[Vision2020] Re: Robin Hood

[David M. Budge]

Shallow, yes, but much more difficult to deconstruct than Joan's 
rationale. 

Dave Budge

Carl Westberg wrote:

> Joan offers several cogent, thoughtful reasons why she's a Democrat, 
> while at the same time acknowledging some trepidation about the 
> current state of that party.  I, after doing much soul-searching over 
> the weekend, have come to the conclusion that I'm a Democrat because, 
> by and large, Democrat women are better looking than Republican 
> women.  Is that shallow?                  
>                                                                             
>                                                                             
>                                                                             
>                            Carl Westberg Jr.
>
>> From: "Joan Opyr" <auntiestablishment at hotmail.com>
>> To: "David M. Budge" <dave at davebudge.com>
>> CC: Vision2020 Moscow <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Re: Robin Hood
>> Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:06:03 -0800
>>
>> Dave asks, quite rightly, why (oh why) am I a Democrat?  It's 
>> certainly not because I love the current incarnation of my party, AKA 
>> Republican Lite.  (No taste; unfulfilling.)  In short, my party 
>> affiliation is like my appendix -- largely vestigial.  Still, I 
>> remain a Democrat, for the time being, because . . .
>>
>> 1. I believe in organized labor.  And, yes, I am well aware of how 
>> corrupt the Teamsters have been/are; so, too, the AFL-CIO, the UAW, 
>> the Garment Workers Union, and so on, and so on, and so on.  
>> Nevertheless, I have lived in union states and I have lived in 
>> so-called right-to-work states, and I know that there is power in a 
>> union.  There is no power in a state employees' association.
>>
>> 2. I believe in the ongoing need for affirmative action.  I laugh in 
>> people's faces when they speculate that Colin Powell could win the 
>> GOP Presidential nomination in the South.  As a native Southerner, I 
>> know what people tell pollsters, and I know what they say when 
>> they're with an all-white crowd; never the twain shall meet.  Not 
>> long ago, a small delegation of white women in my mother's office (a 
>> state office) took it upon themselves to call a meeting with her 
>> supervisor regarding an upcoming job opening.  "Let's hire someone 
>> white this time," they said.  "We've already got enough of them."  As 
>> much as I wish there were such a thing as color-blind hiring, or 
>> gender-blind hiring, there isn't.  A quick flick through the Fortune 
>> 500 CEOs tells me all I need to know on that score.
>>
>> 3. I believe in a basic, fundamental, social safety net.  I believe 
>> in universal access to healthcare, and that that access is a right 
>> and not a privilege.  I do support means-testing for Social Security; 
>> the program was created to provide a basic standard of living for 
>> those who had spent their lives working like Georgia mules; it was 
>> not to supplement the retirement incomes of (sorry) stockbrokers.  I 
>> do not support raising the retirement age or cutting basic benefits.  
>> Why?  Because, once again, minority workers lose out.  Black and 
>> Latino people in this country have an average life expectancy nearly 
>> a decade lower than their white counterparts; they also experience 
>> higher infant mortality rates.
>>
>> 4. I'm a New Deal, Great Society, social, racial, and economic 
>> justice and broad support for public education type.  The Democratic 
>> Party of my long ago youth used to support these things without 
>> apology.  Education used to be more important than educational 
>> testing.  We didn't succeed in eradicating poverty, but once upon a 
>> time we proclaimed that as one of our fundamental goals.
>>
>> I am, by and large, a Howard Dean Democrat.  I'm a social liberal and 
>> a fiscal conservative.  I identify with the term "progressive" though 
>> I recognize that I don't fit the classic definition of that word.  
>> That, in short, is my answer.  But let me just throw out a few other 
>> positions I hold: I don't think the Pentagon needs a 4.8% increase 
>> this year, independent of the costs of the Iraq War (which Mr. Bush 
>> has conveniently segregated into a separate spending bill).  I don't 
>> tend to support unfunded federal mandates, which Republicans and 
>> Democrats alike have sadly embraced.  I think that unchecked, 
>> enormous inherited wealth is a danger to a healthy democracy; it 
>> creates a defacto ruling class, an American aristocracy, as worthless 
>> and self-absorbed as the European aristocracies our political 
>> ancestors abandoned and rejected.  I like target shooting and deer 
>> and elk hunting, but I don't like the NRA.  I'm a fan of wild wolves 
>> but I'm friends with many ranchers.  I don't support large farm 
>> subsidies, but I like small farmers.
>>
>> I freely admit to many logical inconsistencies in my thinking, to 
>> taking large leaps of faith on very little evidence, and to 
>> preferring to select my friends from the variety mix.  Gay, straight, 
>> Republican, Democrat, Jewish, Christian, Evangelical, Hindu, Jain, 
>> Muslim, atheist, agnostic . . . and stockbroker.  I enjoy nothing 
>> more than a good, well-reasoned argument, clever wordplay, and a fair 
>> fight.
>>
>> Now, about your Yiddish -- I'm Jewish by choice and by patriarchal 
>> descent.  My father's family is Ukrainian/Jewish; my mother is a 
>> lapsed Southern Baptist WASP.  So, I shall give this translation my 
>> best shot -- sticking with your cruel anti-Googling rules -- and we 
>> shall see what we shall see.
>>
>> "Bubby kvetched that the moyle was shikker while the mishpucha 
>> noodged to get at the nasherie."
>>
>> Grandma bitched that the man who performs the circumcisions was drunk 
>> while the folks jostled one another to get at the buffet.
>>
>> How's that?  Perhaps I should confess that I have a Jewish literary 
>> agent  Who lives in New York.  In Lower Manhattan.
>>
>> Oy,
>> Joan Opyr/Auntie EstablishmentGet more from the Web.  FREE MSN 
>> Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
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