Get off my last nerve
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This is a good old fashioned rant. I may misspell things, I may punctuate incorrectly and odds are, I will swear. But if I don’t get this out, my head will explode all over my home office, and that would be a pain to clean up.
President Obama is planning on extending the Bush tax cuts for Americans making less than $250,000 a year. So, most of us. However, given the response I am seeing from firebaggers over this, you would think he was doing the exact opposite. “He’s caving again!” “He’s just another Republican!” “He didn’t close Gitmo!” “Primary him with Bernie Sanders!” “I’m voting for Ron Paul, because at least HE’S not part of the establishment!”
Are you kidding me? Caving? Republicans want all the Bush tax cuts to go on for fucking ever, no matter the fact that those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans have had a hand in almost destroying our economy. The Republicans don’t give a rat’s ass about the middle class, or the poor, they care about the 1%. President Obama wants to end the Bush tax cuts for the 1%, but extend them 12 months for the middle class. Read more than a headline.
He’s just another Republican. Really. So, name one Republican who would have overturned DADT. Name one Republican who would welcome the LGBT community at the White House. Name one Republican who is willing to go on the record, right now, and say he or she is pro-choice. Name one Republican who isn’t obsessed with larger government when it comes to our social lives, but smaller government when it comes to silly things like clean water, breathable air and better roads and schools.
Gitmo. Ah, yes, the fall back argument. Interestingly, Bernie Sanders, the firebaggers’ dream candidate, voted to keep Gitmo open. Yessir, he did. Here’s the thing: we lived in Burlington, Vermont for almost 7 years. I know what Bernie Sanders did when he was mayor of that town-we lived it every single day. We owned a home there, a 1,700 square foot house. I have a friend who used to own a 4,000 square foot house in a suburb of Minneapolis. Her property taxes were over 50% less than ours. We paid almost $5,000 a year in property tax on a 1,700 square foot house. That’s insane. But that tax was put into place when Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, Vermont. In Burlington, if you’re really poor or really rich, you’re fine. If you’re in between, you’re screwed.
I like Bernie Sanders. He’s a fighter, but what a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that he really is a Socialist. And while firebaggers are all excited about some idea of Socialism, I don’t think they actually understand what Socialism does. Socialism forces a middle class family with a 1,700 square foot house to pay almost $5,000 in property taxes each year. And when we would ask folks who had lived there for decades where all that money was going, they would look us in the eye and respond “We don’t know.” Burlington has one homeless shelter, horrible streets, only one way out of the city to the highway, and no real industry. Where’s the money? (PS-I like the bits and pieces of Socialism that help America work. Just not a fan of middle class tax hikes to pay for…well…we never could figure out exactly what.)
You’re voting for Ron Paul. Ron Paul consistently receives money from white nationalist groups, he doesn’t believe in evolution, he’s pro-life, believing life begins at conception and he is obsessed with state’s rights. He would have voted against the Civil Rights Act, he voted against awarding a medal to Rosa Parks, but voted for HR 5872, also known as the “Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemartive Coin Act.” It’s okay for the US Mint to make a ton of coins for a group that discriminates against the LGBT community, but not for a woman who helped start the Civil Rights Movement? Riddle me that, Batman.
I do not mind if people disagree with President Obama’s policies. What I do mind is this endless drivel from angry whiners who didn’t get everything they wanted. He’s not your president, he’s the president of the whole country. What is it you want, exactly? Do you want him to use his magic President Pen and veto everything you hate? What is it, seriously, what is it about President Obama that you hate so much, you are willing to sit on your asses this November and let the new GOP, none of whom have any interest in your well-being whatsoever, govern this country? You want a Romney-Norquist-Koch-Palin-Cantor-Pat Robertson-John Hagee-Fox News America? That’s your dream? The rich get richer and the poor just die off? No more Medicaid, no more SNAP, public schools gutted, private insurance companies dropping Americans with preexisting conditions like hot cakes? Fundamentalist Christian doctrine as law?
