It wasn't too long ago that I was very insecure about replying to right-wing email that floated into my inbox. I used to just hit the Delete button, believing that the sender(s) wouldn't be interested in what an opposing voice had to say.
Also, I felt somewhat fearful of how our kinship would be if I were to write something that made them angry. In other words, I behaved much like a cowardly Democratic Senator. If I did write back, I would always second-guess my response and worry, worry, worry if I'd said the proper thing or said it in a mutually sensitive and agreeable way.
However, in the past year or so, I've found myself becoming more Grayson and less Nelson. More at the jump.
Just before I went on my lunch break, I found an email from a fellow student in my foster-parenting class. It is a VERY long email, but hits on all of the teabagging, John Galt, Ayn Rand "why are you punishing the rich??" points. I will not post all of it here due to its length, but found a copy of it online, which you can read in its entire if you wish.
The gist of the email--it is from what turns out to be a fictitious (surprise, surprise!) meeting held by a "small business owner" who is giving his employees a harangue about why he's suddenly going to have to treat them more like shit than he's already treating them. A telling excerpt (bolding is mine):
Most Americans don’t realize that when the Democrats talk about raising taxes on people making more than $250 thousand a year, they’re talking about raising taxes on small businesses. The U.S. Treasury Department says that six out of every ten individuals in this country with incomes of more than $280,000 are actually small business owners. About one-half of the income in this country that would be subject to these increased taxes is from small businesses like ours. Depending on how many of these wonderful new taxes the Democrats manage to pass, this company could see its tax burden increase by as much as $60,000. Perhaps more.
I know a lot of you voted for President Obama. A lot of you voted for Democrats across the board. Whether you voted out of support for some specific policies, or because you liked his slogans, you need to learn one very valuable lesson from this election. Elections have consequences. You might have thought it would be cool to have a president who looks like you; or a president who is young, has a buff bod, and speaks eloquently when there’s a teleprompter in the neighborhood. Maybe you liked his promises to tax the rich. Maybe you believed his promise not to raise taxes on people earning less than a certain amount. Maybe you actually bought into his promise to cut taxes on millions of Americans who actually don’t pay income taxes in the first place. Whatever the reason .. your vote had consequences; and here they are.
The whole "teleprompter" right-wing talking point alone should tell this email writer's hand well enough. Continued:
Bottom line? I’m not taking this hit alone. As soon as the Democrats manage to get their tax increases on the books, I’m going to take steps to make sure that my family isn’t affected. When you own the business, that is what you’re allowed to do. I built this business over a period of 23 years, and I’m not going to see my family suffer because we have a president and a congress who think that wealth is distributed rather than earned. Any additional taxes, of whatever description, that President Obama and the Democrats inflict on this business will come straight out of any funds I have set aside for expansion or pay and benefit increases. Any plans I might have had to hire additional employees for new stores will be put aside. Any plans for raises for the people I now have working for me will be shelved. Year-end bonuses might well be eliminated. That may sound rough, but that’s the reality.
Sounds like a real asshole of a business owner, if he were actually a genuine one (he's not, as several people at this link point out). To top it off, he doesn't offer his employees any health insurance, and he sounds quite proud of it as well:
And while we’re talking about health care, let me explain something else to you. I understand that possibly your biggest complaint with our company is that we don’t provide you with health insurance. That is because as your employer I believe that it is my responsibility to provide you with a safe workplace and a fair wage and to do all that I can to preserve and grow this company that provides us all with income. I no more have a responsibility to provide you with health insurance than I do with life, auto or homeowner’s insurance. As you know, I have periodically invited agents for health insurance companies here to provide you with information on private health insurance plans. The Democrats are proposing to levy yet another tax against Carrington in the amount of 8 percent of my payroll as a penalty for not providing you with health insurance. You should know that if they do this I will be reducing every person’s salary or hourly wage by that same 8 percent. This will not be done to put any more money in my pocket. It will be done to make sure that I don’t suffer financially from the Democrat’s efforts to place our healthcare under the control of the federal government. It is your health, not mine. It is your healthcare, not mine. These are your expenses, not mine. If you think I’m wrong about all this, I would sure love to hear your reasoning.
