walking the dog this morning

[barbtries]

through the apartment complex where i live. i saw a new bumper sticker on the car with the Reagan, Bush and McCain stickers. i'm not sure i have the first part verbatim: ObamaFinance: Penalize the Successful, Reward the Failures

this is not a hoity toity place where i live. it's not a slum but the rent is reasonable and the apartments are small. i don't get this meanness.
it makes me sad.
i don't know the person with these stickers as far as i can tell. but heaven forbid they lose their job. what kind of self-hatred will they have to engage in to sustain their apparent beliefs.

[Sal Minella]

1. In this society, for reasons I fail utterly to comprehend, "wealthy"

seems to be synonymous with "fine upstanding hard-working Christian" -- the people who are actually being underpaid for working themselves to death are also supposed to pay the taxes that support the infrastructure the wealthy expect to have.

I am not particularly bright, but I do understand that paying taxes is part of living in a country that has policemen on duty and roads to drive on and traffic lights and libraries and schools and garbage pick-up.

I am not able to understand why the richest of the rich feel so little responsibility to pay their fair share of the operating expenses of the world they live in.

Being willing to "invest" in lobbyists who will increase one's personal wealth is just infinitely sad when coupled with a furious determination to avoid paying taxes.

[barbtries]

11. this is what gets me.

obviously the person sporting this bumper sticker is no where near the richest of the rich. the car is several years old, and as i said our complex is no resort. i expect that there must be - no, i'm certain of it - rich people who are supportive of paying their share. but for the ones who are not, there are tools like the person who slapped this mean, stupid bumper sticker on his car. or her car.

[trotsky]

27. Years of brainwashing by the right wing media machine.

Here's what a whole generation of Americans now believe:

#1) It's not your fault if you are struggling financially - it's the fault of the person who is even worse off than you and MOOCHING OFF YOUR TAX DOLLARS!
#2) Rich people are rich solely because they worked hard and never needed any kind of help or handout and are truly better than everyone else.
#3) Rich people decide to create jobs when their taxes are low enough, and we should all be very grateful for this.
#2) You too will become a billionaire and you won't want to pay higher taxes then, will you?

[geckosfeet]

2. I am not even sure what that sticker means. Unless they mean throw billions

at failed investment banks and GM, and let the unemployed wallow in uncertainty for years.

These rw bagger types are just wells of contradiction, confused talking point and deception. It is mildly entertaining to watch them express their anger and self-hate in circular patterns of behavior. It's like an army of dogs chasing their tails.

[Sal Minella]

6. I think it's a whine about Obama's desire to raise income taxes on

the wealthiest of the wealthy.

As Steinbeck pointed out, many of the working poor in this country consider themselves temporarily embarrassed millionaires, not exploited wage-slaves, so they rail against the wealthiest being taxed by the government.

The economy was thriving under a 90 percent top tax rate and now that the TAX- CUTS- CREATE- JOBS meme has taken over, joblessness and chronic under-employment are epidemic -- the deficit (caused by tax cuts and wars) is hurting us, but the Fox-led poor are still pleading for more tax cuts.

[geckosfeet]

25. ... and that is why it makes no sense to me - they are living in plywood lean too's

and they rail against making the rich and corporations pay a fairer share to help maintain national infrastructure, defense etc.

How is it that people come to believe such things? They really think that they are 'temporarily embarrassed millionaires, not exploited wage-slaves'? How can the stupid be so strong?

[barbtries]

9. i interpreted it as a dig

at Obama's intention of letting bush's tax cuts expire. and his determination to keep programs that help the poor and middle class to obtain health care and education.

there are three women who live in that building and walk their dogs too. i don't want to think that the car belongs to any one of them. we chat, and it's pleasant. we talk about dogs.

[Volaris]

18. I might get yelled at for this, (and thats o.k.)

But lately I've had the sense that something else is going on with a lot of them (the 'Baggers, I mean...)

Follow me and see if this makes sense...

They're economic Progressive Populists, they just don't know it.....

As far as I can tell, there isn't ONE person here who isn't burn-things-down pissed about the fact that the CEO's of Goldman, BoA, Citi, and the rest of the idiot financial houses aren't rotting in prison. A lot of the 'Baggers are, too.

We see them chasing their ideological tails, and they look like fools. I think that some of them, at least, are working through the lies they have been fed for 30 years or so, and that is a process that takes time, and TRUTH. (and the rest are crass enough that all they see is an opportunity to WIN, and so they feed the others more and more bullshit.)