President Obama is not perfect. No one is. The alternative is so offensive, so terrifying and so beyond the pale that it makes me physically ill to even ponder. I refuse to live in a country that has a state religion, where women and the LGBT community and the poor and minorities are second-class citizens. I refuse to live in a country where a rape victim cannot receive emergency contraception because state’s rights have been elevated to a federal overturning of Roe V Wade. My son will not be taught in school that the Earth is 10,000 years old and the Bible is a history book.
If your solution is just to “sit this one out,” then you have no right to complain on November 7th, when this whole country goes to hell. If you want the Tea Party in charge, Bible study instead of biology, no regulations, no safety nets for the disenfranchised, no help for veterans and people like Donald Trump amassing their wealth by the second, then keep up the good work. You’ll get exactly what you deserve.
Thanks to CBS.com and The Ron Paul Survival Report for contributions to this article.
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I must take exception to some of the things you said about Burlington. I have lived here in the Queen City for my whole life (58 years) and while it’s far from perfect, it’s not nearly as bad as you make it sound. The city is just finishing up a massive repaving project that has seen most of the main thoroughfares in the city resurfaced, there are at least two routes out of Burlington that lead to the throughway and there are three homeless shelters in Burlington with several more in the greater Burlington area. While property taxes are high, they have made Burlington a vibrant, safe place to live. Our old downtown was revitalized, A new water treatment facility was built, reservoirs were upgraded and covered, sewage treatment was improved, Storm drains were separated from sewage mains, a huge portion of Burlington’s lakefront, the Urban Reserve, was set aside for future generations to use and Burlington stepped into the 21st century with a large hydro project on the Winooski river and the McNeil wood-burning power plant, one of the cleanest and most reliable sources of power in the Northeast, allowing us to close the old coalburner on the waterfront.
Speaking to your property tax, I’ll bet your 1,700 square foot house is on a large lot. My property tax shows the house is but 30% of the value, with the rest found in the land. It is supposedly governed by sale prices of similar properties in your neighborhood. I fought the last two reappraisals and I’m paying considerably less than my neighbors who didn’t.
Burlington is not perfect, but, as a great place to live, it beats most other cities of it’s size all to hell.
Nope. No lot. Small front yard, medium back yard. No lot. I liked Burlington, but we simply could no longer afford to live there.
Perhaps a bit less short-shrift and a bit less insulting and ignoring of the left by the Obama people would encourage us to be more supportive. You know, less “Fuck the UAW” and “Fucking Retards” comments might help us feel like we voted for the right guy. Less appointing of the Geithners and Bernankes of the world.
Voters stayed home in 2010 because they were being “petualant” and immature, not because of outright disappointment and anger. That’s because they aren’t “mature”, and “adult” like Rahm Emmanuel. Sheesh.
Of course there is no alternative to Obama. Of course we’ll vote Dem again and hope for some small change. This whole conversation is so old.
I’m getting tired of rants by people who are tired of those expressing criticism and disappointment in Obama.
I do not mind if people disagree with President Obama’s policies.
Perhaps you missed this sentence in the article? I don’t mind a logical, rational discussion. I don’t agree with everything President Obama has done, but I don’t whine and bitch and act like a toddler who didn’t get a second lollipop.
We (rational people) would not have to keep having this conversation if firebaggers would stop being petulant and immature and saying things like “I’m not gonna vote na na na na na na.”
Good rant Erin. We can only hope that people wake up before Nov. and smell the s*** storm that the Repubs are going to throw at them.
Hell, I didn’t get my sparkling, glittery, Skittles farting unicorn yet but way I look at it, it took decades to get us in the shit, 4 yrs, 8 yrs won’t be enough to get us out of the mess the pugs have gotten us into. I’ve been doing voter reg this last little while, of minority groups, mainly my own Latino peeps and people are still excited about this guy no matter what the bobbleheads on the news are saying. They want the horserace and all the bullshit that goes along with that. My .02 worth.
Jess, that was great. Thanks for helping get folks registered to vote. And thanks for reading.