Like I said, he's a real champ. Anyway, I could not let this one lie, especially after the disgusting bullshit that was on display in our nation's Capitol yesterday. I have had more than enough with these lies, this lack of humanity, this abject selfishness that is, I believe, wholly un-American.
So I wrote back:
My husband tells me that I should not respond to forwarded emails that conflict with my political beliefs because he--probably correctly--believes that the realms of politics and religion are sensitive areas of discussion where many feelings get hurt, and it is not worth fighting over political issues among friends. I disagree with him on this point. Forwarding emails on such discussions initiates these very vulnerabilities, and saying nothing when so much is at stake is, to me, not an option.
Not only is this email riddled with so much misinformation, the core of it runs counter to what I feel all a civilized society that values its citizenry--young and old, rich and poor--should stand for. For one thing, it's a fake--see this link for more info: http://forum.saiga-12.com/... The writer of the "meeting speech" tells his right-wing hand too much by mentioning what are now run-of-the-mill conservative talking points re: Obama's "teleprompter" (as if ANY modern president hasn't ever used a teleprompter!!) and using "Democrat" as an adjective--a right-wing smear tactic that insinuates that the Democratic Party (or "Democrat" party, as they like to call it) isn't small-d democratic. As a registered Democrat, I take deep personal offense at the latter. FYI, I don't offer the discourtesy of calling my Republican relatives members of the "Republic" party.
But that's beside the point. The commenters k1ypp and Darcsun at the link above offer excellent technical/economic rebuttals that include percentage facts about the reality of how our economy would be affected by a very modest increase (4.5%) against the wealthiest 1 percent of our country's population. Mind you, taxes were even higher under Ronald Reagan, and exponentially higher under Ike Eisenhower, another Republican. Increasing our taxes 4.5% to help pay for a national healthcare system that would ensure no Americans would go bankrupt simply to ensure their own survival and well-being seems like a small price to pay--one that I, as an earner and a taxpayer whose household income is $120,000/year, would be more than happy to pay to ensure that my fellow Americans who make less are no longer left in the dust. Unlike this fictitious business owner and his very real enablers, I care about whether my neighbors live or die.
Even if Carrington Automotive were indeed a genuine Sub-S entity and the fictitious "Leo Carrington" really existed, I doubt I'd like to work for him very much. By forcing his employees to listen to a tirade against their private voting habits--which he, by law and sheer American etiquette, should know nothing about--he is subjecting them to a much more hostile work environment than any respectable small-business owner should need to do. I do not own a business, but deliberately refrain from discussing politics and religion at work. Those are private domains--I want to respect my coworkers' diverse opinions and backgrounds just as I hope mine would be respected as well.
However, knowing "Leo's" feelings about his subordinate workers, I doubt I'd even want to be in his company as a fellow human being. What kind of person is so self-serving as to have total disregard for the well-being of those who are not only employed by him, but who are the backbone and lifeline of his very business??? He is so self-congratulatory as to proclaim that HE--and all other people of means who have founded businesses--is responsible for the economic well-being of America by "creating jobs," but if he had no one to do those jobs that his company advertises--changing tires, selling parts, fixing cars--his business would not even BE a business. This is what people of wealth tend to forget, is that their employees, from the highest-paid corporate officer to the lowliest cashier--are the ones that keep his business running, and they are his greatest asset.
Threatening to lower salaries and close up shop when and if the tax increases start is one of the very ways that ACTUAL businesses like Leo's fictitious one have kept American workers--and the American political system--hostage. It's as if they're saying, "Demand more from us, and we'll punish the lowest-paid among us." Not "Demand more from us, and we'll do our part to keep America prosperous on all levels," but "we'll punish the workers." Isn't it time that this nonsense stopped? Republicans flaunt this lord-over-serfdom attitude, and Democrats live in fear of it, because they know that, with workers who are cruelly punished simply because the wealthy in this country are expected to give back what this free-market country has given so extravagantly to them, the ones with the most money--and the biggest media megaphones--will make them pay. It is wrong, it is cruel, and it is NOT the way in which THIRTY-SIX other DEMOCRATIC INDUSTRIALIZED countries with wealthy populations AND national healthcare conduct their treatment of other human beings.
