A letter to a conservative friend

Hi Corve:

I just wanted to clarify some of my views so that you don’t misunderstand what I am trying to say in my blog.

First of all, Liberal is not a dirty word. It is a label that Fox News and the Republicans have coined to classify anyone and everyone who is progressive in their thinking and does not buy into their lies and ideology. I wear the LIBERAL badge with honor.

Second, if you consider that President Obama has already done more good for this country in only one year, as opposed to the eight years of not one single positive thing done by his predecessor and the Republicans, it is amazing he has been able to accomplish so much and doing so from the CENTER, not the extreme left, liberal that the conservative pundits are portraying.

Third, I am truly alarmed when I hear someone voice that concern because it is very obvious to most people that we have been screwed. The middle class is almost decimated; the preponderance of evidence tells us that we were on our way to an OLIGARCHY with a very powerful THEOCRATIC model.

That is unacceptable to most of us, and it certainly has to be to all of us gays and members of minorities.

Fourth, I would argue the point that if you are a conservative, you want to maintain the status quo; you don’t want things to change. When I look around me and I see a couple of hundred things that need to change I just can’t accept going back to the Bush years. Not me, not now, not ever. I am not going back in the closet for one thing nor will I ever forgive Republicans for what they did to this country and to me in particular in order to make profits.

I will also clarify one very important thing: that I am a firm believer in the free enterprise system but it has to have regulations or greed will take over because greed has no conscience. I lost my job in 2006 to outsourcing (started by Reagan) then I bought a house that at one time was worth ¾ of a million dollars and now is only worth $353,000 even after I spent almost $200,000 improving it. I had both a retirement pension and a 401K that disappeared in September and October of 2008 and now I am left with only my Social Security check. I also had my COBRA run out so that I am without health insurance, should I get sick I would probably lose everything I own and will have to live out of a cardboard box under a bridge.

Lastly, I ask you, hasn’t the REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH ALREADY TAKEN PLACE? It has gone from the poor and the middle class to the very rich. Yes, it has. What we have here is a WELFARE STATE for the rich and the corporations. My two lost pensions had real money in them. Both me and my company which matched dollar for dollar my contributions helped me build a nest egg for my old age; now I have nothing and that money existed. Do you really think that I want to give Republicans my vote ever again?

I never frittered away my money. I never needed any government help. I was frugal and conservative. I could have taken trips, vacations, eaten at good restaurants and I did not do so because I never wanted to find myself in the situation I am now. And let me tell you, I am not an isolated case. There are millions of people out there who have lost their jobs and their houses. I am lucky I am still able to hang on to mine.

saludos,

raulito