I am so scared by the possibilities! I would love to be able to say “I won’t live in a community where…”, but I know that’s not an option. I might be FORCED to “live in a community where…”. And I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT! The US has so much to offer, but the GOP has SUCH an ability to take away! Yes, I am lucky; I do not live in sub-Saharan Africa; I do not live where poverty kills children regularly; I do not live where it is insisted that I state a belief in Allah. I have been born into a society where I CAN actually live, even though I am wheelchair-bound and can do virtually nothing for myself. I have been a part of a generation where voice recognition, although not perfect, is usable, and audio books are highly available. I suppose that in that sense, it’s not fair of me to complain, and I have no reason to be scared. The GOP and their total lunacy SCARES ME! And that fact that the news and opinions are always skewed to match someone’s ideal scares me too! Erin, thank you so much for your rent! It is so much call more that I feel, it spells things out so well!
Marsha-YES! I can’t say that either, as much I want to, it’s not an option for my family. We just need to remember that the GOP has no interest in 99% of this country, but we have ALL the power in November to fire them and make America a great country for everyone. Thanks for reading, and thanks for putting up with my rant.
Erin…..good on you! I agree 100%!
Love this, Erin. Thank you sooooo much.
Agreed. I like Bernie Sanders, I like Obama. I could never be insane enough to vote for the gop. Sitting at home, a voter does just that. They put the kkk in charge of the government. I hope you like a country where an atheist or agnostic is forced into a church or pays a tax or maybe even goes to jail. Where medical research could be outlawed in favor of just praying for a cure. Where pagans, wiccans, druids, buddhists, hindus, taoists, muslims and the lgbt community may need to flee the usa like refugees in africa just to live. Do you want legal slavery? The gop would love to bring that back as well, especially ron paul and I suspect rick perry as well.
The point, sit at home and don’t vote as a democrat or liberal and don’t do it in 3 straight elections. The gop will get everything they want, and america will be screwed. Or, get off your whinny asses in november and vote for a sane, but imperfect president and get him a majority in the house and senate so he can get shit done. The choice is yours.
Jason wins the Internet. Perfectly stated. And much more calmly than I did. Well done.
Who said I was calm? I have been angry as hell at a lot of people on fb who claim to be liberal minded people who say they want to let Romney win because Obama didn’t bring about the perfect progressive paradise they wanted in 3 months. No one man can do that. Especially when you sit at home and take away a super majority from him. Obama got a lot of shit done in the first 2 years, had a gop that has blocked everything for the last 20 months. All because liberals sat at home in the midterm elections. It pisses me off to be blunt. So, give the 1% everything they want, see where it gets us when we have a plutonomy and not a democracy. When we have a theocracy based on christian/catholic dogma and everyone else is treated like they live in nazi germany. Me, if I have to crawl a thousand miles to canada when it goes to hell, then I will do it.
Jason, I agree with everything you said. If we do NOT defeat the GOP, we are done as a nation, I honestly believe it. And I’m too old to kidnap my kids and flee to Canada.
But you HAVE to admit that Obama has been a disappointment to progressives. He HAS made some progressive moves, but purely for political reasons.
BushCo is STILL free and uncharged, despite admitting to War Crimes on the TV.
Bottom line, people are tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. They want, perhaps naively, someone who will FIGHT for whats right, and not back down from a much needed fight.
They don’t want to hear that Obama did thus or so because, politics.
Yes, I understand that life in DC isn’t black and white, but various shades of gray, but to J6P, it is just black and white.
But yes, we have to support this president, and hopw like hell whoever replaces him is more progressive, and more of a fighter. It’s not too soon to start grooming Alan Grayson for the 2016 run. He’s pugnacious and also informed and intelligent. The Reich wingers who love that landwhale Christie should LOVE Grayson.
Addendum: We didn’t get into this situation overnight, and I know it’s going to take 30+ years to correct it, if we correct it (The corruption, citizens united, the Talibaptists, etc.), but Americans are notoriously short sighted and all about immediate gratifaction. We need to grow up and mature as a nation, and that doesn’t happen over night. More’s the pity.
you and Jason made my day…..
Excellent Rant.