The re-birth of the Right

I read the site often, and I've gotten Ruffini's advice on some party work. He's a really sharp guy, with vision.

 

I would like to hear what Trader_jorge, Basso, Bigtexxx, and zantabak1111 say also. They are the most passionate conservatives on this board.

 

People misunderstand the right wing. We are seen as conservative snobs. All we want is fair treatment. Why should we work just as hard as everyone and pay a much higher tax rate. Why is it our responsibility that people cannot handle their own business and need big government to take care of life's problems. Republicans want small business and free trade and in turn the democrats want government to control every aspect of our lives and for rich people to basically " not be so rich". I personally believe if someone can create such a large enterprise, their skill should be harbored and studied, not scrutinized and punished in the form of higher taxes. If the lower income earners in society had never started with all these ARM loans we may never have had this housing slump. Sure rich people but homes with ARMs but they could afford their mortgage payment skyrocketing when the time came. I am not a bad person, I just think everyone has a place in life, and if you don't have the money you have no business doing some of the things wealthy people do like buying expensive cars and homes on credit. There is nothing wrong with that belief system, that's not right wing, that's just right.

 

There are way way too many things wrong with this post.

As someone who's parents had to endure tens of thousands of medical costs that our insurance wouldn't cover from a knee injury I had that came because I slipped on a ****ing piece of carpet, you are in no position to speak of what people deserve or how people should manage their money. Aside from losing a year of my life, we lost a lot more because of our ****ty health care system and a bad economy.

I'll stop myself now but in no way did my family do anything to deserve any of this. We paid our mortgage off, had perfect credit, hundreds of thousands in savings and got ****ed by a random injury and a bad economy and for you to somehow sit here and put out armchair criticisms is not only ignorant but insulting.

Until you experience some of the hardships that millions of Americans are facing for a variety of reasons beyond simple mortgages or whatever you want to cite, then just stop.

**** off.

 

Trying to make him understand is like attempting to teach a kid calculus without any math background. He calls himself a good guy but then goes on about all these things how we are the elite and we should not be bothered because we work hard.

 

I want a party with ideas, vision and focus. Congressional Dem leadership makes me sick, but Republicans make me puke even more.

I think the window of goodwill for Obama to make progress is one of the shorter ones of any presidency, but anticipating and capitalizing failure from Obama won't guarantee my vote for Republicans. There hasn't been any give and take from them. Their leadership has stagnated into reactionism and their attacks have been dull and bitter.

John McCain was not the reason Republicans lost.

 

For starters, when you grossly characterize the political opinions and intentions of the majority of people in this country, addressing them all as poor freeloaders and yourself and your fellow enlightened friends as innocent bystanders, you're not doing anyone any favors. Democrats don't want government to control every aspect of our lives, as you suggest. Rather, and I speak only for myself here (you should try this sometimes), I think liberals see the potential that a democratically elected government has to help the lives of everyone in this country.
If you and everyone else making $250,000 plus pay that extra 3% and millions more people go to college, start new businesses, buy homes, start families and send their kids to college, it's not only worth it morally, it probably helps you in the long run more than that 3% by creating more customers and keeping more jobs in the country. We're all in this together, it's not rich vs. poor.

By the way, I didn't hear you complaining about fairness when the top 1% got tax breaks under Bush and no one else did...

 

He thinks anyone below his bracket is a freeloader. What load of crocky.

 

As somebody who identifies himself as being on the right side of the aisle, you do not represent what I feel are the values of most people on the right wing. Maybe the extreme fringe of the right. You sir, are not misunderstood.

Because we have the ability to pay without impinging on our ability to purchase the necessities of life. I am simply mystified that this concept escapes you. Not only that, but people who are wealthier generally require more in services (regulatory and essential services) than others. Therefore, we should pay more for them. You do realize that welfare programs are a very small portion of the government budget, right?

People who are impoverished are not always those that "cannot handle their own business." There are a multitude of reasons why somebody ends up poor. Your argument is intentionally simplistic.

1984 called. They want their version of the Republican Party back. Both parties spend like a drunken sailor these days. The Republicans in recent years have chosen to roll back taxes and just print more money. This is a bad idea.

You are either woefully ignorant of the mortgage system in recent years or are being intentionally obtuse. I represented debtors in bankruptcy cases for almost six years. Now I represent mortgage servicers in bankruptcy cases. I can tell you that the vast majority of the ARM loans that I have seen aren't taken out by the poor. They have been taken out by those in the middle class that faithfully paid on them through a few rate adjustments. Then, in late 2006 and through 2008, LIBOR skyrocketed up to a degree that nobody foresaw. The payments got to a place nobody actually thought they'd get to, and people started defaulting.

