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Because of your stated claim that I -- and presumably everyone else -- get by only by "reaching into other people's pockets."
It doesn't occur to you that a small percentage of people in this country pay most of the federal and state income taxes -- as well as sales and property taxes -- and that a large percentage of people in this country pay no income taxes at all.
Again, that's not what I said. Why don't you get back to me when you want to reply to things I've actually said?
There are a couple pieces of this that you are missing.
I grew up working class but had the societal benefit of good public schools and then being able to work my way through a State College. I appreciate that and have never voted against school budgets, even when I was paying for private schools for my kids. For a good chunk of my career I paid large amounts of Local, State & Federal taxes, more than enough to pay society back for the benefits I received plus plenty more to pay for at least a few other equivalent families that didn't make as much as I did. I never complained about it until the past 8 years when something changed in this country. I should note that I even voted for Obama the first time.
What changed? The "you didn't build that" mantra came along that dismissed the many personal sacrifices I made in my career and the decades of 50 - 60 hour work weeks, never being able to take a family vacation without the ever present Blackberry and Laptop that had to be responded to. People like me were made out to be the problem because I thought paying roughly 50% of my earnings in Local/State/Federal taxes was more than a fair share, especially when it was largely going to support people who never made the sacrifices I did and certainly didn't work as hard. That society no longer appreciated my contributions pushed me to the point where I said f. it, I'm done, I'm not going to feed the beast anymore. I retired early and am living off of accumulated assets rather than earnings so that my tax obligations are but a fraction of what they used to be. In a way I went "Galt".
The other thing you are missing that caused me and many others to tune out the social justice warriors cries of fairness in society was their incessantly pushing the memes of victimhood and identity politics. No longer are people a product of their own bad life choices but rather because others of us had unearned privileges. They were somehow the victim and people like me who pulled myself out of where I came from were to blame. Then throw in the identity politics piece in which every subset of society was worth celebrating, except those of us who are supposed to be ashamed of our European ancestors that are to blame for causing all of horrors of modern day America. For my own sanity I had to come to the conclusion that I no longer care what the SJW's think is fair or not, nor who they think the victims are or who is to blame. They are the proverbial boy who cried wolf one time too many.
I've done the exact same thing, for the exact same reasons.
Ha! I'm not going to read the rest of the thread but it was worth it to find this gem (post I'm quoting had two quotes by the same person). That person really needed to be called out on the insipid leftist-elitist hypocrisy.
Your passion is directed at the wrong people. Sanders was your choice. Even Sanders correctly stated that the election was rigged. Your anger should be directed at the corrupt DNC not the many people who voted for Obama that last time because of the corrupt establishment of the RNC. McCain and Romney were kicked to the curb, and rightfully so. But not this time, no way was Hillary Clinton a viable candidate. She wasn't before, and especially now. I was extremely angry with Bush and the Republican party after his last term and did not blame democrats in the slightest when McCain-Romney lost to Obama, I blamed the establishment.
My wish was for Sanders and Trump to win their nominations, sending a message to both entrenched political parties that the people have had enough. Sanders, a social democrat, Trump an independent both ran on the two major tickets because they both knew that running as independents would give them no chance at all in capturing enough votes in order to sustain a win. Where the RNC let a large group of candidates hash it out, the DNC on the other had rigged their system to benefit a bad, and above all a corrupt candidate.
Be angry at the democratic party and demand change, not the working folk.
I'm sorry to say that YOUR wish does not equate to the majority's wishes.
Sanders was NOT the choice of the majority nor would he have won against Trump. Nothing the DNC did caused Bernie to NOT cultivate the votes of minorities - which he did not receive. It's like anyone in a red state wasn't worthy.
Who are the ones who support programs for the working poor?
Who are the ones who support workers rights?
Who are the ones who support alleviating debt for the poor and middle class?
It certainly isn't the conservatives!
Answers:
#1 --- Certainly not the democrats. If the democrats truly cared about the millions of suffering underemployed and unemployed Americans, then they wouldn't be fighting tooth and nail for the following:
A) Refusing to secure the border.
