My husband and I are and always have been strong and faithful Democrats. We travel each election to Nevada (though this year we are traveling to Ohio or Wisconsin, whichever one looks like it needs help more) to do Get out the vote stuff since California and Los Angeles area are pretty reliably Democratic territory. Our home has been used on multiple occasions for phone banking, fundraisers, etc. Our girls have been raised with this and with our constant and passionate family discussions about caring for the poor, not being racist, etc. One of our closest couple friends are two women who were finally able to get married and those are the people we chose to raise our girls if we were killed. There is NOTHING in the way we raised our girls to have them believe anything Republican is good.
Except that our oldest, who is now 20, has been dating a cocky 22 year old Republican "wanna be rich" who has too much money right now for any 22 year old, due mainly to some shadowy dealings (I feel) in stock trading that, while technically legal, certainly isn't a NICE way to make money. Just like Romney.
Since my husband and I have been hard hit by the economy (he's an architect and I'm a REALTOR), we have not been able to always give our daughter the luxuries she grew up with anymore. Can't afford a car for her? No problem, A. will buy it for her. Can't afford a horse anymore? No problem, A. will buy it for her. As a consequence, she has been overlooking his character flaws and is under his spell. It is infuriating to my husband and me.
I try, now and then, to break through to her. This morning I sent her a link to the Esquire piece that was profiled earlier today. She responded with "A. says Ryan's budget plan will cut the deficit. How does Obama want to do this?" Follow below the squiggle for my response:
I'm sorry, honey, but A. has his head up his ass if he thinks that any of the bullshit Fox News has been feeding him and other low information voters is true. They don't give a shit about you or A. or any of us middle class people. A. may want to be rich, but he won't stand a chance with these guys. They want to do the same damn thing that caused this situation in the first place -- the "trickle down" theory of economics that says if you give the rich more money they will invest. They don't. They put it in the Cayman Islands.
The Ryan budget would reduce the deficit (supposedly) by cutting social security and medicare so that people like Grandma would have to eat cat food or not get their medicine, and would cut Pell grants to students so you couldn't go to school anymore. It is draconian and harsh and does not have any human soul in it. It also severely cuts our infrastructure in a time when our roads and bridges and electrical grid and plumbing/sewer systems are already collapsing due to age and the increased damages from global warming (think about melting roads and runways and you will know what I mean.)'The Ryan budget won't reduce the deficit, it will INCREASE IT see link here and put the economy into a depression worse than what we have been doing already because if the middle class doesn't have any money they will to be able to buy anything. This is more of the same bullshit that they have been pushing since Ronald Reagan.
How do we fix things? TAX THE RICH! It is ridiculous that they think we can be in two unfunded wars and not pay for them. When Grandma was living in World War II, the whole country pitched in and had rationing, etc, to make sure the country could survive. Ryan just wants to funnel money to the upper class.
The income disparity between middle class people like you, me and Anton and the very uber-wealthy like Mitt Romney has been growing. They want to offer tax cuts for the wealthy that would require every middle class person to pay an additional $2500 in taxes on average. That is just not fair to anyone. It is increasing the disparity between the rich and creating an oligarchy. It is destroying the middle class. The middle class are the people who buy things and thus increase the profitability of everyone anyway. If the middle class has more money, they will spend it and thus increase profitability. If the rich get more money, they will just stash it in Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts because they already have everything their little hearts desire including multiple homes with car elevators (that's what Romney is planning for his home down south.)
Did you know that just one family, the Waltons, own more stuff than the bottom FORTY PERCENT of the country? Why should they get a fricking tax cut and let Grandma starve? see here
Did you know that the richest 400 families, of which Mitt Romney is one, own more than the bottom SIXTY Percent of the country?
Did you know that the rise in this income inequality is unprecedented and is leading to greatly increase poverty?
see here
Do you realize that most of the deficit was CAUSED BY Bush's tax cuts?
The only way to fix this is to roll those back. Any other bullshit is just that, bullshit.
You don't have to agree with me. What you do have to do is educate yourself, not just listen to what A. says, which is what Fox News tells him to think. Start googling and start thinking. Don't just listen to Fox News, Redstate, Romney, etc.
Mom