Letter To A Conservative Friend

I thought it would be appropriate to re-post this which I blogged on June 10^th, 2010 before there was even talk of protests and certainly Occupy Wall Street did not exist yet.

Dear Sylvia:

I wanted to allow you to understand what the word LIBERAL means and to clarify some of my views and what I am trying to say in this blog.

First of all, Liberal is not a dirty word. It is a label that Fox News and the Republicans have coined to classify anyone and everyone who is progressive in their thinking and does not buy into their lies and ideology. I wear the LIBERAL badge with honor.

Second, if you consider that President Obama has already done more good for this country in only one year, as opposed to the eight years of not one single positive thing done by his predecessor and the Republicans, it is amazing he has been able to accomplish so much and doing so from the CENTER, not the extreme liberal left that the conservative pundits are portraying.

And President Obama has been able to do all these things in spite of an uncooperative Congress and Senate with all kinds of lies thrown in that Republicans are unwilling to retract or correct. The latest one now is this job offer to Sestak…give me a break, President Bush had 35 impeachable offenses and you Republicans never said anything…mind you, his offenses caused millions in treasure and thousands of American deaths.

Third, I am truly alarmed when I hear someone voice that concern because it is very obvious to most people that we have been screwed. The middle class is almost decimated; the preponderance of evidence tells us that we were on our way to a model of an OLIGARCHY with a very powerful THEOCRATIC tint.

That is unacceptable to most of us, and it certainly has to be to all of gays and members of minorities.

Fourth, I would argue the point that if you are a conservative, you want to maintain the status quo; you don’t want things to change. When I look around me and I see a couple of hundred things that need to change I just can’t accept going back to the Bush years. Not me, not now, not ever. I am not going back in the closet for one thing nor will I ever forgive Republicans for what they did to this country and to me in particular in order to make profits.

I will also clarify one very important thing: that I am a firm believer in the free enterprise system but it has to have regulations or greed will take over because greed has no conscience.

I lost my job in 2006 to outsourcing (started by Reagan) then I bought a house that at one time was worth ¾ of a million dollars and now is only worth $353,000 even after I spent almost $200,000 improving it. I had both a retirement pension and a 401K that disappeared in September and October of 2008 and now I am left with only my Social Security check. I also had my COBRA run out so that I am without health insurance, should I get sick I would probably lose everything I own and will have to live out of a cardboard box under a bridge. 

Lastly, I ask you, hasn’t the REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH ALREADY TAKEN PLACE? It has gone from the poor and the middle class to the very rich. Yes, it has. What we have here is a WELFARE STATE for the rich and the corporations. My two lost pensions had real money in them. Both me and my company which matched dollar for dollar my contributions helped me build a nest egg for my old age; now I have nothing and that money existed. Do you really think that I want to give Republicans my vote ever again? Do you think that I am going to listen to Glen Beck when he tells me I should buy gold?

I never frittered away my money. I never needed any government help. I was frugal and conservative. I could have taken trips, vacations, eaten at good restaurants and I did not do so because I never wanted to find myself in the situation I am now. And let me tell you, I am not an isolated case. There are millions of people out there who have lost their jobs and their houses. I am lucky I am still able to hang on to mine.

So when I don’t call you or socialize with you it is because I am trying to avoid a confrontation with someone I used to respect and whose friendship I valued. I don’t see you or talk to you because I want to think I can be conservative in this case and not precipitate a change…which invariably will result in a heated argument and a loss of a friend.