So, new icon for political ranting
Aug. 9th, 2004 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltd"The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
I am only getting more and more confused.
What I am seeing:
1) We are earning $60K/year. This is more than almost 65% of the population. We are still having money trouble. We're working harder, and the money isn't going as far as it used to. I don't remember ever having to root through the couch to find change to buy bread when we made 10K/year.
2) Bush wants people like me: intelligent glbt women (the first 2 terms are redundant, but let's go with it) who have opinions, to sit down and shut up. If not vanish off the face of the earth. I agree with him on nothing as pertains to those 4 groups.
3) Workplace laws are loosening, unions are losing power. In most places, a union just takes a bite of your check and extends no tangible benefits now. Business isn't scared of unions any more. And workers are. That strikes me a bad thing. Because business never has workers' interests at heart, only the bottom line. I predict an end to the 40 hour work week, and overtime pay. I also expect to see minimum wage utterly defanged. We will all be corporate serfs.
4) Kerry failed to show for 38 out of 49 public hearings in his Senate committee. That's not leadership. That's not even doing his job.
5) Kerry is too liberal for my positions. I'm still not pro-choice. (I don't get an opinion, as I don't have a dog in the fight) I am not anti-gun. I think there are too many gun laws as it is. What they need is enforcement, not more laws. I favor universal health care, revamping public schools and making sure small farmers can compete with agribusiness.
6) Both candidates are rich blue-bloods who've never done an honest day's work in their lives. They're cousins, too. And intrafamilial wars are always the nastiest.
I think every presidential hopeful should spend the year before the convention living on minimum or average wages (under $10/hr) doing hard work, and having to provide for a family of 5. No cheating. No bailouts. No contact with the party. Then at the convention, let's see them get up and talk about the life they've just had and what they think they can do for the average American.
I'm off to dinner.
I am only getting more and more confused.
What I am seeing:
1) We are earning $60K/year. This is more than almost 65% of the population. We are still having money trouble. We're working harder, and the money isn't going as far as it used to. I don't remember ever having to root through the couch to find change to buy bread when we made 10K/year.
2) Bush wants people like me: intelligent glbt women (the first 2 terms are redundant, but let's go with it) who have opinions, to sit down and shut up. If not vanish off the face of the earth. I agree with him on nothing as pertains to those 4 groups.
3) Workplace laws are loosening, unions are losing power. In most places, a union just takes a bite of your check and extends no tangible benefits now. Business isn't scared of unions any more. And workers are. That strikes me a bad thing. Because business never has workers' interests at heart, only the bottom line. I predict an end to the 40 hour work week, and overtime pay. I also expect to see minimum wage utterly defanged. We will all be corporate serfs.
4) Kerry failed to show for 38 out of 49 public hearings in his Senate committee. That's not leadership. That's not even doing his job.
5) Kerry is too liberal for my positions. I'm still not pro-choice. (I don't get an opinion, as I don't have a dog in the fight) I am not anti-gun. I think there are too many gun laws as it is. What they need is enforcement, not more laws. I favor universal health care, revamping public schools and making sure small farmers can compete with agribusiness.
6) Both candidates are rich blue-bloods who've never done an honest day's work in their lives. They're cousins, too. And intrafamilial wars are always the nastiest.
I think every presidential hopeful should spend the year before the convention living on minimum or average wages (under $10/hr) doing hard work, and having to provide for a family of 5. No cheating. No bailouts. No contact with the party. Then at the convention, let's see them get up and talk about the life they've just had and what they think they can do for the average American.
I'm off to dinner.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 03:26 pm (UTC)Secondly, I would consider being in Vietnam doing an honest day of work. Not sure how you would feel about being being a lawyer, DA, Lieutenant Governor and general political activist though.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 03:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 03:47 pm (UTC)Vietnam was soldiering. That's different from a 9-5 grind that doesn't pay enough to keep the bills covered. (if only because you have guaranteed health care, housing, food and clothes. And the boss doesn't shoot at you)
Politics and anything along those lines do NOT classify as honest, no matter how many hours one puts in. It's welfare for the rich: finding a way to live on the public's dime.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 03:55 pm (UTC)It is different, but I think having your life on the line and seeing the complete despair and poverty of the world certainly gives one an appreciation for life and struggle.
What about being a lawyer? That's a lot of hours, a lot of demonizing and a heck of a lot of stress. While he has never been in the "working class" I don't think that means he's soft-palmed.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 04:30 pm (UTC)They're also both related to Clint Eastwood, Clara Barton, Howard Dean (9th cousins again), Humphrey Bogart, Jack London, Aaron Burr, Jimmy Carter, FDR and Calvin Coolidge.
And they're related to my husband's family through the John Adamses. (6th cousins @ 5 removes) So if I can't slander family, who can I slander?
Lawyering falls in with politicians. If you were honest, you wouldn't be doing it.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 05:13 pm (UTC)Anyway, I think there are a fair amount of honest lawyers, and we do need them to keep some kind of justice going, I believe he was a criminal prosecuter, which I rank a lot higher than civil lawyers.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-09 06:14 pm (UTC)