On the “truths” that liberals hate

I read a brief article titled “The five truths that liberals hate” on americanvision.org. I made what I considered to be a logical counter to the five truths, but after several days, I have been disappointed that my counter was not approved for the comments section. Perhaps the author only wants comments that support his opinion or only approves counter-arguments that are not all that intelligently composed, which of course only makes the counter-argument seem worse.

Anyhow, I’ve decided to reiterate my counter arguments, and share with you the five truths that liberals supposedly hate.
According to Gary Demar, Americanvision.org writer whose claim to fame is a degree in religious studies, the five truths that liberals hate are as follows:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.
5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

Simple-minded conservatives will jump for joy at the hasty generalizations as they try to show that liberal-minded folk are the downfall to our economy. But anyone with even a trace of logic can surely see through these “truths.” I prefer to refer to Gary’s post as FILTH (the best pun I could make out of the title: “Five Truths Liberals Hate”). The filth that Gary writes is perhaps not so surprising considering his degree, although it is very ironic. Once again, those who focus on dogmatic religious beliefs are unable to see the true inner-workings of an efficient, empathetic government. But ironically, one would think someone devoted to religion would have compassion to help others as opposed to taking help away. Why did all 40 Republicans vote no to extending unemployment? Because they have no compassion, no empathy, no heart. Moreover, they have no logic either—because of the lack of unemployment, we will see less spending in an already troubled economy and a potential increase in crime. But logic and compassion seem to be missing from most of the conservatives I know.

But back to Gary’s filth. Let’s take a look at each one of these “truths.”

1. “You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.”
I would change this filth to “You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by giving the wealthy all of the breaks.” It is amazing to me that conservatives do not think people should have to pay a fair share. The only reason the wealthy receive a bigger tax is because they have more money. Conservatives would rather see the lower and middle class suffer with more taxes then take any of the so-called “hard-earned” money of the wealthy. Interestingly, Gary’s filth generalization simply adds to the generalization that conservatives are all for the rich. Liberals do not want excessive taxes; they want fair taxes. And fair tax should be based on what someone makes. If you make more money, you pay more taxes. It’s that simple. And by the way— conservatives are certainly not all rich, but voting conservative when you are a member of the middle class is simply against your self-interest. Wake up.

2. “What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.”
It would be nice to have some examples to support Gary’s filth, but we just get generalizations. I would revise this statement to say the following: What one person receives without working for, another person is fortunate to not need to receive it. I’m not sure I’m a fan of that either because I do not like the word “working” in this context. Gary is trying to say that people get handouts without working, a typical ethnocentric, superior “I am better than thou” conservative viewpoint. The fact is that people do work, and then people get laid off or the economy suffers. Then those people receive things like unemployment. Those of us with jobs are fortunate to not have to receive unemployment. Those of us with good health care are fortunate to not have to try to get Medicaid. Programs like unemployment and Medicaid exist to help people who are in a significantly worse situation that the average worker. But Gary and many conservatives do not see it this way. They see these programs as a hand-out, a reward for not working. And that’s why the Republicans voted to take away unemployment. They cannot see themselves in the other person’s shoes—in the shoes of the person who lost a job and lost health care. I just hope the voters see how uncompassionate so many conservatives are.

3. “The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”
And exactly what has been taken from you, Gary? A few extra bucks on your tanning membership? An increase in the money you spend on soda, alcohol, and cigarettes? People act like we are being taxed like crazy, but what extra taxes have you actually noticed in your day to day life? In fact, if you are like me and make less than $100,000 a year, you’ve actually seen a decrease in your taxes. Thank you, Obama. But let me try to understand this better. Ok, so a person is laid off and needs a job. Do we take someone’s job and give it to them? No. Ok, so a person has no medical insurance and needs health care. Do we take someone’s health care and give it away? No. We’re building a stronger economy and a stronger civilization with such programs, but conservatives are often too selfish to care.

