Modern Democratic Socialized Capitalism is not Evil

Today on the radio (Sirius XM Progress), I heard Thom Hartman read this. This is the version (which appears to be identical to what had been read) reposted by Sandy Goodman on Huffington Post as What Joe Republican Forgets -- she states that she had gotten it from Hartman's site:

quote:

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August 29th, 2004 9:38 pm
Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican
by John Gray

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Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of 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 work as advertised.

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All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

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Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe 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.

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

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Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.

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

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Joe 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)

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He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. [Joe also forgot that he doesn’t have to worry about dad’s medical bills because his father is on Medicare. sg] After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.

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He turns on a radio talk show, the host’s keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe 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.

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What has made us such a successful species is that we are social animals. We live together and work together towards common goals. Individually, we are weak and defenseless, but together we can build entire cities and nations. We all depend on others as they depend on us. That is our social contract with each other.

No, what you're not getting is that Joe Republican denigrates in extreme terms those who had worked and fought so hard to provide him with a decent life. And he denigrates them so savagely regardless of who they were or what political party they were a part of, even the ones who were Republicans. And that he is so deluded as to believe that he got where he is with no help from anybody else. I have actually met people in the wild who think that and whom I would love to see dropped all alone, naked, and with zero supplies into a wilderness so we can come back later to see the marvelous civilization that they built all by themselves. We really should at least give them a steel knife, but that would deprive them of the joy and personal satisfaction of not having to depend on anybody else.IOW, that piece is not about actual history, but rather the deluded world-view of modern Republicans.And from what I understand, both major parties were courting Eisenhower and he didn't really have any strong ideological ties with the GOP. Amen to that, brother! The wing-nut fringe has taken over. Looks like we may be heading for a 3 or 4 party system: progressives, corporation-moderates (of both colors, or not), and the wing-nuts (including the theocratic Christians eager to brown-nose up to the Anti-Christ for the promise of secular power). PSA Repugnican troll tried to throw the Dixie-crats at me to proclaim that the Democratic Party is the party of slavery and racism. I reminded him that a lot has changed in 1.5 centuries (as in former Mexican President Portillo's remark of "It's been a long time since we've worn feathers.") and I challenged him to go to a KKK rally and start pulling their hoods off looking for a Democrat -- unfortunately, under Trump they feel so emboldened that they have stopped wearing hoods.There is history, things and parties change, and there is a history of how a party has changed. A review of how the two major parties have changed should be interesting.Edited by dwise1, : PS