Do you have a yearning to speak candidly with one of the Presidential nominees this year?Joe the Plumber did and now he's being raked over the coals for daring to ask questions and challenge the darling of the mainstream media, Senator Obama.
For going against the grain and not being a good little sheeple who throws himself down to worship at the feet of a political celebrity, Joe is paying a steep price.
The media is eviscerating this guy who rightly pointed out that Obama's "Take From The Productive And Spread The Wealth To The Less Productive" policy is Socialism bordering on Marxism.
They've relentlessly dug up "dirt" on Joe so they could paint this average citizen as a right-wing redneck who should be completely discredited for voicing his personal opinion.
I've read several leftist pundits who have written that they bet Joe is sorry now for showing up and asking questions and that he's "getting what he deserves."
Is this what our society has come to? Are the citizens of this great country going to have to cower silently in a corner because rising up and being vocal about something they disagree with results in vicious personal attacks and public slamming?
I don't care that Joe the Plumber doesn't have an actual plumbing license (he's only worked on jobs that doesn't require one) and that he owes back taxes.
Does that somehow negate his Constitutional right to Free Speech?
The message is clear:
You will be good little sheeple and do what you're told, understand?
Don't question authority. We know what's best for you.
We will tell you what to do, what to say, and what to think.
You will go along with the corrupt 700 billion dollar bailout even though at least 8 out of 10 constituents said NO, and you will like it.
If you do not comply with our demands and show absolute obedience, you will be swiftly punished.
This is a bi-partisan post/rant. This issue transcends politics.
People, we are being taught that if you dare to publicly question something, you can expect to have your curbside trash ransacked and your pre-school teacher interviewed in an effort to get as much crap on you as possible.
That's just one frightening step away from starting up and shipping non-compliants off to the Re-Education Camps. You know, like what they do in Communist countries like China when the people get a little restless and ask questions of their government.
Both Senator Obama and Senator McCain voted to pass the disastrous pork-laden bailout whose funds are now being managed by the very same slimy Goldman-Sachs weasels who pushed it in the first place.
That was a bold in-your-freakin-face move to the American public considering the majority of us didn't want it.
The bailout was a bad day for the average American taxpayer but it was a very, very good day if you're in the business of rum running and making bows&arrows for children.
What happened to the concept of a representative government?
I guess if I were to bring up a pertinent issue like this to either candidate's face I can expect for the whole world to find out that I lip sync hymns during Church and that I voted for Kinky Friedman in the last Texas Gubernatorial race because I hated all the other mainstream party candidates.
Is this our long awaited and hoped-for change? Well then, I say change it BACK. Let's kick it old school and bring back that little happiness that our Founding Fathers called a Constitutional Republic.
29 comments:
I missed the whole Joe the Plumber thing and have been to busy (working to pay my own debt, what a concept!) to educate myself on the matter. Thanks for the run down!
Did this come out in the debate the other night? Where can I read more? (and it better be a quick read...I now have to work looooong hours to build back up my retirement-Ha!)
I just wanna bury myself in escapist fluffy novels and turn the whole world off. No dice. My responsibility in our Constitutional Republic is to be educated and vote wisely. Ug. What IS wise at this point?
Amen Sister!
I believe that all. You have made my heart race with the excitment of the people actually standing up to the government.
I am so sick of this whole thing. Neither one is worthy of taking over. No one has for a LONG time. Our fathers before us would hide their faces in shame from what our dear country has become.
It is soon to be the end and I really don't want to be here to see all of the turmoil and grotesque things that are bound to happen soon.
You my gal are AWESOME!!!!!
It's absolutely shameful.
I say we write in Joe for president.
I think this was a great post Elastic. You totally called it right. It's scary, isn't it?
Not only are you hilarious but you have astutely identified the socialist path the sheeples are being lead down. They want to make every decision for you and take care of you so you don't have to? It sounds suspiciously like a plan presented in the pre-existence that was rejected. Me thinks sAtAn could be trying to implement his plan after all! By the way, I'd make a lousy sheep since my hair will NOT curl!
I missed Joe the Plumber... well, I saw them mock him on the SNL on Thursday, but other than that, I haven't really paid attention. I've kind of tuned politics out. I know how I'm going to vote and so I've decided not to fill my head with all the crap they are flinging around. I have much more important things to fill my head with... like... umm... stuff that's important.