B) Refusing to make E-verify the law of the land.
C) Fighting to prevent workplace raids to weed out illegals
D) Defiantly fighting to keep their sanctuary jurisdictions
#2 --- Democrats turn a blind eye when it comes to exploitation of illegal aliens.
#3 --- Certainly not the democrats. If they cared about the debt the poor and middle class carry, then they would have supported getting rid of illegals. Illegals have depressed wages for unskilled workers. For those in the construction fields, many Americans have lost their livelihood because they couldn't compete with sleazy contractors who hire illegals and pay them under the table.
Democrats stopped caring about the poor, working and middle classes a long time ago. Today's dems are NOT your grandfather's democrats. I was once a staunch democrat. Growing up in a very blue state, I heard stories from my parents and grandparents about how much dems did to help their constituents. You could always count on dems. Those democrats of yore would have been horrified to see that their constituents were either seeing their wages depressed or were losing jobs due to illegal immigration. And those dems of yore would have done something about it, too --- and I don't mean amnesty. They also would have never tolerated seeing STEM/IT workers losing their jobs to H1-B visa holders.
#1 --- Certainly not the democrats. If the democrats truly cared about the millions of suffering underemployed and unemployed Americans, then they wouldn't be fighting tooth and nail for the following:
A) Refusing to secure the border.
B) Refusing to make E-verify the law of the land.
C) Fighting to prevent workplace raids to weed out illegals
D) Defiantly fighting to keep their sanctuary jurisdictions
#2 --- Democrats turn a blind eye when it comes to exploitation of illegal aliens.
#3 --- Certainly not the democrats. If they cared about the debt the poor and middle class carry, then they would have supported getting rid of illegals. Illegals have depressed wages for unskilled workers. For those in the construction fields, many Americans have lost their livelihood because they couldn't compete with sleazy contractors who hire illegals and pay them under the table.
Democrats stopped caring about the poor, working and middle classes a long time ago. Today's dems are NOT your grandfather's democrats. I was once a staunch democrat. Growing up in a very blue state, I heard stories from my parents and grandparents about how much dems did to help their constituents. You could always count on dems. Those democrats of yore would have been horrified to see that their constituents were either seeing their wages depressed or were losing jobs due to illegal immigration. And those dems of yore would have done something about it, too --- and I don't mean amnesty. They also would have never tolerated seeing STEM/IT workers losing their jobs to H1-B visa holders.
But today's democrats look down on those jobs that illegals take. You see, conservatives like me are just out of touch. We have not learned yet that any job where you risk breaking a sweat should be avoided at all cost. And since no American wants to break a sweat, we can just go ahead and give those jobs to criminal invaders. It's the American thing to do, or some other faulty liberal logic.
Anyways, I'm glad I will never see the world through liberal blinders. Those people are insane. See how prepared they were to bring in the refugees to further depress wages? They didn't care how many terrorists got in. Just as long as they have plenty of foreigners to do all the jobs that they would never touch, no matter how much you offer.
It was the Democrats who destroyed the economy by threatening to sue banks for "racism" and "red-lining" if they didn't make home loans to people who couldn't pay the money back.
Obama was among those Democrats leading the charge to destroy the economy when he worked as a lawyer for ACORN.
Bill Clinton's HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo ordered Fannie and Freddy to buy $2.4 trillion in subprime loans over a ten year period starting in 1999.
And it was Bill Clinton who deregulated the banks by signing the repeal of the Glass-Steagle Act.
When Bush tried to rein in Fannie and Freddy, Democrats like Maxine Waters screamed that the Republicans were "attacking poor people and minorities."
Very correct!
If Bill Clinton is never president, there is no financial crisis in 2009.
I would only add that Bush/Cheney were behind the 2005 Energy Policy Act that now prohibits the EPA regulating fracking except in cases where diesel fuel is used as the fracking agent.
So if you enjoy paying less than $4/gal for gasoline and like having the U.S. in a position to tell OPEC to go **** themselves, thank Bush/Cheney!
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Why don't you get back to me when you want to reply to things I've actually said?
