Big Brother
I just saw a status update on one of my Facebook friend's pages that said, "if you think the govt is your friend, ur a fool." Well, first off, obviously the government is a legislative body and therefore not something a person can really befriend. But, knowing that this person is a conservative republican, I understand the point the person was trying to make. It's a very common "straw man" fallacy which is very popular with conservatives right now: make government out to be the "bad guy" and therefore anyone who supports the government is also a bad guy.
How difficult is it to get someone riled up against the government? All you really have to do is bring up taxes and you'll get a pitchfork-wielding army of vigilantes hell bent on bringing down big brother. Who likes paying taxes? Nobody, of course; but who understands why taxes are necessary? It seems less and less people, these days.
Anti-government sentiment has always been a popular theme in books, movies and television, and for those less-educated among us is often confused and twisted with reality, making it very easy for people like Glenn Beck to pray upon people's fears and convince them that the government is corrupt, even sinister. And who am I to argue with that? We've all seen mayors in mischief, senators in scandal, presidents in peril, etc... There's not doubt that politics is rife with dishonesty, bribery and distortion. It's much more difficult to look for the good, and to chip in and fight to keep the politicians honest. People forget that our government is meant to be for the people, and by the people. Those politicians that people love to demonize used to just be someone's neighbor, someone's friend, someone's kid. Most of them probably wanted to change the world for better. Now most of them probably just want to come out of the other end unscathed.
My point is that, just because I support our government and our current president, doesn't make me anti-american, a communist, a socialist, or whatever other names that conservatives might want to call myself and others like me. It's so funny that all these people seemed to love the country and our government when that idiot Bush was in the White House, but now all of a sudden there's a well-educated black democrat in the oval office and it's McCarthyism all over again.
In fact, I don't consider the government my friend or my enemy. Of course there are things about government that don't work - for me, or for anybody else. There are things about it that are broke. But we all have different opinions about what is broke and what "fixing" something means, and last I checked we were calling ourselves a democracy. It's funny how many conservatives have been shouting that Obama is "ignoring the people" and just "pushing his own agenda" onto the country. Do these people even honestly believe that? Do they really think that those of us who voted for him wanted him to do less of what he's doing? If anything, I think most of us expected more change from him. More people voted for Obama than McCain, and if there's one word that we were voting for, it was "CHANGE." This was what we wanted. Don't try to sit there and say that he's ignoring the people, just because he's not doing what you wanted him to. You lost already.
I wanted health care reform. You have to insure your car, why do people take more of a risk with their own health? Why would people not WANT access to easier health care? Do the people who are complaining about really even know what they are complaining about? No, I'll tell you what they are complaining about in simple, real terms: they don't want "their" money to go towards health care for immigrants from Mexico, and poor inner city black people. That's the way they think. They somehow think that they aren't already paying the cost of these uninsured people who still utilize our healthcare system, often times visiting the emergency room via ambulance ($$$$!) They think that having people grow up too poor to afford basic health care and dental care puts them up a rung on the ladder and they'd rather have more people under them than above them, so they're perfectly happy letting people struggle.
They also think that for-profit corporations, who bring us products like Viagra, Ritalin, and Fen-phen, are more interested in our goodwill than the people we elected to serve us.
Give me a break!
The divide in this country has grown to be so great. I saw it in 2004, when people voted to keep Bush in office. I literally didn't think I knew ANYONE who would have voted for him. Certainly nobody that I was friends with, who I talked to on a regular basis, would have admitted voting for him. It didn't seem like anyone on TV or the movies would have voted for him. Honestly I didn't think I could have found one person willing to admit that they were going to vote for Bush. But, what I didn't take into account is that there are millions of people in this country that I do not talk to and do not know, and these are the people who are against me. So it should come as no surprise to me that I'm hearing people say "this is not what the people of Ameica want" or "this is not what we voted for" (which OK, first, you didn't vote for Obama anyway so we all already know that it isn't what you voted for. But remember, you lost). They just don't KNOW me or my friends, so they don't understand that WE do, in fact, want this... this direction we're heading in makes me feel SAFER, more HOPEFUL for the future, and more CONFIDENT that the USA will remain one of the best countries on earth.
