Posted on 11/05/2008 10:57:21 AM PST by 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.
You only have to start with one or you can sponsor one at a college or training.
Ah Sweden... they just took a play out of the book of the Netherlands.... you want to know what that is... euthanasizing the elderly, sick, dying and handicapped; therefore cutting a huge chunk out of their “universal healthcare” budget -— PLEASE for the love of GOD EDUCATE YOURSELF...and I hardly call a top income tax rate of 60% successful....
As far as your local Health Departments and AHEC’s covering medicine, surgery or the “numerous” other things that you allude to.... as I pointed out in my post that you obviously FAILED to digest.... scope of services vary widely primarily due to the fact that it takes local participation to outline what SERVICES will/will not be covered.... when was the last time you went to one of your local townhall meetings with your local government and pushed for more services to be covered by your local Health Department or that your publically-financed local hospital use more of its local, state and federal monies to help those in need???? When was the last time you petitioned your state certification board to require doctors give X number of hours of community service in order to remain certified!!!! Quit looking to the government to do for you what you SHOULD BE doing for yourself....
Here I will help you start some of your own education... read this, if you dare.......
http://www.conservative.org/pressroom/reagan/reagan1975.asp
“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.”
Sorry to post and run but I have to get back to paperwork.
The biggest problem we have with this isn’t really that it doesn’t work—mostly because the incentive to work is taken away and everybody suffers equally.
No, the biggest problem is that this is what Libs accuse conservatives of all the time—forcing views on others. The *only* time we force views on others is to try to keep babies from getting murdered. Sorry, no go. And we’re not calling what gays do in the bedroom marriage, even though we’re not even trying to ban THAT! Yet we’re forced to pay for people who’ve refused to work for themselves, in the name of vapid “social responsibility” garbage that does nothing but incite the poor and downtrodden to blame the rich.
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “Charity begins at home.” When I raise my children to protect the innocent and learn to support themselves and be independent, I’ve just achieved what Socialism always fails to achieve: I’ve created a responsible, productive individual.
When you tell people it’s not their fault they’re poor, here in the greatest, freest, most opportunity abundant country in the world, you’ve created just the opposite. A complete degenerate sponge. Responsible productive citizens exist despite Liberalism, not because of it.
That’s why your idiotic policies fail.
Just to add real quick-like:
Respect for taking the questions seriously and answering them.
You, sir, are a rarity.
Prepare to get picked apart once the rest of the FReepers join up :) Paging JimRob!
Yes, I do. David Duke was a marginal figure in politics, and the media hounded him for years. He never had a shot at become President
Actually, the proper response to this is to ask why no one asked McCain about his association with G. Gordon Liddy and Charles Keating.
You're comparing a guy convicted of a minor crime and a white collar criminal to a terrorist who bombed the Pentagon and a virulent racist?
And McCain's connection to Liddy and Keating are nowhere near Hussein's ties to Ayers and Wright.
Try Cuba.
Thanks for pointing that out. I forgot how much they like to play with the headlines. It's one of their less admirable attributes.
That's been asnwered- Eisenhower inherited that tax rate from Truman. The President does not pass tax laws, and Congress had no interest at the time in lowering rates. Eisenhower not being able to change the top tax rate is completely different from Hussein's support for increasing it.
I think we need the tax revenue, and we can't tax the poor, the middle class no longer exists, so that only leaves one option.
There are nearly 50% of Americans who pay no Federal tax at all. Before you increase my tax load (my wife and I paid over $55,000 in Federal taxes alone last year), let's start talking about spending cuts for socialist programs like welfare, medicare and medicaid, as well as eliminating corporate welfare and subsidies.
People like me won't just sit here and take being fleeced forever. Moreso than Hussein's shiftless, unemployed supporters, we have the ability to pick up and go work elsewhere (Iraq, Panama, Dubai, Ireland, just to name a few). Then you all are going to have to figure out how to keep voting yourself goodies without the rest of us to pay for it.
Our troll is playing the usual liberal game of "this is how nice I imagine it will be." "This is how miserable it turned out to be elsewhere" doesn't come into that calculus.
You pity me? Wait a minute... To pity a man means that you have to consider yourself "above" that man in some intellectual fashion. But that can't be true in your case. After all, aren't you a self-described Man-of-the-Far-Left, a man who believes that we're all "equal"?
This doesn't make any sense at all. Unless... unless... you're lying to us again.
Darn it, I have to ask again: Why do you lie?
Health care (should be single payer) Environment (we should ban fuel ethanol and enforce mileage standards)
Well, you don't want to answer math questions, how about a legal question? How do you "enforce mileage standards"?
Oh, and what's the root word from which "liberal" is derived?
I am frankly curious why you say you are to the left of Barack Obama. What makes one ‘to the left’ in your mind?
OK, ... funny thing is I agree with most of what you hope to accomplish. So where might we disagree?
Probably how to accomplish it.
Perhaps the greatest difference lies in who is responsible for ‘owning’ and fixing’ the problems. I am a staunch defender of the private sector being the best source of innovation, and you (inferring) look to the Administration to drive the changes. Governments are rarely effective, efficient, timely or well-focused in realizing transformational changes. Why should we expect government to suddenly be more effective? In other words, is your position realistic?
Fundamental disagreement: affordable healthcare for all ailments is not a ‘right’. Why do you deserve every medicine you need at some very low cost? What if someone, or most everyone needs a lower cost than you? HOW do yo make the economics of affordable healthcare work?
BTW, the manufacturers cannot just change the charge gas in a prescription inhaler — the FDA would shut them down. Even changing the color of a label requires FDA approval. Anyway, I am not ready to ‘blame’ profit-making companies for not making everything I want and need affordable. You and I would disagree there.
I would much prefer that car insurance for teenagers be affordable, and car maintenance, and roofing repairs, and fuel for my transportation. Why can’t THEY make it all affordable?? I think you get my point.
You and I would likely define fiscal conservatism differently, as we would both like less spent, but would like to allocate the monies very differently — because we see the role of government in our lives differently.
WRT multilateral foreign policy — it is a myth that the US does it all alone. We do some things ‘alone’ ... I would call that leadership. Again, you and I would differ in the defined role of our nation around the globe. So be it. I’d look to the Constitution as written for very specific guidance on how the FEDERAL government should act.
Pragmatic approach to problems? Amen. But we’d likely disagree on the mechanics of pragmatism. That would be a fun debate. How do you solve problems, really. Focus on SOLVE, not sAlve.
What is the last problem the government SOLVED?
ahem ... your statement “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.” is disingenuous and you know it. One needs a broader lens than that to see the real problem, and taxing individual income is NOT the way to reduce the debt. I say STOP SPENDING at the Federal level ... back to fiscal conservatism. We’d disagree on the specifics here, though. What I would say STOP, you’d want to continue, and vice versa. FIRST we’d need to agree/argue the proper role of the Federal Government.
I don’t have the time at the moment to give you a full response, but ... we can’t go back to a Nixon style detente, because that works with peers/superpowers. Our identifiable enemies are neither superpowers nor nation-states of note.
Anyway, to net this out: what, in your mind does if mean to be a LEFTIST (use your own term to describe what you are, not mine)? Presuming I am a RIGHTIST, really more a political Libertarian, what does that make me?
Welcome to FReerepublic. Wear your kevlar until the emotions die down.
MR. Obama is not a liberal as you define liberal. I see him more as an effete, socialist, secular humanist statist.
Was that inflammatory enough for you? ;-p
Real liberals are fun people.
Dude - you’re more of a Libertarian than a LEftist ;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.