Posted on 10/28/2008 6:25:22 PM PDT by jacobny
....The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”
..... Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”
....The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”
..... Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”
The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.
Our economy is in the tank for many complicated reasons, especially because people don’t have enough money. So let them keep it. Let businesses keep it so they can create jobs and stay here and weather this storm. And yet, the Democratic ideology remains the same. Our approach to problems—big government solutions paid for by taxing the rich and big and smaller companies—is just as tired and out of date as trickle down economics. How about a novel approach that simply finds a sane way to stop the bleeding?
That’s not exactly the philosophy of a Democrat. Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human
.....But thank God for election 2008. We can talk about the wardrobe and make-up even though most people don’t understand the details about Senator Obama’s plan with Iraq. When he says, “all combat troops,” he’s not talking about all troops—it leaves a residual force of as large as 55,000 indefinitely. That’s not ending the war; that’s half a war.
I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.
I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.
Before I cast my vote, I will correct my party affiliation and change it to No Party or Independent. Then, in the spirit of election 2008, I’ll get a manicure, pedicure, and my hair done. Might as well look pretty when I am unemployed in a city swimming with “D’s.”
Whatever inspiration I had in Chapel Hill two years ago is gone. When people say how excited they are about this election, I can now say, “Maybe for you. But I lost my home.”
Maybe this voter will cancel out Noonan’s vote.
Yes.
And I would like to hear from a couple more at least, to cancel out Christopher Buckley and Scott McClellan and Colin Powell.
Welcome to FR ;)
This is a dark time for The Republic. I already miss the days when the parties argued over who’s vision would make America a better place. Sadly, I am afraid we are fighting for the survival of the Constitution and the nation itself. It will get much worse before it gets better.
I bet at this point that Powell wishes that he had kept his mouth shut. His possibility for a cabinet position may not be looking as sure as it did days ago. He really disgraced himself, bad! I appreciate his service, but he betrayed the men and administrations that had been so good to him!!
Oh sorry. Welcome to FR! You probably won’t agree with everything you read here, which means you’ll fit right in.
one of the best honest assesments of the state of the race right now
I thought that her comments about how the current Dems (and their lackeys in the press) treated Joe the Plumber to be poignant. She’s right about past Democrats not attacking a working class person like Joe.
The Democratic party has become a party of radicals and special interest groups who look down at blue collar workers for “clinging to their Bibles and Guns”.
>“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”<
No, you didn’t grow into a communist, that’s why you don’t feel at home among the Rats.
This was great! Thanks for posting it. I am also sick of the Democratic elite looking down their noses at blue collar workers, Republicans, and self-made women like Sarah Palin. The smugness is disgusting.
I am relieved that some in the Democratic party are finding the disrespect and elitist attitudes repugnant. I hope there are many more like the author out there.
Welcome to FR!
Welcome aboard...glad you could JOIN US.
VERY nice!
Bambi’s ridicule of Joe the Plumber was also the last straw for me for being cordial to bambi supporters. I lost two lib friends that night. Bambi is the worst, even effinkerry wasn’t that divisive.
ping
“I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics.”
Liberal Democrats with a conscious are taking a hard look and seeing that the Obama campaign is not really liberal. The contempt for free-speech, female candidates and the middle-class is plain for anyone not caught up in the campaign fever to see.
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