A scene from my office today. Republicans are unable to separate reality from politics.

[Hamlette]

I'm on a Board that decides citizens claims for benefits (purposefully vague here so as to not get in trouble).

One Board member is the rep for business and he's a great Board member but his politics are pretty out there. So, one of our cases had to do with the car industry and apparently the rebates have not been paid to the dealers.

This Board member goes off on how incompetent the government is, how the cash for clunkers was a complete failure like everything government even tries to do.

I said, well, there are some things the government does well.

He says "Name me one thing. The government can't do anything right."

The room fell silent because, he's working for a government agency, an agency he respects. All of us in the room are.

So I say, "Well, we're performing a government function here in this agency and I think we all work very hard to make sure we do a great job and usually succeed." He turned red and says "well, yeah", looked down, sort of buried his face in the case file, and quickly changed the subject once he realized he had insulted each and every one of us in the room.

He's done this job for like 20-30 years. He is honestly a great Board member siding with employees as often as with employers. But he can't separate reality from politics. He buys the rhetoric about how bad government is but can't even see that IT MEANS HIM too.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. I served in the US MILITARY with people who said the same thing.

They listened to Rush tell them every day how bad the gubmint sucks, while collecting a gubmint paycheck, living in gumbint housing, and receiving gubmint health care. I'm sure many of them are retired now. Collecting gubmint retirement, shopping at the gubmint PX, getting gubmint education and mortgage loans, and getting their health care from the good old gubmint Tri-Care system.

[Hamlette]

2. its not just the benefits they get from government, its that they are saying THEY suck

if the government is bad, and they work for the government, they have to admit they are the problem.

Sheesh. How dumb can they get?

[patrice]

3. I know a couple of those. You should hear about the glories of "the Free Market" from a

couple of guys who never had to compete for anything a single day of their lives.

It's real inspiring. :sarcasm:

[DrToast]

4. Classic story. n/t

[lapfog_1]

5. I got that beat.

Just a whole lot of my family are wing nuts. One is an out and out racist wing nut.

So, last Thanksgiving we are all together for dinner. The conversation turned to politics. One after another complained that the "government" can't do anything. That it was horrible.

I just about lost it.

My oldest niece - works for the county as a teen probation officer.
Her husband - a county sheriff deputy.
My sister - on disability.
Her husband - also on disability.
My youngest niece - works for a pharmaceutical company... but her project is funded by the NIH.
Her boyfriend - a research assistant at the University - also attending said university with government backed student loans.
My sisters stepdaughter - works for the nearby Army base for a DOD contractor.
Her Husband - works for Raytheon on government contracts (DOD)
My sisters other stepdaughter and husband - she doesn't work, he works as a software engineer for another DOD contractor.
Me - I'm retired out of NASA.

Every freaking person at the table was drawing a check from the "govmint". Every one of us. And then they sit around complaining about how government is too big and is full of bureaucrats and can't do "nothin right".

Unfuckingbelieveable.

[Nay]

6. Had a neighbor like that. Gubmint couldn't do nothin right. But

his severely disabled daughter was getting taken care of in a gubmint home at a cost to the gubmint of $100,000 a year. Oh, and he had a heart transplant and is now on disability, thanks to that same gubmint. Amazing. I wish the gubmint would pull the plug on both of them.

[Better Today]

7. Oh, if you only knew how common such is around here.

Example 1: My neighbors, woman is a teacher having just started teaching after getting her degree and certificate with government grants after raising her kids supplementing her husband's low income with food stamps and housing assistance. He then came down with an immuno-deficiency of some sort and though he was insured, they had to file bankruptcy. Then after five years of that and one more bankruptcy, she gets MS and of course being a public education teacher (ie a government run, socialist org) hers is being properly paid for and has no need to file bankruptcy. Even so, they are dead set against "socialism". I mean, they are really nice folks, but they must be dumb as stumps, right?