That poor woman that Lawrence eviscerated last year (the one who "...wants her Country back"...)? She knows, like all of us here know, that something DAMN WELL is wrong...the problem is she doesn't have the first clue as to WHAT that actually is. She was TOLD that the first African-American President is a Conspirator, a Socialist;... she was TOLD that Soc. Sec. and Medicare are broken and bankrupt;...she was TOLD that her fears are, of course and INDEED, well founded.

But she was not told the the FACTS. She was never told WHY. They are NEVER told the facts, never told WHY, because that would interfere with the lie that America is always the best-est, no matter what, no matter HOW much Corporate Rights destroy Personal Rights, no matter how many people the Govt. tortures, no matter HOW much Rand-ian, Trickle-down economic theory has destroyed her ability to send her kids to college. The America that JESUS LOVES can NEVER be wrong, and by proxy, neither can the party that loves Jesus EVER be wrong. That other Party??? Conspirators and Rebellious Children, they are. They hate America just like they hate their Parents.

The other day, I had a conversation with a self-professed Conservative in the lobby of the hotel where I work. I had the news on, and we had a conversation about Taxes. She asked off-handedly why anyone in their right mind would want their taxes raised.
I said I wouldn't mind, given the correct reason WHY it was happening. She looked at me dumbstruck, and them I explained it to her. I informed her that to me, it was a VALUES question...which do I hate more?, having my taxes go up for a while until the National Debt is paid off, or NEVER GETTING IT DONE, and leaving it for my daughters generation to NOT figure out.
THEN she got it. I could see in her eyes the enlightenment break over the horizon of her mind, and she understood. She said she would have to think about that, but I knew. I had gotten her not just to SEE, but to understand. I think its because I offered her a WHY that made sense.

Given that these are things that I see and understand (and feel free to tear holes in this, it makes me better at what I do, after all) I believe that it is the Public OBLIGATION of the Democratic Party generally, and American Liberals specifically to get the factual WHY into the heads of people who have been TOLD they aren't supposed to like us much. Economic Populism is THE window that, right now at least, lets us do that. THEY KNOW that the banks are ripping us off, they see the same bailouts WE do, the same broken Senate, the same inane stupid that passes for real news. Its WHY, to a large extent, they turned OFF Beck. Its WHY Sister Sarah isn't top dog in the polls anymore, even among the 'Baggers. The WHY is important, and the Corporate Masters of this Country will NEVER give it to them. Only we can. That the Democratic Party leadership hasn't figured this out yet is only our problem in the sense that, just as a rising tide does indeed lift all boats, a spreading (populist) fire doesn't care WHO'S house it burns down, GOP or Dem.

Some of them are working their way through the lies of the last 30 years. We have to help them. It will take time, but I believe it can be (no, MUST be) done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PFZ92dMys
Time index 2:21-5:28
The blonde girl? thats our teabagger, in all her naive glory=). Lets help her understand.

"WHY is the only real source of power, without it, you are powerless."

Peace
=)

[SalviaBlue]

24. No yelling here.

I think what you describe is true of many teabaggers.

[geckosfeet]

26. Certainly a lot of truth in what you say. Sadly, the rich and the corporatist's

and the aNN raYndists see taxes as infringements and invasions of/on their personal wealth. They don't care about all boats - just their own. And if everyone else's boat is sinking theirs must be rising - relatively anyway.

Why would anyone want their taxes raised indeed. How do these people think we support public education, public agencies, roads bridges and national defense? Sewer systems, drinking water, legal/penal systems, nationally sponsored research programs?

They see fabulously wealthy people on television and think that if only their taxes are cut another .1% the extra $500 a year will catapult them into the lap of luxury and solve all their problems. They believe the pretty lies and are too stupid or foolish to see reality for what it is.

The rich and the corporatist's will tell them anything, sell them anything as long as they are willing to listen and buy. And by the time the RW baggers realize that they have been duped, after they have sold all their power, including their ability to vote and change their leadership for another 'tax cut', they will be, by force of arms, made to serve in true slavery.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

3. Americans are brainwashed to believe not only that they area higher status

than what they really are, but that someday they, too, will be wealthy. The right wing has done a fantastic job convincing people that there are always people beneath them, no matter how poor or how downtrodden. There's always someone else to look down on.

