<p>Last night I was randomly called by US Rep. Jim Walsh to participate in a telephone town hall meeting. (Ha - that’s a new one.) People were encouraged to ask questions (which were screened).</p>
<p>I could not believe the lame things people asked about. So uniformed, so confused, so self-absorbed! These are the citizens of our country? We’re supposed to be running the world’s foremost Democracy? Scary!</p>
<p>One lady was trying to figure out how her daughter in Florida could get free babysitting, or free health care - she couldn’t afford both.</p>
<p>Another lady wanted to know who would pay her money to farm her personal garden, because she didn’t think she should pay property taxes. (She also wanted to suggest that maybe “those people on welfare” could pick apples – I wonder if an idiot like her ever stops to think how much it would cost to put together a government program that matched welfare workers with farmers and then made sure they went to work, and yadayada.)</p>
<p>Another guy wanted assistance with some state issue that I can’t remember - not realizing, evidently, that the United States House of Representatives doesn’t do Albany stuff. (He also addressed him as “Senator.”)</p>
<p>One guy wanted to complain that he had been laid off from (a large company) 2 years ago and was too lazy to go get another job. No seriously - he thought he should be able to maintain his nice house and nice standard of living “with government help.”</p>
<p>Another lady just wanted to whine about what a calamity it would be if a liberal were to become president. She was worried her taxes would go up. Has it occurred to her that we have not even STARTED paying for Bush’s $1 TRILLION occupation of Iraq?! Taxes going up - DUH!</p>
<p>And then to top it all off Walsh takes a phony poll (press 1 for yes, 2 for no) on whether or not Governor Elliot Spitzer should allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses - “Because that’s what he’s going to do folks!” Since when does the federal government have ANYTHING to do with state motor vehicle laws? NEVER that’s when! Does he feel like Congress needs more work? Or is all the conservative BS about states’ rights just that - BS?</p>
<p>Oh I just needed a place to vent. With a citizenry as clueless as that - we might be doomed.</p>
<p>many people are very conservative and are against any government assistance(handout) until misfortune comes their way. Hey, isn’t the mortgage interest deduction merely a housing subsidy? Never heard where it was a constitutional right.</p>
<p>“many people are very conservative and are against any government assistance(handout) until misfortune comes their way.”</p>
<p>Just a tad presumptuous, don’t you think, oog? What makes you think these were all conservatives? A quick look at the 2006 election results shows that the district is split about as evenly as possible (51-49). To assume that all the people looking for handouts were conservatives is not the kind of logical thinking that I would expect from an engineering prof.</p>
<p>However, I agree with the essence of Weenie’s post - that the electorate (both left and right) is generally clueless. That’s why when people throw poll results about such issues as Iraq as “proof” that their position is the correct one are just as guilty of erroneous logic.</p>
<p>Weenie is right and I’m appreciative of the post. What I’d like to know is what people think “government assistance is.” I used to live in a condo development that included cable TV as part of the common charges. When people didn’t pay, a board member would tell them to go to their neighbors and ask their neighbors to pay for their cable TV and see what answers they got. Same thing. The “government” is just other people paying for what you want. Annoys me greatly!</p>
Actually, no. The mortgage interest deduction reduces the amount of money you must pay to the government assuming you earn money. It is not a handout from the government. The money earned belongs first to the individual and is taken by the government. The deduction determines how much the government takes of your money. BTW, the deduction is capped for rich people. It is intended to benefit first time homebuyers and the middle class.</p>
<p>If you want housing subsidies, try Section 8 housing, etc. It goes to poor people who turn the properties into slums and crime centers.</p>
<p>I’ve worked on political campaigns, and nothing people ask surprises me. Sometimes it was hard to keep a straight face. But you gotta love them- they’re trying to understand the process, they’re trying to educate themselves. That’s better than not caring at all, or voting out of complete ignorance. They may not be as erudite as we’d like, but I wouldn’t ridicule people who are actually trying to be responsible and informed voters. And there are misinformed people who ask silly questions in both parties. But at least they are trying!</p>
<p>Oh believe me, the folks who got through on the phone were only Republicans. (The callers were not from all over the his area either - they were only from Monroe and Wayne Counties - and the geographic boundries within those counties are heavily Republican.)</p>
<p>And I totally agree with you Doubleplay. I do not expect everyone to be the news junkie that I am – it’s not even healthy!!! But, when elected officials just feed into - indeed, take advantage of - the ignorance makes me mad, and that was exactly what was happening here.</p>
<p>Razorsharp: You really give Conservatives a bad name.
