Get a GD Clue, Joe

Sometimes you have to say something, even if it hurts. I've been reading another blog about Joe (and probably Josephine as well), a confused Joe and Josephine American, cousins to John Q. Public (who I believe and hope is smarter than Joe), who doesn't understand the health care reform bill, and the fix-it bill now in the Senate, and who suggests the Republicans will win this coming November, God forbid, and who perhaps supports Republican obstructionism to block every damn bill in Congress, whether it's good for the country or not and whether it completely shuts down the country or not. Joe insists that President Obama and Democrats explain to him what they're doing, even though they've been explaining to him what is in the bills they've been fighting for for over a year. I guess by now, with a year gone by, Joe, if you don't understand, then you're not listening or you have stubbornly, like a child, made up your mind not to listen. If Joe can't have it “his” way, he's going to pout, like the Republicans are doing, and not govern this country at all. Let 'er sink. That'll show 'em.

Joe is the same guy who says, “That Wall Street will kill this country,” yet he turns around and votes for the same guys who turned Wall Street lose on the country by deregulating business so they could do their damage unrestrained. Joe can't connect those dots to the guy he voted for, like John Boehner or Mitch McConnell or John McCain and Sarah Palin or some other Republican.

Joe, like Joe the Plumber, says Social Security is a tax burden and should be eliminated entirely, or turned over to Wall Street crooks, yet Joe doesn't have a retirement plan and without Social Security, Joe can't retire. Joe doesn't know how to invest and he doesn't want to learn. Joe has never bothered to learn that Social Security is the best investment he'll ever make or who else contributes to it. So, Joe doesn't know that high-income Americans don't pay into Social Security most of the year, a Republican idea, because they make too much money, yet he pays into it the full year, a victim of economic inequity put on his head by Reagan. In fact, Joe doesn't know how many times Reagan screwed him with tax cuts for the rich. He still likes Reagan, though. Reagan was a “man.” He's a fan of FaceBook's “ Reagan Conservatives,” that, by the way, is a Political Action Committee determined to mislead and victimize Joe even more. Joe listens to Limbaugh, O'Rielly, Beck, Hannity and Palin every night inciting his anger with complete crap that convinces him his freedom is at stake if he doesn't support the very people that got him, and his country, in the mess it's in. He loves Beck's bullshit blackboard, where Beck chalks out ideas pulled from the darkest region of the human body. “The Government will take your gun, Joe!” that somehow, in the most illogical round-about route through his ass, Beck claims comes from social justice that Beck labels “ Communism.” “They (politicians) are all the same, anyway,” Joe says. “What make the difference?” Joe's too lazy to find out. Joe would rather stay a victim and, “let 'er crash,” than do something. He'd rather everyone be a victim, not just him. He'd rather have something to bitch about and pout about. Whine, whine, whine. That's what Joe wants to do.

In fact, Joe can't recognize a good politician from a bad one, because he doesn't care to spend the time to learn who they are or what their beliefs are or what they've done. He just likes the noise they make or the church they go to. That's enough for Joe to form his basis to vote. Even when public records prove, beyond any doubt, a birth date and place of a person, he'd still rather believe rumor and innuendo and words of hate. He believes that his shotgun on his wall is diligence. “Yup. Thar's my gun. Right thar. Thar's my freedom.”

Actually, Joe, diligence is educating yourself about your country. It's about finding out truths that help you distinguish between what is and what is not myth, rumor and lies. It's about distinguishing truth from bullshit. You don't have to read every bill passed in Congress. There are good resources that report what those bills contain and how they affect the American people and don't take a lot of time to read. There are easily found reports and articles on the people you vote for that will help you make a better decision. And, no, they are not all the same. Some are good civil servants for their country. But, if you don't want to get up off your ass to educate yourself, then I can't help you. You're the problem, Joe, not Obama or the Democrats. They don't owe you anything unless you're willing to go the distance, to engage in a reasonable discussion to solve problems, yourself. Get a goddamned clue, Joe.

Oh, and by the way, Joe, and you too, Josephine, kiss my ass, unless you want to start learning something, here, by the St. Petersburg Times, a good ole boy conservative newspaper, about the health care reform. It's not the best plan, especially after being whittled down by Republicans, but I guess you could continue to be suckers for the Insurance companies, and stay a victim. And, please take the next step and read more about it. You might learn something, God forbid.

Dave