If you want to read k1ypp's and Darcsun's rebuttal arguments at http://forum.saiga-12.com/... , which are full of much more educated information than an economic neophyte like myself could muster, I invite you to do so, so you can have a "left-brain" counterargument to go with my more emotional appeal.
I apologize in advance if my tone sounds harsh or makes a reader feel a little uncomfortable, but I get so angry when I hear such self-serving arguments from the "rich"--from fictitious sources--get spread around like a virus via email by the ignorance of middle-class Americans who either don't know any better or don't care to.
In all likeliness, I will probably not be getting an email back from said former classmate, but I'm really not sure I give a shit. It is past time to fight back against this nonsense, and as they say, the pen is mightier than the sword.
UPDATE: I've since gotten a response from the person who sent me the email. Apparently, she was not happy with me replying-all, and she called me out for sending her Obama emails during the campaign. Her latter point is fair enough; the former one is...well, if you wave a red flag in front of a bull, you're gonna get burned, babe:
We're good with the intent to be sensitive to the political beliefs of others...and yet if you recall you sent us a plethora of unsolicited email about supporting Obama to which we politely disregarded during the debates. Our feelings are not hurt by your reply but the caution of a double standard by you does seem appropriate. Enough said.
P.S. It was inappropriate for you to send your unsolicited reply to folks you don't even know. That is offensive and disrespectful. A simple note back to us that you do not welcome such consideration would have sufficed. Our country is still a democracy.
UPDATE 2: And here is how I responded to her reply:
You have a fair point in that I did send out a lot of campaign-related emails last year, and the recipients may or may not have appreciated or agreed with them. I am sorry that you didn't, but would have welcomed your saying so. Others have responded with their wishes that I no longer include them on my campaign email list, and I have respected their wishes. Re: you and (your husband), I will keep this in practice in the future.
There is a difference, though--my campaign emails had factual information in them about events and issues that the candidates supported. The original email below is from a fictitious business owner claiming to be genuine. Its intent, like my emails, is to persuade, but under the false guise of a "small business owner" that does not exist--which is one of the things I was trying to point out.
In addition, I disagree that it was disrespectful and inappropriate to reply-all to this email. As you say, our country is still a democracy, and if the writers of the original email felt so strongly that as many people as possible should be reading this--and be "passing it on" down the email chain--then they too can receive a little feedback in return. Free speech is NOT a one-way street.
UPDATE 3: To give her credit, at least she replies and makes her case, rather than skirting away or just hitting Delete:
Free speech as you correctly point out is not a one way street. You had every 'right' to speak out as you did...it was just bad politicing. The matter of disrespect referred to was not in consideration of the originator of the email below but to us. It is obvious we hold different political views, and while your passion for your views is admirable, the decision to consciously sidestep us to promote your position with our friends achieves nothing fruitful. The only thing that your actions accomplished was to put us in a position of the folks you emailed (except (other friends)) holding a degree of frustration with us for sharing their email address with a somewhat hostile stranger. The matter was between you and us which is where it should have stayed. However I will own that I had believed that I had erased the email addresses before forwarding...it is my policy but obviously I made a mistake. Not much more to say on the matter.
In writing back to her, I took MillieNeon's suggestion for a reply, of course leveraging it to fit my classmate's reply:
Hi again,
Usually, it is customary to BCC recipients if you do not want a conversation from and/or among all recipients to ensue. That you did not do so (or forgot to do so, as you mentioned below) invites a Reply All when the email -- such as the one you sent -- is so full of misinformation. In my opinion, people who do not reply to such a message are tacitly accepting it as true. I feel it is my duty as an American to help rid politics of such deceptive practices to call them out. I don't like it when liberal politicians do it, and I don't like it when conservative politicians do it--emails like the original one below are simply putting gas on a fire that, in my opinion, is burning way out of control as it is.
Just my $0.02. Hope you and (your husband) are well.
me