[Buzz Clik]

4. "i don't get this meanness." Oy.

I have the same reaction about the irrational meanness here at DU when hundreds of recs come in for threads that declare that Obama is financing the rich and starving the poor. I don't get it.

[barbtries]

10. or when a totally innocuous remark

is greeted with a snarl...me too. it REALLY hurts that there is this much meanness on DU, my virtual home for the past many years. i chalk it up to paid infiltrators from the right, and human nature.

[JoePhilly]

5. Here's one for ya ....

I live in an upscale suburb and the guy two houses down is a Tea party guy. At least I'm pretty sure he it.

He drives a brand new mid-life crisis mobile ... a black mustang convertible.

Periodically, (I guess for meetings) he puts two bumper sticker magnets on his car. The one says "Obama WTF", and the other says "Impeach Obama".

This guy is in his 40s or 50s, he's got to be at least a mid-level manager to live here and afford that car. And he has a magnet with "WTF" on it. Not to mention how silly the "Impeach Obama" thing is.

Our bus stop is right in front of his house, and when he backs out of his driveway with those stickers on (again, he doesn't always use them) the parents all wave politely, and then roll their eyes after he drives of. Its hilarious.

[Buzz Clik]

7. Yeah, the Impeach Obama crap is truly crazy.

[barbtries]

8. that's a good story.

the "WTF" part suggests that he's a palinite as well.

[JoePhilly]

16. Would not surprise me.

I'm in NC and I regularly see McCain / Palin stickers.

[barbtries]

19. guess what?

i'm in NC too! raleigh.

[JoePhilly]

21. haha ...

Cary.

[HughBeaumont]

12. "Don't You DAY-AH Touch Massah! I'm Gon' BE a Massah Someday!"

NO. You're NOT.

Horatio Alger must die.

[barbtries]

14. i just realized

that i had a very sketchy grasp of horatio alger's significance, though i've been hearing his name surely for all of my life. so i looked it up on wikipedia. i guess i'll have to read something by him, because i keep thinking quite stubbornly that somewhere in each of his rags to riches tales, there must have been someone who helped the hero. how wrong am i??

[HughBeaumont]

20. Well, in real life, someone or something ALWAYS helps "the hero".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger_myth

This may shed some light . . .

[Brewman_Jax]

13. That line has been one of Neal Boortz' catch-phrases for years

(If you've never heard of him, Boortz is a syndicated RW squawk-radio host based in Atlanta, and has a face for radio :D )

He calls taxes, esp. higher income taxes on the high-earning population, penalty on achievement and said taxes will stifle innovation. Later, he'll brag that he pays less in taxes than his secretary. He spews the standard "I got mine, to hell with the rest!"

[barbtries]

15. okay. so i think we know

what my neighbor listens to on the radio. :puke:

[get the red out]

17. understand

I was behind a car one day with Rethug stickers all over it. Darn thing looed barely road worthy. Total disconnect from reality.

[ljm2002]

22. This thinking is the culmination of years of propaganda...

...that the upper class has foisted upon us to keep us divided. Basically they have successfully implanted the idea that "I worked hard to get what I have, while there are all of those other lazy people living off the government dole." They have successfully negated any idea of benefit from the government for us "hard-working" folk. That was the evil genius behind the idea of the "black welfare queen" meme: it created a single focus for people's feelings of outrage, and of course the outrage was thus directed to the poorest and least powerful among us. It allowed whites to hang on to their racism without seeming to do so -- after all, who can defend a Cadillac-driving, color-TV-owning, twelve-children-having loafer with more disposable income than you yourself, a hard-working red-blooded 'Murcan? It doesn't matter whether the meme is true, not at all. What matters is that it taps into deep seated insecurities and anger. What matters is that it directs the anger and fosters the hatred of those who still have something, toward those who have much less. That also keeps the anger from being directed upwards.

We need memes that are equally powerful that reflect reality, i.e. that direct the same deep seated anger upwards where it truly belongs. Whenever we try to create such a meme we will be attacked for fomenting "class war". Well so be it, they have had their successful class war for many a long year now. It is time that we employ the truth as a cudgel.

[barbtries]

23. that's a good idea

we should have a bumper sticker thread for ideas, really good ideas. and ours will actually make sense, being rooted in reality and all.

[LeftinOH]

28. For some people, "wealthy" = good people; "poor" = bad people.