I do agree with you that much of the media are mostly a bunch of idiots. But the constitution only protects citizens from the government, so anyone else can restrict free speech all they want - including the sensationalist media. But as long as they get viewers or hits to their websites, they'll continue doing what they're doing. I feel bad for Joe the plummer. I don't necessarily agree with him, but he didn't ask to be all up in the debate, and have the media be all up in his business.
Isn't amazing how most of us love our country, but feel the opposite about our politicians?
It seems like the government keeps getting worse along with all the politicians. I keep wondering what is there to do?
I am very worried for our country!
Omar- I was pissed when I wrote this. Of course, there's some faulty reasoning here. Joe did get his moment of free speech. However, I HATE it that articulately voicing a legitimate point of view gets you lambasted, harrassed and vilified by the media who clearly supports Obama. Not surprisingly, the cries of "He's a racist!!!" have been echoing around too. Yes, because it's entirely a black/white thing to question a Presidential candidate on taxes.
When Obama answers this guy with the exact words of "spreading the wealth is good for America" it worries me.
When Biden counters with stuff like "paying higher taxes is the patriotic thing to do" and "we're trying to make business more FAIR" it REALLY worries me.
Obama's big tax increase plan may not affect my paycheck because I'm a peon. Howver it will affect me personally. It will affect everyone. Because, you see, raising taxes on businesses means that they'll have to pass that cost down to the consumer. It also means they'll have less money to expand operations. Less money to hire new people. Less money for new innovations.
People go into business knowing that it's a risk. They take that risk with the hopes of being rewarded with money. If you know that making more money will get you penalized, why would you even take the risk? This will kill our economy.
In the past when taxes were LOWERED on business, businesses thrived and MORE money was sent in to government coffers because business was more prosperous. When taxes were raised, LESS money was made by business and therefore less was collected by the gov. It's fact.
I want government to shove off and leave business alone. We don't have to be "fair." That's not what America is about. The market will decide who fails and who succeeds in the business game. We shouldn't be propping up those who managed their stuff poorly. They deserve to lose their company. That's my biggest beef with the bailout. We're bailing out companies when they should be forced to either do what's necessary to survive or close up shop.
That's not to say that McCain knows a ton about the economy. He doesn't. If he did he would never have voted for the bailout.
However, if he selects the brilliant business strategist, Mitt Romney as his Commerce or Treasury Secretary, he can sort of cover up his economic plan shortcomings.
When it comes to financial/economic issues, I'm very much on the fence. I agree with what you said about businesses being forced to pass the higher costs down to us. At the same time, I'd bet Joe the plumber has never been hired by a poor homeless dude. So the question is, is it better for the government to help make Joe more prosperous in hopes that he'll hire the poor guy? Or is it better for the government to help the poor guy so that he can patronize Joe's business?
I think both theories have flaws. But at the end of the day, I generally don't trust the wealthy businessman to reinvest domestically when he can choose to buy an expensive Italian car or cheaply manufacture his products in China instead. Someone has to have America's "greater good" in mind. I don't believe that corporate America does (see economic crisis of '08), so I think the government needs to.
On an unrelated note, I wish someone named "Kinky" would run for office in NY.
When I said "Or is it better for the government to help the poor guy so that he can patronize Joe's business?"
I should have said "... in hopes that he'll patronize Joe's business?"
Because in fairness, the poor guy could spend the government money on crack and we still wouldn't be any better off. But that heads into another issue entirely.
Another problem that is stifling the economy is the fact that big business is just that - the conglomerates rule the world. They take competitive-ness totally out of the equation, which, in my humble opinion, is never a good thing.
I fear greatly for the world...
This is where we disagree.....again.....but respectfully......mostly.
It's not the government's job to "take" from some people to "give" to other people.
When you freely "give" away things to people, they don't necessarily appreciate it or respect it because they haven't earned it, worked for it, or fought for it.
Nowhere is that lesson more evident than watching my own children.
The gifts they're given for Christmas end up in pieces on the floor. The things they've bought themselves or we've agreed to pay half if they earned the other half are their most cherished possessions that they take very good care of.
I'm not without compassion. I fully realize that not everybody was afforded the lessons in working hard to improve your own life like I was. However, government freebies-that aren't really freebies because the taxpayer is financing it- are not the answer.
Let's face it, there's very little that the government gets involved with that doesn't go completely awry. They're just not very competent.