4. “When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.”
Really?!? I’m one of the most ambitious workers you’ll meet. And I know several conservatives who work very hard, and I don’t think any of us ever want to stop working because we have to take care of the other “half.” Ok, that may not be fair as I’m sure some conservatives may think this way. Is that why Sarah Palin quit her job?
First of all, to claim that “half” of the people get the idea they don’t have to work is ridiculous. Although unemployment is very high, it is absolutely nowhere near half. As with most generalizations, there is always some truth to the matter. Sure, there are a few deadbeats who will take unemployment as long as they can. Is it fair though to hurt the thousands of others who genuinely want to work because of a few deadbeats? No. This statement, Gary, is so far off the wall. It’s no wonder your website wouldn’t accept my comment, and it’s no wonder why you have a following of other conservatives brainwashed by Fox News who are as heartless as Voldemort.

5. “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
How about—“You cannot multiply wealth by doing nothing.” And nothing is the key principle of conservatives. No taxes, no programs, no help. The party of NO! You are on your own. It’s heartless, it’s brutal, and it’s real. Logically of course, no one is dividing the wealth and taking prosperity away from the wealthy. I hear Bill Gates is doing just fine. Taxes are added fairly based upon income, and if you do not have the income to support a few extra taxes, you are not taxed. Geez, doesn’t it seem that if we generalized conservative truths, we would find that we would have no law enforcement, no fire department, no roads and highways, no teachers, and no public schools? Conservatives like to make government out as the evil big brother, when in fact government only becomes “evil” (in terms of taking away rights, policies, and programs to help people) when conservatives take over.

To be fair, AmericanVision did post five truths conservatives hate. It’s interesting to me that instead of one lined generalizations for the filth Gary writes, the five truths Republicans hate each get a paragraph. I’ll post them below.

1. Most Republicans are as socialist as the Left. While not as socially liberal as the left—not advocating equality, gay rights, feminism, etc., etc.—Republicans have proven every bit as fiscally liberal with the exception of the last year or so when political convenience has changed their rhetoric. But try to get one to admit that social security and medicare are socialist programs along the lines of Obamacare, and they’ll dance and dodge all day! It was Bush II who created medicare prescription drug coverage at the cost of $550 billion, and only nine Senate republicans opposed.
2. Public schooling is a socialist institution, paid for like a social welfare scheme, where socialist teachers teach socialism to conservatives’ kids. It was designed as an anti-conservative institution and operates openly as an anti-conservative institution. Yet most conservative parents still mock homeschooling and refuse to put their kids in even a private school. Some Christians argue they’re salt and light—”we just need prayer back in schools!” The only prayer any kid should be praying in school is “Mom! Dad! Please! Get me out!”
3. There is no such thing as private property as long as property taxes and the threat of liens exist. Bad-mouthing Obama’s socialism rings hollow until you pressure your state, county, and municipal officials to abolish property taxes. Of course, you’d also have to argue against public schooling as well, for about 75% of property taxes go to pay for public schools.
4. There is nothing inherently or historically conservative about our national standing military. It was a Republican-led effort that ignored everything the American founders wrote about the dangers of standing armies and centralized the state militias into a national army, the outlawed state militias. Shortly after the Militia Act of 1903, in one ten year span before WWI, the military budget rose from $2 million to $53 million—a 2,650% budget increase. The whole program was carried out by Progressives which at that time dominated the Republican Party. These were men whom Republicans generally revere as well, Republicans: William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Elihu Root. Historically, big war has been carried out under progressive Democrats: Wilson got us into WW1, FDR WWII, Truman Korea, and Kennedy/Johnson Vietnam. Progressives love war inherently: it was one aspect that grew directly out of social Darwinism. Conservatives fight when necessary to protect their own land and freedom, except against property taxes, apparently.
5. Republicans were the original spend-and-tax, big-government Progressives, and remain so today. The same Republican men who nationalized the military, in order to fund their progressive ideals, created, promoted, and signed into law the Sixteenth amendment (national income tax) which had the side-effect of rendering the IRS a permanent institution. Taft got the act through Congress in 1909, the last state ratified it in 1913. The intervening presidential election was a contest of three men with the same ideals—Wilson, T. Roosevelt, and Taft—all of whom supported the national income tax. The same Republicans instituted the National Monetary Commission which developed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which Wilson also signed into law. In modern times, were it not for Obama, Bush II would reign as the spending and deficit king by quite a margin. The biggest spenders in recent decades were all the Republican presidents, including Reagan. Only Clinton in his first term rivaled them before Obama.

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