Thom Hartmann: Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican
By Heather Wednesday Aug 12, 2009 7:00pmOne of my favorites from Thom Hartman. His recital of John Gray's Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican:
"A Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican"
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.
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.
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.
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 loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
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.
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)
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. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.
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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he is one of the few voices of reason in the dial. And I praise him because he is able to maintain his polite and respectful demeanor even when confronted with some insane wingnut callers in his show. I find that impressive, and makes him a much better man that I could possibly be.
I have said this many times: a significant portion of what passes for the conservative spectrum in this country is made of people whose only asset is being a supreme selfish asshole, and they are trying desperately to capitalize on that. I actually know a libertarian who is on disability, from a public university no less. Their logical dissonance is glorious.
...Tyler. I really enjoy his show but it's on at a time when I generally can't listen much.
I wear em on my chest...
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/prnts.htm
(no, I get nothing for this plug, but the hope that more people realize the truths that all that we enjoy in the country most likely did not get here from conservatives)
I like those shirts. Thanks!
LOVE that site!
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.
(ppppssssst.....FDIC since 1989. sorry. carry on.)
...explode with the truth. I also love Ed Schultz' new phrase "The townhall protesters are dumber than Joe the Plumber!"
Love Ed's "psycho talk." It's right up there with Olbermann's "Worst person."
So DavidGregory has to bring on Rachel to save his sagging rating on MTP. I guess JoeScarborough or HaroldFord aint working out are they?
This is funny because someone posted a diary on DailyKos last week regarding how most of MSNBC does a readlly good jobs with the exception of Morningjoe and even NBC got some praise with the exception of DavidGregory
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/8/762288...
How funny, they had to bring out the big dog because they know we are going to tune in to watch.
I'll start watching MTP when Rachel starts hosting it, and ONLY THEN!!! (Or maybe Keith!)
Isn't that the truth. For shame Glenn Beck, for shame.
Glenn is either the world's greatest amoral actor, or the slimiest Republican for decades.
I think...
ALL Republicans are "amoral." They are missing the "CONSCIENCE" gene.
A Day in the Life of a True Conservative
Joe Conservative wakes up in the morning and goes to the bathroom. He flushes his toilet and brushes his teeth, mindful that each flush & brush costs him about 43 cents to his privatized water provider. His wacky, liberal neighbor keeps badgering the company to disclose how clean and safe their water is, but no one ever finds out. Just to be safe, Joe Conservative boils his drinking water.
Joe steps outside and coughs–the pollution is especially bad today, but the smokiest cars are the cheapest ones, so everyone buys ‘em. Joe Conservative checks to make sure he has enough toll money for the 3 different private roads he must drive to work. There is no public transportation, so traffic is backed up and his 10 mile commute takes an hour.
On the way, he drops his 12 year old daughter off at the clothing factory she works at. Paying for kids to go to private school until they’re 18 is a luxury, and Joe needs the extra income coming in. Times are hard and there’re no social safety nets.
He gets to work 5 minutes late and misses the call for Christian prayer, and is immediately docked by his employer. He is not feeling well today, but has no health insurance, since neither his employer nor his government provide it, and paying for it himself is really expensive, since he has a precondition. He just hopes for the best.
Joe’s workday is 12 hours long, because there is no regulation over working hours, and Joe will lose his job if he complains or unionizes. Today is an especially bad day. Joe’s manager demands that he work until midnight, a 16 hour day. Joe does, knowing that he’ll lose his job if he does not.
Finally, after midnight, Joe gets to pick up his daughter and go home. His daughter shows him the deep cut she got on the industrial sewing machine today. Joe is outraged and asks why she doesn’t have metal mesh gloves or other protection. She says the company will not provide it and she’ll have to pay for it out of her own pocket. Joe looks at the wound and decides they’ll use an over the counter disinfectant and bandages until it heals. She’ll have a scar, but getting stitches at the emergency room is expensive.
His daughter also complains that the manager made suggestive overtures towards her. Joe counsels her to be a “good girl” and not rock the boat, or she’ll get fired and they’ll be out the income.
His daughter says she can’t wait until she’s 18 so she can vote for change or go to the Iraq War.
They get home and there’s a message from his elderly father who can’t afford to pay his medical or heating bills. Joe can hear him coughing and shivering.