I think the solution lies in better funding community organizations that assist the needy. They're on the ground level and they have a greater understanding of what their particular area needs a lot better than the government. They're also much more efficient at distributing help and actually improving people's lives than the government ever will be because the American government was never set up to be a nanny state like what politicians are trying to turn it into.
None of the above applies to citizens who are handicapped, and incapable of working. In those cases, the government should be there to help them.
As for your distrust of corporate America, that's why the bailout has pissed off so many people. In real life, you either sink or swim. If you're sinking, you better figure out a way to save yourself, but don't go crying to the government to bail your sorry leaky butt out.
That's how you weed out the businesses with ineffectual management and the ones that put their greed above all else. They will fail. The gov. has no business helping them. Some of these companies deserve to die because then valuable lessons are learned, miatakes corrected, and the economy will eventually reset itself.
Bailing them out just perpetuates the problem.
go Kinky!
The Horror!!!
How Obsurd!!!
In my line of work I see the errors of socialism. It makes for unhealthy people. I am a Social Worker. Probably on of the few conservative ones.
I wish we had more than TWO parties to choose from. I really hate them both, I'm just choosing the lesser of two evils.
BTW- I am so on board with you- in your post, your comments, et al.
I feel much the same about teh bank bail outs. It's been £50bn to shore up a rabble of greedy scumbags. Shareholders have been tryiing to put a stop to it because they would lose dividends. The second word of my response to them is off!
Personally I would like to see the whole lot flushed down teh toilet of history but sadly if they did the economy would follow the bankers down the bowl. Sadly it's been a necessary evil in my view, much as it sticks in the craw
Whenever there's a coherent question from a conservative directed to a liberal politician, the media has to make it into a big hoo-ha. Because the media is liberal. And angry. And whiney. And a bunch of idiots.
Anyway, I liked your post. I agree with JustRandi that we should just write in "Joe The Plumber" on our ballots. Or "elasticwaistbandlady".
I'm writing you in for president.
Personally if people really buy into this Jack Schtick of an excuse for an economic policy obviously don't have a clue! THey only see what they "would be getting" not everything that would be "taken from them"
So with that in mind this particular mindset heralds back to the magical days when the KGB ruled...except now people can just expect to have there own personal shmear campaigne for raising some very good, fair, and poigniant questions
What is it they say about looking like a a duck, and quacking like a duck?
"Is this what our society has come to? Are the citizens of this great country going to have to cower silently in a corner because rising up and being vocal about something they disagree with results in vicious personal attacks and public slamming?"
For some reason this heralds me back to the days of yore...I mean smellementary school, where we had "cut down wars" or whatever you want to call it...Trash talking for kiddies...apparently a lot of people never grew up.
AAAAAHHHHHHHH all this stuff is giving me a lot of thoughts. I might have to write my own response in the form of a post so I don't take over here
"You will be good little sheeple and do what you're told, understand?
Don't question authority. We know what's best for you.
We will tell you what to do, what to say, and what to think.
You will go along with the corrupt 700 billion dollar bailout even though at least 8 out of 10 constituents said NO, and you will like it.
If you do not comply with our demands and show absolute obedience, you will be swiftly punished."
If this is the message that they are publicizing(sp?) then the first thing that computed in my brain was Satan...so does that mean Ob@m@ camp = S@t@n and his followers?
I'm seriously not trying to be mean. I hold nothing against this guy as a person because I don't know him, but if those are the ideals that he stands for, I certainly have a problem with that.
Freedom of speech was a huge part of what we fought for to become a separate country and now it's being taken away by peer pressure and public verbal "flogging"?
Why don't we just break out the stockades and people can spit in other people's faces and throw rotten produce?
Civilized barbarians. It's oxymoronic, but then again so are the people who participate.
Talk about the Constitution hanging by a thread!
Oh how this hurts me! It really hurts me to hear all of this...I might have already brought this up before, but have you ever read Atlas Shrugged?
It's good stuff, but pretty much goes through what happens when people abdicate their responsibility to others.
OK so I realize that my comments took over sorry for that and the grammatical and spelling errors. It's difficult to stay on top of the mechanics when you are too busy typing away to proof it ;)
WOW! You are amazing! Can I be your friend? Seriously, I love you... My husband would probably kiss you if he knew your real identity- Super Woman! This was phenomenal!
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