secularsouth
Supporting a sacrilegious sanctuary, scientific society, and solace for Southern secularists.
politicsI was reading the replies on justjames' blog entry titled The Ted Haggard Story, and saw one by ravager that I really liked and wanted to reply to.
I agree 100%. And for more specific examples like "W", the hypocrisy is even more apparent. It's easy to be a "bootstrap" conservative when you come from the arms of wealth and power. Or if you're one of the few in the lower middle class, or more rarely the poor, who fortune smiled upon. But those are the exceptions, not the rule. Does anyone really think "W" went to Yale on his academic merit? If you have access to opportunity after opportunity, it's easy to adopt an attitude after repeated failure that if someone is dedicated and "just sticks to it" and is willing to work hard, that they can be successful too. But let's consider reality. An average, blue-collar 9-5 worker can't overcome obstacles as easily. How many could have a DUI just go away? How many died in Vietnam because they couldn't get into the National Guard? How many could weather failed business after failed business? But our current president did these things. He had a safety net most people could hardly imagine. Money, prestige, networks, business contacts. And yet, somehow these same people think having a modest safety net for the common man is somehow demeaning or encourages the common man to be dependent and helpless. It doesn't. It is empowering. It emboldens us to be innovative, to reach for our dreams, and to hope for something better.
Removing the estate tax had no effect on anyone whose estate was worth less than a million. The top 400 richest families in America control more wealth than the bottom 50,000,000 families combined. It's absolutely obscene and the American people either haven't heard it, don't want to hear it, or can't understand it. This tax was put in place to help prevent the development of American aristocracy. It's the wealthy who don't want their children to be without a (extremely cushioned) safety net that fight the estate tax. Hypocrisy doesn't even begin to describe the arrogance and elitism of the wealthy that decry a social safety net.
It's just one more hypocrisy *shrugs* The whole boot strap meme they sell (generally to rationalize why they don't want to help anyone but themselves) and how they actually act.
I agree 100%. And for more specific examples like "W", the hypocrisy is even more apparent. It's easy to be a "bootstrap" conservative when you come from the arms of wealth and power. Or if you're one of the few in the lower middle class, or more rarely the poor, who fortune smiled upon. But those are the exceptions, not the rule. Does anyone really think "W" went to Yale on his academic merit? If you have access to opportunity after opportunity, it's easy to adopt an attitude after repeated failure that if someone is dedicated and "just sticks to it" and is willing to work hard, that they can be successful too. But let's consider reality. An average, blue-collar 9-5 worker can't overcome obstacles as easily. How many could have a DUI just go away? How many died in Vietnam because they couldn't get into the National Guard? How many could weather failed business after failed business? But our current president did these things. He had a safety net most people could hardly imagine. Money, prestige, networks, business contacts. And yet, somehow these same people think having a modest safety net for the common man is somehow demeaning or encourages the common man to be dependent and helpless. It doesn't. It is empowering. It emboldens us to be innovative, to reach for our dreams, and to hope for something better.
Removing the estate tax had no effect on anyone whose estate was worth less than a million. The top 400 richest families in America control more wealth than the bottom 50,000,000 families combined. It's absolutely obscene and the American people either haven't heard it, don't want to hear it, or can't understand it. This tax was put in place to help prevent the development of American aristocracy. It's the wealthy who don't want their children to be without a (extremely cushioned) safety net that fight the estate tax. Hypocrisy doesn't even begin to describe the arrogance and elitism of the wealthy that decry a social safety net.
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