Joe turns on the radio and the top story is a proposal in Congress to raise the voting age to 25. A rare liberal opinionator states that it’s an attempt to keep power out of the hands of working class Americans. The conservative host immediately quashes him, calling him “a utopian idealist,” and agreeing that people aren’t mature enough to make good choices until they’re at least 25.
Joe chuckles at the wine-swilling, cheese eating liberal egghead and thinks, “Thank God I live in America where I have freedom!”
Great job Mike.
I like it.
I did not create this, but I also could not find someone to attribute it to.
In my mind - this is the a day in the life of Joe Libertarian.
that's good. i have difficulty calling republicans conservative. they want that name/adjective but they lost it in my mind.
that the worst thing you could do to a Conservative is to make them live in a world of their own making.
for it somehow.
yep and 1 termer Carter. Yes all of our nations problems lie at the feet of Carter!!!!! Absurd.
Its absolutely true, how many Libertarians and conservatives enjoy the life benefits of liberal/progressive action and struggle.
To live the libertarian life we would be back in the dark days of the late 19th century under the thrall of the elitist robber barons, and if the mentally ill types aka Republicans had their way, we would be enjoying the feudal lifestyle and sweating blood and dieing at age 30 down the mines to satisfy their gold lust.
Yup. My Republican friend who got into a terrible motorcycle accident had all of his medical bills paid because of the teacher's union he belongs to and came back to a a job because of the same union. But as he always tells me, he has worked hard and deserves everything he's gotten, and he doesn't need the government or anyone else.
It's like that line from The Life of Brain--besides the aquaduct, educational system, roads... what have the Romans ever done for us.
I'm sending this text to my brother in Chicago, and two sisters... one in Minneapolis and the other in Arkansas... all VERY conservative Republicans. It will make them CHOKE on their fresh water and clean air.
When I tell this to my wingnut in-laws, they know it's the truth, but they cannot utter a response on behalf of their republican heroes.
They just sit there with that "I've got diarrhea and someone else is in the bathroom" look on their face!
http://digitalpretzel.blogspot.com/2009/05/ho...
I actually posted this audio clip on youtube a long time ago. It never got much of an audience until now.
Libertarians are really republicans who are too stupid to join the club.
The late, great Carl Sagan is credited with saying:
"So, you want to make an apple pie from Scratch? First, create an apple tree!"
So many "self made men" should sue the manufacturer!!! They refuse to credit the system of rules & regulations that ALLOW them to be successful. I.E.:
A banking system that allows us to conduct interstate & international commerce. You can buy a bushel of wheat without lugging a bag of coins to market. (regulated and/or run by the bid ol' nasty guvment!)
A legal system that enforces contracts and settles disputes. (for all the crying about "tort reform" and frivolous lawsuits "clogging up" the legal system, 95% OF ALL LAWSUITS ARE MADE UP OF ONE COMPANY SUING ANOTHER!)
A highway system that ALLOWS us to distribute all that fine merchandise we import from China. Just how profitable would WalMart be if they had to pay the REAL cost of roads?
I could go on, but I'll just end with the ol' turtle on a fence post metaphor. When you see a turtle on a fencepost, you know one thing:
HE DIDN'T GET THERE BY HISSELF!
Same thing for a "self made man"
they paint themselves geniuses for taking advantage of the
system.
it made me smile :)
Tom you rock!
and I listen to him every day. He lives here in Portland and is one big brain. He's written over 25 books (maybe 50)! Every day his radio show is a virtual civics and history lesson. Pair him with Rachel Maddow, and you've got more brainpower than the entire Faux Noise network (and a lot left over). You can catch his radio show on Air America from 9-Noon PDT every day. Give it a try--it's entertaining and you'll learn a lot.
That's a good point; Rachel's a Rhodes Scholar, Tom is brilliant, even Al Franken has a Harvard degree. But Rush, Hannity & Beck don't have a year of college among them! Yet they feel free to comment on complex issues with ABSOLUTE certainty, the kind of certainty that ignorance fosters.
Thom is no longer on Air America.
One could change part of the last paragraph to read this way:
"He turns on a radio talk show, which comes in clearly because some liberal thought it would be a good idea to keep people from interfering with each other's transmissions, and to make sure radio broadcasts were standardized, receivable and audible all over the country.
It could probably be phrased more elegantly, but you get the idea...
and here's one of the responses I got from a conservative friend of mine.
