Dear Conservative

I have been trying to formulate a way to explain why I can relate to the Democratic platform in theory but not the reality and why I have absolutely no friends who identify as Republican enough to vote for Romney. It probably also has to do with the fact that there are very few well to do people in my age category right now. But there is this imaginary past in the conservative mind where at some point in our history things were better. Which is in fact untrue. There has never been yet an age of utopia. Where everyone was healthy fed and happy.
   

It wasn't utopia. It was the age of consumption. Marketing, advertising, and living on credit have dominated our society since the early 19th century. But in the last 20 years we have reached the pinnacle of our greed. We lived like gluttons of resources under Clinton, all the while thinking it was ok because we had a "surplus" so we didn't need to take personal responsibility for our actions as long as the budget is balanced. As if the budget somehow accurately reflects the good of the common man. During the Bush administration it was drilled into us that spending our money will save the economy. The more we consume the better the GDP. But the reality is that Americans need to be told that the age of fossil fuel gluttony has to end or it may be too late to fix the worlds environment.

Neither Romney or Obama is suggesting an age of conservation because Americans are spoiled brats, and they think we need to be pandered to. So they lie to save themselves and their rich oil and banking friends instead of save us. We can not stay on this path forever. I can understand why people think Obama isn't taking big enough strides towards renewable energy. I can understand that he's a war president who gas presided over the deaths of thousands. BUT How any fool could support Mitt Romney when his platform might as well actually say, "fuck you if you don't make over 1 million dollars a year." It's so far beyond my comprehension that out of 380 facebook friends I don't even have anyone who would Consider Willard "Mitt RMoney" Romney as a leader of "the free world".

As long as money fuels corruption and we all talk about politics in double speak and the language of media manipulation, we will make no progress. These corporations have existed in some form or another for over 100 years. Obviously they didn't and don't have enough regulation. Not to mention there Absolutely should have been a tax on electronic trades. Since they take literally no effort and produce invisible money. Our president and representatives can not possibly consider the good or the will of the American people as long as they have to talk to 100 lobbyists everyday with their hands out, full of cash and agendas from the ultra wealthy. Wall street is the reason we have no jobs. 1000 people in this world have more wealth than 2.4 BILLION people.
 

The money that is hidden in untaxed offshore bank accounts could be used to fix the mess the world and the US is in. Instead it is being used to pad the pockets of the already ultra wealthy. We live in a culture of greed and selfishness. How else could we have an entire party whose platform is that their success is entirely their own and no credit should be given to the society and community that held them up. It doesn't work like that.

My mom has had a small business for 23 and you bet your ass she has brass and works harder than any paper pusher I have ever met. But let me tell you. If you think there is one bit of similarity between some hard working small business owner taking care of her community and a Wall Street business banker creating fake money out of air you are so  sorely mistaken. You will never be one of the people who has power in this world, if you were one you would already know it.

The upper middle class is the only other class other than the 1 percent still getting raises and creating jobs. Because those of us below that point have absolutely no resources and yes I mean money (because money controls the world) left to fight back. Everyone still hanging out on their boat this summer and taking family vacations to the Bahamas don't give a damn about the poor because... "i got mine." If change happens it will be because the privileged in America wake up, they have the resources to exact change. We all can make a difference just by talking honestly and openly with our family and friends and sending letters and taking stances on things that matter to us.

Federal minimum wage is $15,000 a year. It's not a wage any one person can actually live on and feel safe. And if you are trying to support a family get ready for stress related health problems. Except at the bottom you get no paid time off, and at the bottom you don't go to the doctor because you don't have health insurance or the money to pay to go, especially not on top of the days missed pay! I hope you remember every time a line cook makes you an expensive meal... They don't get sick days.

Stop calling greedy sleazy billionaire families who have controlled the world for a century "risk takers". Its a euphemism created by the corporate owned media to make people think there is Anything risky about being rich. Try being poor, now that's risky. “What is riskier than living poor in America? Seriously! What in the world is riskier than being a poor person in America? I live in a neighborhood where people are shot on my street corner. I live in a neighborhood where people have to figure out how to get their kid into school because maybe it will be a good school and maybe it won’t. I am sick of the idea that being wealthy is risky. No. There is a huge safety net that whenever you fail will catch you and catch you and catch you. Being poor is what is risky. We have to create a safety net for poor people. And when we won’t, because they happen to look different from us, it is the pervasive ugliness." - Melissa Harris-Perry