The government may not be my friend, but it's sort of like a big, strong guy that will protect me when some lunatic comes at me with a pitchfork.
How difficult is it to get someone riled up against the government? All you really have to do is bring up taxes and you'll get a pitchfork-wielding army of vigilantes hell bent on bringing down big brother. Who likes paying taxes? Nobody, of course; but who understands why taxes are necessary? It seems less and less people, these days.
Anti-government sentiment has always been a popular theme in books, movies and television, and for those less-educated among us is often confused and twisted with reality, making it very easy for people like Glenn Beck to pray upon people's fears and convince them that the government is corrupt, even sinister. And who am I to argue with that? We've all seen mayors in mischief, senators in scandal, presidents in peril, etc... There's not doubt that politics is rife with dishonesty, bribery and distortion. It's much more difficult to look for the good, and to chip in and fight to keep the politicians honest. People forget that our government is meant to be for the people, and by the people. Those politicians that people love to demonize used to just be someone's neighbor, someone's friend, someone's kid. Most of them probably wanted to change the world for better. Now most of them probably just want to come out of the other end unscathed.
My point is that, just because I support our government and our current president, doesn't make me anti-american, a communist, a socialist, or whatever other names that conservatives might want to call myself and others like me. It's so funny that all these people seemed to love the country and our government when that idiot Bush was in the White House, but now all of a sudden there's a well-educated black democrat in the oval office and it's McCarthyism all over again.
In fact, I don't consider the government my friend or my enemy. Of course there are things about government that don't work - for me, or for anybody else. There are things about it that are broke. But we all have different opinions about what is broke and what "fixing" something means, and last I checked we were calling ourselves a democracy. It's funny how many conservatives have been shouting that Obama is "ignoring the people" and just "pushing his own agenda" onto the country. Do these people even honestly believe that? Do they really think that those of us who voted for him wanted him to do less of what he's doing? If anything, I think most of us expected more change from him. More people voted for Obama than McCain, and if there's one word that we were voting for, it was "CHANGE." This was what we wanted. Don't try to sit there and say that he's ignoring the people, just because he's not doing what you wanted him to. You lost already.
I wanted health care reform. You have to insure your car, why do people take more of a risk with their own health? Why would people not WANT access to easier health care? Do the people who are complaining about really even know what they are complaining about? No, I'll tell you what they are complaining about in simple, real terms: they don't want "their" money to go towards health care for immigrants from Mexico, and poor inner city black people. That's the way they think. They somehow think that they aren't already paying the cost of these uninsured people who still utilize our healthcare system, often times visiting the emergency room via ambulance ($$$$!) They think that having people grow up too poor to afford basic health care and dental care puts them up a rung on the ladder and they'd rather have more people under them than above them, so they're perfectly happy letting people struggle.
They also think that for-profit corporations, who bring us products like Viagra, Ritalin, and Fen-phen, are more interested in our goodwill than the people we elected to serve us.
Give me a break!
The divide in this country has grown to be so great. I saw it in 2004, when people voted to keep Bush in office. I literally didn't think I knew ANYONE who would have voted for him. Certainly nobody that I was friends with, who I talked to on a regular basis, would have admitted voting for him. It didn't seem like anyone on TV or the movies would have voted for him. Honestly I didn't think I could have found one person willing to admit that they were going to vote for Bush. But, what I didn't take into account is that there are millions of people in this country that I do not talk to and do not know, and these are the people who are against me. So it should come as no surprise to me that I'm hearing people say "this is not what the people of Ameica want" or "this is not what we voted for" (which OK, first, you didn't vote for Obama anyway so we all already know that it isn't what you voted for. But remember, you lost). They just don't KNOW me or my friends, so they don't understand that WE do, in fact, want this... this direction we're heading in makes me feel SAFER, more HOPEFUL for the future, and more CONFIDENT that the USA will remain one of the best countries on earth.
The government may not be my friend, but it's sort of like a big, strong guy that will protect me when some lunatic comes at me with a pitchfork.
Comments
But seriously, there really is no refuting your argument, IMO.