Example 2: My daughter works in the disabled health support industry. This industry is virtually 100% funded by tax dollars, usually Medicaid. Their doctors, their daily minders/tenders, their special group and therapeutic needs, and often quite literally 24/7 attendance by a tender with regular visits by nurses, caseworkers, etc. All paid for through socialism. Well the one my daughter works for is run by a family and each and every one of them rant and rave as they are instructed to do on their morning drives by Clear Channel talk radio drones. They wouldn't even be in business if it wasn't for socialism (yes, and like all good rich, white, republicans, they make sure that they pay themselves first and well before anyone else gets anything, only the office staff (ie the family and maybe two others)) are even offered health insurance. The tenders they hire to staff the disabled, the nurses/CNAs/etc hired to monitor their health, all of these folks comprising 85% of their employees aren't getting any insurance...but the family each take home 6 figures. . . .and they have the gall to be against socialism as a whole and health care reform specifically???!!!!!

This type of ignorance, and it's commonness around here, (even with Democrats, ours is one of those icky blue dogs holding things up)just fills me with such despair and hopelessness.

[hobbit709]

8. Near as I can tell, ALL Republicans are reality challenged.

And a large number of them appear to live in a different space-time continuum than the rest of us.

[boobooday]

9. We surround us.

:patriot:

[a la izquierda]

10. Ugh, I feel for you...

my family and my hubby's family are all conservative. I've issued a moratorium: no politics in my presence, lest I ruin family relationships.

But I'm lucky in the sense that I'm a grad student and my colleagues and professors are moderate to liberal, by and large.

[moondust]

11. Ask them to name a few of the "failures."

And to be specific. Moving from the abstract propaganda to the specific reality may help some.

[uponit7771]

12. I had the same question asked to me and I mentioned out military and the response was...

..."well that's their job" I responded with they do it well and it's government ran so the only thing they could come back with is "they overspend" and I responded with "yeap they do, time to cut defense budget".

Their arguments are esoteric or so isolated they don't see any other perspective

[ebbie15644]

13. That's my father!!

He sits and listens to O'Reilly, Hannity and the like and he takes their talking points like gospel. The thing is, while growing up we had to use food stamps at times and heating assistance. He is now on Medicare!! I try pointing this out to him and it does no good!! It's like talking to a brick wall!!!

[Tsar_Bomba]

15. My father too

Want to know what I've learned? I see conservatives like wolves. Individuals will try to dominate and use intimidation tactics in order to assume the dominant position they are comfortable with. Notice that in groups they become bolder and even more aggressive. When I deal with conservatives I always assume the alpha male position and instead of reason I apply an aggressive tone to my language and body movements, believe me it sounds stupid but it works on them. I've seen that conservatives seem to hate the more outspoken members of the left, people like Michael Moore, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi etc. If they went one on one with any of these people they would cower in fear.

[GentryDixon]

18. Or a Dining Room table.

[DeeDeeNY]

14. Cash for Clunkers is NOT A FAILURE

And no matter how many times the right-wingers repeat this, it doesn't make it true. They think that because the word "clunkers" is in the title, it must be bad!! Dems need someone like Frank Luntz to give them good catchphrases, because that's all that penetrates with these people.

[Hamlette]

20. true. I tell them it was so successful that we had to renew it. It didn't fail.

how they got that meme going is beyond me. I think it was the media announcing that cash for clunkers was out of money then people starting thinking it was like Medicare being out of money.

Sometimes when something is out of money its because it was a raving success.

idiots

[emulatorloo]

21. Plus it is basically a "tax cut" for car buyers. I thought they liked tax cuts???!?!?!? eom

[PassingFair]

16. My brother, who rants against unions, food stamps, welfare, et al...

works for the CITY.

Has a POWERFUL UNION,
and has had his children
TRAINED as electrical engineers
in a FREE faith-based program.

The WORST ones are the ones sucking
on the system and yet are obsessed with stopping
others from having a safety net.


:crazy:

[AspenRose]

19. "I got mine, fuck everybody else. (Especially those different from me...)"

Pretty much the recurring theme.

[Yavin4]

17. A Lot of This Stuff Is Racism

Today, to be an out loud racist is seen as a social faux pas. So, instead, rant about the government, which in their minds equals giving money to racial minorities and illegal immigrants from Mexico.

They never see their jobs and/or benefits as government transfers because that's going to "hard working White people".