My solution is raise taxes on anyone making more than a million dollars a year, no one needs that much money. Personally I'd go with anything over $200k because that's 5 times as much as my whole family can live on and have every single luxury we want and need. We need to make clear rules for financial transactions and tax electronic transactions. Get Wall Street out of the FED's pocket and create a central bank that is at the hands of its people, like they did in Iceland. We need politicians to start talking honestly with the American people so we can use our brightest minds to find solutions to our problems that don't involve destroying the planet we need to live. College is no longer teaching our future generations to think, even education has been corrupted by the need to make profit. Right now Wall Street has its fingers in everything, our schools, our military, our central bank, our government, and let's not forget the most important, our media. It needs to stop.  And the only thing that can stop it is us.

I reiterate. No matter how rich you might think you are, you aren't one of the people who runs the world. There is a huge gap between the poor and the upper middle class in this country. It would take me and my husband 20 years to make 1 million dollars and at the end we would have nothing left because we spent it all on living. 20 years of my life is not worth a single day of Mitt Romney's or any other corporate CEO. They do not contribute more to the worlds future than any creative mind who works hard every day. He hasn't done any one person any good except for himself and his wealthy billionaire friends. That gap between the upper middle class and the poor is an intentional tool used to divide us. I am your neighbor. They are your rulers. 

Someone as smart and dedicated as you are to education, your future, and the future of those around, should be able to support yourself. Student loans and mortgages right now are a form of debt slavery. We all have so much debt we have to keep working. As long as we're working to pay back our debts most of us don't have time to really investigate the nature of the world and our political state. We are intentionally kept busy with work, a million totally cool technologies, stresses, responsibilities, and reality TV. All designed so we don't start noticing how hard everyone around us has it. If we do speak up about our lack of vacation days, sick days, or health benefits we are told by our own friends and loved ones, "just be thankful you have a job." Is a thankless job hocking retail really something to be thankful for? How can we expect to be happy doing what we know is wrong, and contributing to a society we don't believe in?

Ask your cousins, sister-in-laws, someone in your family has been laid off, or lost their retirement in the recession. Ask them how they feel about the state of economic fairness in the United States. It was the middle class that has lost all their savings and used all of our tax money to bail out the banks. And we still struggle daily while Wall Street reports record profits. The GDP has never been higher, pay attention, that means it obviously does not reflect the economic good of every man. There is almost no safety net left. People you know are hurting, but it's unpleasant to talk about so instead we all discuss the weather, but ya know, not in relation to climate change. Just that we hate the rain and LOVE the extra summer days.

Do you give a damn about the world our children will live in? That the water's polluted, and so is the air. The violent weather is getting stronger. I worry more about the nature of the environment when my son is older than how many dollars he will have. He won't be happy with a million dollars and no health to enjoy it. If we don't protect our children from the toxins that pervade our very existence there will be little hope in the future when everyone is drugged by big pharma for their "genetic" disorders. Many of the health problems you are all experiencing are caused by the chemicals in our food, water, and air. The lack of oversight and science involved in protecting our food and water supply is frightening. All of the people you think are supposed to protect you the FDA, EPA, OSHA, the Supreme Court, etc, are all former employees and profiteers of big business. Oil, pharma, banks, all that money is corroding what we had left to protect us. 

  Do you question why life is not fair?

This is suppose to be the land of the free. Except freedom has not yet been for everyone. There can be no freedom to life, liberty, and happiness while lack of money can deny a person the most basic rights to health, home, and safety. There is no social mobility left in this country. You will make what your father made. I could but I'd rather know my son than work 70 hours a week. Does fairness equate to freedom? There is no grand period of utopia to go back to. There was no time when there wasn't working poor at the bottom supporting everyone else at the top. 

We need to get out of our completely greedy gas guzzling comfort zone. There is a global revolution right now. The wealthy in this country will eventually have no where left to hide. We need to join the rest of the working class of the world. The slaves and the sweatshop workers may be in a different part of the world but they are our brothers and sisters. We have more in common with the working class and working poor of other countries than we will ever have with those who lives the lives of the ultra wealthy. Americans have been spoiled and foolish and too blinded by the smoke and mirrors of our own politics to take action. But I haven't given up yet. 

Quote from an actual Mitt Romney voter (they DO exist, I assure you), 

"Let me just say this world saver, no one is fetting in your way of saving it. So whats your plan earth mother?"

Keep talking until someone listens. 

We can do this together.


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