A day in the life of an average middle-class republican

I found this on another blog today: http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/

Is it 100% relevant to everyone? Maybe not. But it's something to think about.

Tom gets up at 6:00 AM to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot with 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 that they work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employer’s medical plan. Because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Tom gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast — bacon and eggs this day. Tom’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. Tom takes his morning shower, reaching for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount that is contains because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and the breakdown of its contents. Tom 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.

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

It’s noon time. Tom needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Tom’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some liberal wanted to protect Tom’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.

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

Tom 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).

Tom is happy to see his dad, who is now retired. Tom’s dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Tom wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad, Tom gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show. The host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn’t tell Tom that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Tom enjoys throughout his day. Tom 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.”

***

Addition by me. The evil liberal has been responsible, and right, about every major social issue that has been overturned in the United States. For example:

- ending slavery
- ending segregation
- women's suffrage

I personally can't understand the huge move to de-regulate industry. I understand that growth needs to be fostered. But irresponsible growth doesn't really help anyone. De-regulated industry lead to pollution, fraud, monopolies, and worker exploitation. Corporations don't have consciences. They exhist to provide profit - and history shows that they are none too particular about how that profit is obtained. Look at Enron. Look at the worker abuses in China. The race to the bottom must stop - for the good of everyone.

The simple way to regulate this is to tie protective tarriffs to enviromentally irresponsible or worker exploitative countries. Of course now that the phrase "free trade" has caught on, and sounds so good, your average American sheep has no idea what it actually means. Also, this action could now result in retaliatory tarriffs on our goods, since the United States remains environmentally irresponsible. But with protection against environmentally irresponsible or exploitative countries, United States corporations would have to stop whining about how they can't compete with cheap labor or pollution poisoned countries as excuses to try to strip workers or our environment of protections.

Tarriffs also end the ridiculous rush to move all manufacturing jobs out of the country. This may be good for industry at present, but it is a remarkably short-sighted practice. What happens during the next big war? The superior manufacturing capabilities of the United States is one of the main things that won WWII. I guess during WWIII we'll have baristas bombard our enemies with boutique coffee drinks. That's about the only thing we're still making here. And of course we import the fucking coffee. Think about it.

Conservatives are also moving to block immigration into the country. Waves of immigrants have fueled every large period of American prosperity. Gee I wonder why there any unskilled cheap labor here? Another common complaint of big business.