Palin’s Kind of Patriotism

[dtotire]

Palin’s Kind of Patriotism



By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Criticizing Sarah Palin is truly shooting fish in a barrel. But given the huge attention she is getting, you can’t just ignore what she has to say. And there was one thing she said in the debate with Joe Biden that really sticks in my craw. It was when she turned to Biden and declared: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”

I only wish she had been asked: “Governor Palin, if paying taxes is not considered patriotic in your neighborhood, who is going to pay for the body armor that will protect your son in Iraq? Who is going to pay for the bailout you endorsed? If it isn’t from tax revenues, there are only two ways to pay for those big projects — printing more money or borrowing more money. Do you think borrowing money from China is more patriotic than raising it in taxes from Americans?” That is not putting America first. That is selling America first.

REad the rest:


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/opinion/08friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

[tekisui]

1. Even the flat-worlder is against her.

[CrispyQ]

2. Good article.

snip...

Sorry, I grew up in a very middle-class family in a very middle-class suburb of Minneapolis, and my parents taught me that paying taxes, while certainly no fun, was how we paid for the police and the Army, our public universities and local schools, scientific research and Medicare for the elderly. No one said it better than Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “I like paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.”

k&r

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I was always taught that paying taxes, voting, and helping your fellow Americans was the way

to support the country. Flying flags,wearing the colors red, white & blue, and sticking 'Support the Troops' magnets on your car doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
If we are to be a nation, then everybody should pay into it.

[intheflow]

5. But flag pins are a HUGH!!1!! manufacturing sector of the economy!

Sure, it's China's economy, but they wingnuts are using their money wisely and in their best self-interests with those pins and magnets!

:sarcasm:, obviously.

[Shallah Kali]

4. Since when is middle class being worth 1.2 MILLION? & You can's have your wars and tax cuts too

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081002/ap_on_el_pr/palins_finances

unless you enjoy going into further debt to foreign powers - http://www.ustreas.gov/tic/mfh.txt Friedman is right in that owing China astronomical sums is not patriotic. I really wish somebody, anybody would call out the wealthy and mega wealthy on wanting tax cuts during a time of not one but TWO *#(&$*#( wars! They are willing to throw seniors and the disabled to the wolves (well the one's Palin haven't hunted down) so they can crush our nation even further into debt including with nations that are hostile to us.