"OK - to be fair and accurate? They (R & D) should all be removed from office and this country should start over with a fresh generation, one that isn't sucking from the tit of society and fucking over all of us middle and lower class. Don't have a "golden parachute" for any government employee, have them on the same retirement package (social security) as the rest of us and let's see how fast all of this bull shit get's cleared up. If you wanna give special favors to anyone, give them to the widows and widowers of the military."
Here' my reply...
"Indeed, both parties are controlled by the corporatocracy...that's something Americans of any political POV should united against.
Fascism is bad for you and me, and everyone we know.
But as far as I know, elected officials don't have a golden parachute provided to them by the guvmint...any largess they receive is from lobbyists and from corporate bribes outside the govt. system.
These very corporate powers are now trying to subvert our democracy by sending in their shills and scaring old people to believe Obama wants to kill them off to save money...which is total bullshit.
The GOP, and their benefactors want absolutely NO healthcare reform at all. They would lose their precious cash cow.
And notice...liberals protest war...conservatives protest healthcare..."
Typical conservative response. Whenever I point out to wingnuts that the republican party has not given one single thing to working people ever, they know it's true. After a moment they come back with both parties suck.
Then I say "while that may be true, there is no comparison between the level of suckitude. The republicans are by far, the suckiest sucks, whoever sucked!"
My damn wiener kids are listening!
But yeah, typical response, replete with a reference to the military and everything.
And he hasn't responded to my last email yet either..
... Sometimes when on my commute, I turn on to talk radio, and nowadays when a caller starts with the whole "how both parties are so corrupt" stuff... I know eventually his conservative/libertarian stripes are going to show. And sure enough, after the first few seconds... they start spewing the GOP talking point d'jour.
I f*cking hate that shit. It is not only intellectually dishonest (where were these people during the past 8 years? Oh, I remember: fully behind everything the GOP was doing, you know the same GOP they claim is so "corrupt" but that somehow still has valid talking points for them to spew), but it is also a display of what a f*cking band of roving pussies they are... trying to hide behind a false dichotomy to gain the plausible deniability they so desperately want to relinquish any responsibly. Funny how they run scared of any shred of responsibility, while at the same time they are trying to shovel personal responsibility down everyone else's throats...
I'd be goin through radios like limbaugh goes through oxycontins.
Yeah...he sends me some pretty racist emails too...the only reason I continue somewhat of a dialogue with this guy, is because I want to know what's on the minds of people like him.
"so what you're telling me is that the ones that are ultimately responsible for making the laws DON'T retire on a full salary? Not sure you got the point of what I said in the message. Put those that are responsible for the country on the same level as you and I are and you will see things change pretty fuckig fast. Hell, if you told me that I would retire on a full salary too, I would have no interest in fixing things for anyone else that must depend on a social security check after working 50 years!!! Why the fuck is it that a girl I know in Florida that came to this country less than 10 years ago is having her college education paid for by the government but my girlfriends kids can't even get a fucking loan? She is being snubbed when she is trying to lower her mortgage in this scam. Why, after buying an economical car and being energy conscious can't I get a $4500 dollar incentive to buy a new car? Why should some douche bag that bought a gas guzzler cause his dick is too short and now he can't afford the gas get my fucking money to buy a new car? I pay my mortgage, I paid back ALL my college loans, I pay in to the system - where the fuck is my incentive? I am a white, native born male with a 850 credit score - I guess I'm at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to taking care of those that are responsible citizens!!!"
My response will be forthcoming.
are the "they" congress critters, senators, government workers? My father was a judge, county commissioner, city councilman, etc. as well as owning his own business and he only gets 75% of his highest salary (can you believe it?). He does have some pretty awesome medical coverage, too, but he has leukemia, so he needs it. I don't know anyone that has as generous a plan, but 100%?
My best friend's brother also has angry, white-guy syndrome. He's been through a series of jobs, lives alone because his wife divorced him, lives in the house they used to own together and pays her rent and it's all the damn liberals fault.
The story of the woman coming to the U.S. 10 years ago and now getting this free guvmint education could use some details. I have a friend whose father was a psychiatrist she tried a couple of years of college and then left. She worked odd jobs as a nanny and a server. She finally decided to return to school, but at that point she had been on her own long enough and was poor enough that she qualified for Pell Grants and was able to pay her way through school doing that.
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