On this day of celebration for most of the US and people throughout the world, I have been bombarded with e-mails and text messages from my republican friends with a Chicken Little complex. I think that they want to hold me responsible for President-Elect Obama's victory and I will gladly take credit/blame for that, but their arguments are so inane and without credibility that it makes me wonder why they are my friends at all. Maybe I just haven't made enough effort to explain to them how their vote for McCain was a vote against themselves, but their rhetoric is so crazy that I had to send them a message that probably will make then angry.
Several of my friends and co-workers fell victim to the "socialist", "Marxist" rhetoric of the last days of the McCain/Palin ticket. They truly believe that President-Elect Obama and the Democratic Congress are going to tax them into oblivion and that it is wrong to increase taxes on the richest people to benefit the whole of America. They are consumed by the notion that President-Elect Obama is going to turn America into a weak, welfare state and that their lives are going to be worse because he was elected. Here is my response.
- You don't make as much money as I do, and my taxes are going to go down under the Obama plan. Do you think I would vote for someone who is going to tax me into poverty?
- What would ever bring you to care so much about the people who are in the top 5% of income in the United States? They have had these tax breaks since Reagan. Has your quality of life gotten better in those years? Have you benefited from the Dow Jones Industrial Average being at 14,000? Do you think those rich people care anything about you?
- If you think increasing taxes on the rich is socialism, when you get an increased tax refund, are you going to mail the increase to the CEO's of the major oil companies? You have to stick to your guns, because if you don't, you are a Marxist.
- When an affordable health care plan from the government becomes a reality, are you going to write the government a letter asking them to permanently disqualify you from the plan because you don't want to be a Marxist?
- We are in the worst economic crisis in a century, fighting two wars, facing record home foreclosures, and wages have been stagnant for 10 years. The Republican Party has had the Presidency and majority in at least one house of Congress for 20 years since 1980. Do you think they have done a great job? Does their economic model seem to be working?
- Warren Buffett is the greatest economic genius in our lifetime. Are you smarter or richer than he is? He wholeheartedly supports President-Elect Obama and his economic plan. What makes you think that he would be supporting someone who would destroy his livelihood?
- If President-Elect Obama is going to weaken our national security, why would he get the endorsement of Wesley Clark, former Supreme Commander of NATO, and Colin Powell, former Republican Secretary of State, National Security Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Oh yeah, Secretary Powell only endorsed him because he is black. Did I miss Condolezza Rice's endorsement?
- Are you afraid that President-Elect Obama is secretly a Muslim? Article Six of the US Constitution states:
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
This means that any elected official may be any religion or have no religion and still be qualified
for the office. Why are you against the U.S. Constitution? Are you a domestic terrorist?
- President-Elect Obama is going to end the war in Iraq that over 70% of Americans think should be ended. That war costs us over $10 billion a month. Are you and the rest of the 30% who want the war to continue going to sign up to foot the bill to pay back that $10 billion?
- Last, but not least, white people make up 74% of the entire voting population of the United States. All of the other people only make up 26% of the voters. President-Elect Obama won 43% of the white vote, more than any other Democrat ever has. They voted for him because he was the better candidate for the future of America. Why didn't you vote for him? Is it a real reason? Did you even vote?
You know that I am a reasonable and logical person, and that I wouldn't be so passionate about something unless I truly believed in it. Do you really think I have lost my mind, or do you think that I have been tricked? Do you really think I went into this think lightly, but still volunteered my time and money to see it to a successful completion? I would hope that you think more of me than that.