Monday, May 26, 2008
Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican
I heard this on the Thom Hartmann radio program on the progressive talk radio station here in Chicago. It's a great reminder of how much conservatives take for granted when they start bashing "big-government" liberals.

Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican
By John Gray Cincinnati, Ohio

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time.

Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republican’s would still be sitting in the dark)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show, the host’s keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I’m a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have”.


BTW, also check out A Day in the Life of a True Conservative.

Labels:

 
posted by Mike Clawson at 11:54 PM | Permalink |


4 Comments:


At 5/27/2008 12:51:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

I've never really liked boxing people into categories like liberal and conservative, or democrat and republican. They arbitrarily join together positions on a large number of unrelated issues.

 

At 5/27/2008 08:13:00 AM, Blogger Mike L.

Thanks for that post.

I wish every American would be honest about all the benefits they get from our nation. Then I wish they would all find honest information about their effective federal tax rate (not their marginal rate, but the actual rate they pay). Those 2 facts side by side would stagger most people. For the majority of Americans, we get more than we give.

I also wish the IRS would publish clear numbers right on the front of every 1040 form that listed: number of widows feed, number of veterans given health care, number of children educated, number of violations of environmental laws prosecuted, etc. America needs a better PR campaign. For the last 30 years we've been fed a line of BS from the conservative movement about how horrible America is and why it should be smaller.

When did being a patriot get reduced to willingness to fight a war?

 

At 5/27/2008 01:38:00 PM, Blogger Mike Clawson

I agree BZ, and yet in the context of this particular post, every one of the issues it raises are things that historically the majority of liberals and Democrats have supported and the majority of conservatives and Republicans have opposed. If the shoe fits, wear it.

 

At 5/27/2008 01:42:00 PM, Blogger Mike Clawson

I agree Mike. I heard a good statement the other day about the problem with electing conservatives whose philosophy is that government is inherently bad and should be as limited as possible. They commentator pointed out that people who don't think the government is capable of doing anything good will necessarily be incapable of actually doing anything good with it. Their outlook becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I'd say that the first six years of the Bush Administration pretty well demonstrates the truth of this observation.