There, at least in Texas, is another factor that nobody wants to talk about. The Texas windstorm coverage in 2008 stopped being part of your homeowners policy. Now it is only offered through the state. When that happened, the insurance premiums on a $100,000 home went from about $1,300 a year to over $2,000 a year. The result? Escrow accounts went negative. So now, homeowners are paying escrow for the current year at a higher rate, plus a shortage, plus the higher interest rate. It is a material increase.

Most people do not like the fact that we are having to allow judges to modify mortgages. Most rational people understand that in order to stop the free fall in housing prices, we have to make some concessions.

You may not care about stemming the tide of foreclosures, but people who have never fallen behind on their mortgage in areas hit the hardest are seeing their net worth evaporate as their home value plummets.

It isn't about all me, me, me...that is what got us into this mess. I won't even get into the mortgage backed securities and how profit motivation on the investment side of lending helped get us to where we are.

 

That's the thing, not everyone can be highly educated and successful our economy couldn't handle it. We would have no janitors,cashiers, or bus drivers because everybody would be an MBA. We already have 27M plus small businesses in America, how many more do you want? We have too many businesses as it is, its\'s difficult enough as it is to break into a market much less succeed unless you have something revolutionary on your side.It's not rich vs. poor so stop attacking us and thinking its fair we pay a higher percentage than you guys. We already pay more than enough in property tax and sales tax, but it's never enough you have to attack our overall income. I'm sick of my property tax going mainly to HISD, I'd never send my kid to the nightmare of a system that is HISD. For what so Saavedra can take home $400K in compensation.

 

A stratification of rates based upon income has been part of the tax system since its inception. I really wish you had been around when in 1963 when the marginal tax rate for those making over $200,000 a tear was 91%. I can hear your bellyaching now.

If you wanted a standard % without crippling government, it would be a veru high percentage. Not good for the economy as a whole.

 

I've pointed out before and I will do it again. You've ignored it before.

The largest welfare costs go to health care. THE LARGEST GROUP OF RECIPIENTS ON HEALTH CARE ARE SENIOR CITIZENS.

Stop calling our nation's elderly bums, and irresponsible. The elderly can't really go back to school, and start a new career. You are basing your argument about welfare on a myth.

 

Please post more high school economics.

 

Truth of the matter is this: Congressional House Dems represent the old school democratic party.

But the Senate and guys like Obama are actually the new GOP. The GOP we see now isn't Lincoln's party, it's some evangelical party rooted in helping the rich and pushing us to more social conservatism. It's a party of American Arrogance - that somehow if we do the same stuff it will work...like what a grumpy old man from an outdated era.

The true pragmatic leaders are now guys like Arnold S in Cali and Obama. Guys willing to do what makes sense - willing to listen, and adjust their game plan. They may tilt to social or business - but in the end, they aren't blinded by the extreme wings of their own parties...their moderates.

Bush was suppose to be one, he campaigned as such. But it was a lie.

 

The thing about Obama's pragmatism is that he can easily lose a foothold on his party from missteps. It's like a quick a limber CEO trying to take over a slow and decaying government.

It's good that Obama's keen on using his political capital now because his pragmatism will run an ongoing charge where one can't know "where he stands" in entrenched and bitterly polarized positions. He needs some quick and continuous successes to cement that trust within his party as a leader. Otherwise, his situation will be no better than the Governator and his sinking state..

 

1. Last time I checked Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Idaho are all welfare states and are all screaming Obama is a socialist lol.
2. There also the poorest
3. Obama won the upper class vote.
4. Republicans believe in Laissez Faire economics…The country we rejected that in Nov, so No misunderstanding there.
5. Most wealth in this country is inherited from past generations.
6. The Middle class shrunk, and the affluent netted more then ever. No misunderstanding there either.
7. The republicans were/and are still stubborn.
8. The leader of the Republican Party is a dope head who happens to be a commentator who has made questionable statements about minorities and women in the past.
9. The Republican Party is not very diverse and hasn’t really tried until now.
10. Our republican administration took a week just to say anything about Katrina, but they thought enough to drop food & water in on the other side of the globe in 24 hours.
11. Washington was in Gridlock
12 Conservatives were the last ones to realize that the economy was collapsing, something everybody else seem to realize years ago.

 

This is a fantastic post with concrete, real life behind it....as opposed to the mindless dogma of party politics.