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Went to a family function this weekend, and had a nice political talk with (my husband's) "Uncle Bob" the die hard Republican Voter.
He voted for (and probably donated money) to Junior in 2000 and 2004 because "he didn't like the alternatives."
I snickered, and asked, "how's that working out for you?" with a quick reference to gasoline prices.
He wasn't happy. He actively dislikes Junior now, and when I asked why he voted for a guy with a bunch of bankruptcies, a history of coke and alcohol abuse, and a bunch of DUIs as a man with "good judgment" to run our country, he said he didn't know about those things.
:banghead:
He quickly tried to recover, though, with "everyone has a past" which I crushed with the simple common sense of "look, I've got family members with drug and alcohol problems in their past, too, and while they are generally speaking nice people, they aren't usually the brightest bulbs in the box, and NOT the type of people I want to trust with the Nuclear Codes!"
After telling me he was sorry he had voted for Junior, he told me that since he's a rich white man, he's going to keep voting Republican, because it doesn't matter how high gasoline prices go, since he's a rich white man, he can afford it.
He's planning on moving to South Carolina because he hates Michigan politics -- we just upped the minimum wage -- and we had a nice discussion about how "real live grown ups" are trying to survive on minimum wage (as opposed to the young teeny boppers he thinks are the only ones making minimum wage). I talked to him about how I can see both sides of the issue (unionized plants paying $18 per hour trying to compete against non-unionized plants paying $9 per hour trying to compete against Mexican plants paying $3 per hour), all of which causes problems because you can't support a family of four comfortably on $36K a year (at the $18 per hour rate), let along $18K a year, which means people can't afford to buy your products. I am in favor of the proverbial "living wage", and I think he looked a little thoughtful as I was clear and coherent in my arguments.
I also talked about how "short term thinking" in the corporate world had me completely convinced that both unions and government oversight were necessary as "checks and balances" because idiot executives have a tendency to make stupid ass decisions that screw stuff up, and are already on their way to the next job when the time for "cleaning up" the mess happens. "I have to pay for garbage pickup, so why the hell should corporations get to dump their crap in our rivers and streams for free?" I said. Furthermore, common sense stuff, like clean-air standards is great for the economy; invest a million dollars in the technology to "clean up" the air, and all of the money goes to folks in the community for research, development, manufacturing, etc., which creates more people who can afford to buy your products. Investing in "clean" technology is basically investing in your own infrastructure, and since publicly traded companies have so many shareholders, the .00003 loss per share is usually paid back ten fold. Again, he looked thoughtful.
Please keep in mind this whole conversation was held in the presence of my father-in-law the (Republican Voting) Teamster, and my brother-in-law the mentally handicapped man who ONLY makes minimum wage, and will NEVER be able to do better. When I pointed these things out, he had the grace to look a little embarrassed, but he wasn't really; after all, its OTHER PEOPLE with problems, and not him.
I talked to him about how I view Republicans as extremely "short term" thinkers; he's not happy with Junior, but before we left, he assured me he'd still be voting Republican in 2008.
"Uncle Bob" is generally speaking a nice man, and we are fond of him; unfortunately, he is also an idiot.
He and his brethren are the Bush Base.
Not much else to say there, is there? :(
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