I used widely available facts to support my argument against the rantings of the extreme right. I had camped out on the DC's page and ran into the same mentality. I disassociated myself from the DC voluntarily when it was clear, that nothing I could say or prove with irrefutable facts was going to make a difference to the vast majority there.
This all started out as a sort of investigation into the extremist right wing mindset. I was curious as to what made them tick, what their motivations are. In short, I found these people racist, uneducated, myopic ideologues. Not surprisingly they see anyone who does not blindly subscribe to their ideology as a leftist, libtard, progressive, socialist, communist, Marxist or in the case of a recognized Republican, a RINO.
The majority believe our President is a Muslim, a communist, a socialist. They say he should be impeached.
I took three basic approaches to see if I could find a break though. 1) I would try to educate folks to the facts. 2) I would ask them to provide alternative solutions to the issues we face as a nation (when there was an answer it was always the same, impeach) 3) I would ask them to elaborate or provide some proof to support their argument.
Education: One example would be with regards to EPA and Cap and Trade. The extremist right wing believes that EPA is unconstitutionally trying to enforce Cap and Trade through the 'back door'. Here is the truth they absolutely refused to accept, which I think is the reason why I was banned. In 2007 the SCOTUS ruled that EPA has the authority to regulate green house gases (GHG) and instructed the Bush appointed EPA administrator to promulgate rules for enforcement. After nearly 4 years of public hearings and industry input, the rules were published and went into force last January. The argument the extreme rightists make is that we will be taxed and make energy more expensive and will bankrupt small business. This is totally false. In a nutshell the rules are as follows: Permits will be issued by the states for new large polluting plants, such as, power plants..etc. Permits will also be issued if an existing polluter makes major modification to their plants. There is no mandatory retrofitting. Specifically excluded from the permits are small business. Now, I am no tree hugger, but these rules seem reasonable to me. The Republicans have a bill pending to strip EPA of the authority, specifically related to GHG. We all know the Senate and President will NOT approve it, so do they. The thing is, nothing what the extremists are saying is true in any shape or form.
Alternative solutions: I will use the insanity in Wisconsin as this example. As we all know, WI had a budget surplus of $123M at the end of January. Walker called a special session and instituted 4 laws giving tax breaks to business and wealthy. In doing so he ended up with a $140M deficit. To pay for the tax cuts he asked the public employees to pay more of their health care and pensions. I did not think this was fair, if we believe in shared sacrifice. I suggested the better way to go was to give tax breaks equaling the surplus, then work on across the board cuts, not targeting specific groups. Of course, when I mentioned that..all hell broke loose. Get rid of the unions was the mantra. So I asked the question, if you were Governor, what would you do to deal with the deficit? The answer....get rid of the unions. That's it. Over and over again, it's all about unions. I asked the question, if WI got rid of all the unions, what would that solve? How would that balance the budget? The answer? Get rid of the unions. It's like listening to a broken record. When I suggested that by taking between $4 and 9K of take home pay away from 200,000 people, it will certainly impact their purchasing power, sales tax revenue will drop and so will income from income taxes as those dollars are pre-tax dollars. Fiscal insanity. of course, the rant about unions continued. It's enough to piss off the Pope.
Proof: When someone would make an outrageous claim, such as...say that Americare is socialist medicine, government run healthcare, I would ask them to substantiate their claim. Silence. Virtually every time I would ask a person to elaborate on their statement, silence. If a person wanted impeachment, I would ask, what crime has he committed? Silence. Backroom deals? What backroom deals are you talking about? Silence.
To be fair though, not all people who go there are this way. There are a few who will have a discussion with you and both learn from each other.
I did offer an olive branch of sorts in the form of a suggestion. I postulated this theory.
The first warning is the fact there are no credible Republican candidates for President. The reasoning is simple. Any Republican will have to an extremist or the Tea Parties will reject them. That person will have to run against both the Tea Parties and a sitting President. This guarantees a landslide of biblical proportions for Mr. Obama. My suggestion to the extremists is this, tone down the rhetoric. The response? Of course..impeach Obama.
And then there is Americare (Obamacare). Their logic escapes me. If you mention the fact if they drive they have to carry auto insurance by law or pay the price for it. Silence. They don't like the mandate that uninsured people who could buy their own and won't. I would ask, so your saying that if an uninsured 30 something, with a decent job shows up at a hospital with a broken arm from playing softball, can get treatment and walk away with the hospital, government, state, insurance companies and employees future pay raises footing the bill? This is a matter of personal responsibility and the rest of us should not have to pay for their irresponsibility. We are paying for it now, all we are doing with the mandate is shifting the financial burden to the individual who receives treatment, where it should be. So why should a deadbeat not pay for their own health care? I don't get it.
Okay, enough for my rant for the day.
Merry meet ya'll.
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