Attention Liberals

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
I'm a liberal. In my typical contrarian way, the older I get, the more liberal I get. At the rate I'm going, by the time I'm 50 I'll be a full-fledged socialist.

So I tend to agree with most liberal positions. I think abortion should be safe, legal and rare. I believe our health care system needs to be fundamentally overhauled so that everyone has access to services, like in the rest of the civilized world. I strongly support gay marriage rights.

But I'm not a bread-and-circuses liberal. You can't have all these nifty services without actually, you know, paying for them. I guess that makes me a tax-and-spend liberal. I strongly believe in a balanced budget and freeing our economic security from the kindness of strangers, so to speak.

And my fellow liberals are embarrassing me, and they need to cut that shit out.

Attention, fellow liberals!

If you want to indulge in a ranting screed about how the pharmaceutical companies are greedy, greedy bastards who could cure the common cold, or cancer, or any other disease, but don't because it's far too profitable to let people suffer, please have some ACTUAL DATA to back up your position. The comment "everybody knows it's true" is not actual data, and you're embarrassing me with your sloppy argument.

If you want to promise entitlement services for every man, woman and child who lives here in the U.S., please have some sort of actionable plan as how you will actually PAY for such services. Money doesn't grow on trees, as my Hot Mom used to say, and someone has to pay for your grandiose plans. If you want to tax the shit out of the top 5% of earners in this country to pay for your services, then grow a pair and just say so. You're embarrassing me with your lack of fiduciary acumen.

If you believe there's a right-wing conspiracy surrounding the financial crisis, and that the entire thing was part of some back-room plan to stick it to the little guy for the benefit of the bankers, please ensure you can support your accusations with EVIDENCE. Please note that I myself personally believe the financial Masters of the Universe were criminally negligent, so I'm not necessarily saying you're wrong. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and so far you've produced exactly shit. You're embarrassing me with your tin-foil hat theories.

If you think that our current food production and distribution system in this country is inherently unhealthy and causes myriad diseases in the population, please ensure you can produce a sustainable, actionable system to replace the Food Industrial Complex. Ranting about the prevalence of antibiotics, hormones and chemicals in our food supply does no good if you have no plan to produce food on the scale that's needed to feed the population. You're embarrassing me with your Pollyanna vision of local food production.

In other words you need to actually engage your brain before you engage your mouth and use some critical thinking skills. You're currently an embarrassment, and you need to cut that shit out.

Thank you for your attention.

8 comments:

mom in northern said...

"an atta a girl" from your
Hot Mom

Poetry Sue said...

Dear Awesome Blogger Chick!

WOW... I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now and I am blown away every time! You have an awesome voice and thanks for finally calling all of our crazy liberal sibs to mat about their rants and acusations!! I've emailed this blog to every nut job liberal I know!! LOL of course I'm a liberal too so does that make me a nut job?

Janiece said...

Gee...thanks, Mom. :)

Poetry Sue, nut jobbery is in the eye of the beholder, I expect.

Jerry Critter said...

Good post...and you are absolutely right. Let's see some data.

And what is wrong with taxing the shit out of the rich? It worked pretty good during the 60's - 70's when we built a strong middle class. Some of the highest increases in real GDP occurred when the marginal tax rate was 70% - 90% as shown here - (http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2007/11/tax-rates-and-growth-rates-some-graphs.html) .

Janiece said...

Hi Jerry.

I wasn't defending or condemning taxing the shit out of the rich. I just think that if liberals intend to use such revenues to support their entitlement programs, they need to quit being mealy-mouthed about it and just admit that's their plan.

I myself am a fan of the flat tax, with some lower threshold where people don't have to pay.

But that's just me.

Jim Wright said...

Awesome Blogger Chick? Heh heh.

Janiece, exactly. There's way too much 60's hippy in the current liberal mindset. You can't sit around smoking dope and holding hands and dreaming about the dawning of the age of Aquarius like you're running some hippy commune (which incidentally is why so many hippy communes failed).

You want universal health care? You've got to have a way to pay for it, and a way to ensure that people can get access, and a way to ensure that they get what they need when they need it in a manner that suits them, i.e. you've got to do more than wish and moan about it, you've got to have a plan.

Liberals are dreamers (and don't take that the wrong way, we need dreamers, hell we need more dreamers - something to inspire the nation), but their dreams need to be tempered with a dose of the possible.

Of course, conservatives are just the opposite. Nothing can be done. We can't afford anything - unless it involves umppity trillion dollar stealth bombers.

Hmmmmm, there's an idea. Maybe if we called it the Universal stealth missile defense health coverage plan we could everybody behind it? ;)

Great Post, Janiece.

Janiece said...

Jim, I think you should suggest your new health plan to Alaska's Democratic Senator. While he still has his seat.

Jim Wright said...

Yeah, I'll do that ;)

Me thinks Begich ain't going anywhere. Though I do think it's amusing that the GOP actually called on him to resign so Uncle Teddy could have another go at it. Being the right thing to do and all. Idiots.

Frankly I like Begich a whole hell of a lot better than senile and corrupt Ted - but I'm apparently in the minority here. And most Alaskans would probably rather die of some easily cured disease than condone (gasp) socialized (ungasp) medicine. Shudder. Oh noes, Socialism!