he is extremely moderate.

[codejack]

Then why don't YOU educate them?

Find me a classroom that will fit 50 million people in it, and I'll do it.

[codejack]

Do you believe in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it?

No; they are entitled to the benefit of it, but they also have a responsibility to their community. If there were such a thing as enlightened self-interest, it wouldn't matter, but we only have greed, so we need taxes.