Over 36% of Section 8 goes to the elderly and permanently disabled. There but for the grace of God go you.</p>
<p>Are you sure they realized it was a politician on the phone and not Santa Claus?
Well then, from your description most of them should tear up their party-card. People need to quit looking at the ‘government’ as nothing more than a cash cow for them.</p>
<p>weenie - What did you ask them to give you? (I’m saying this in jest - )</p>
<p>In another lifetime, I was on state paid staff for a national campaign. Upon occasion, one would encounter representatives of the Opposition. More than once, I mused for all our vehement disagreements, we often had more in common with each other than the people we were trying to convince.</p>
<p>Of course, this was before the GOP was hijacked by the Busheviks. Come to think of it, I wonder if the Republicans will ever get their party back or if it’s been done in permanently?</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to the day when I’m on the conservative half of the political discourse, arguing against Mini and his ilk, and the Busheviks are simply and completely irrelevant.</p>
<p>In policy analysis circles, the mortgage interest deduction is indeed considered to be a subsidy - and it’s one that benefits the middle class and the wealthy. Poor folks are much more likely to be renters than people with higher incomes and they don’t get that subsidy.</p>
<p>TheDad: “I’m looking forward to the day when I’m on the conservative half of the political discourse, arguing against Mini and his ilk, and the Busheviks are simply and completely irrelevant.”</p>
<p>I think we’re all looking forward to the day when conservative isn’t a dirty word. I even have a streak of the old-style conservative myself. (I even agree with George Will about 60% of the time.)</p>
<p>Weenie, it’s a long walk from pre-Reagan conservatives to this current mush-brained crop of Busheviks. </p>
<p>One of the best amateur analysts I know makes a good case & analysis that the Bush coalition has been one combining the social conservatives, the economic conservatives, the nativists, and the national security conservatives into an unstable and difficult to hold alliance (note overlaps for many individuals).</p>
<p>Northern New Jerseyans will recognize the name of the columnist Paul Mulshine. Raving Reagan libertarian, and I’m on the same page with him more than half the time (of course, the other almost half, I’m throwing the paper across the room in disgust…but at least I know he’s thinking when he makes me nuts.)</p>
<p>"Weenie, it’s a long walk from pre-Reagan conservatives to this current mush-brained crop of Busheviks. </p>
<p>One of the best amateur analysts I know makes a good case & analysis that the Bush coalition has been one combining the social conservatives, the economic conservatives, the nativists, and the national security conservatives into an unstable and difficult to hold alliance (note overlaps for many individuals)."</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree. I don’t think economic conservatives are in the Bush coalition at all.</p>
<p>ZM, you look at the voting analyses and the self-described economic conservatives may have grumbled by they stuck with Bush in 2000 and 2004. Fwiw, the financial industry guys I know are <em>still</em> sticking with Bush. Perhaps someone can play “Nearer My God to Thee.”</p>
<p>4-6 years ago I got a call from a fund raising committee headed by an upstate NY, republican, congressman, who was soliciting $$ for the republican cause.
I didn’t know the guy (afraid of phishing, ■■■■■■■■, and I am in OR and on the National NoCall List) asked him to call me back after I did a little googling. The solicitor returned my request and I essentially told him that he, the Congressman, and the RNC, was treasonous, to the fiscal and constitutionalists conservatives of the party.</p>
<p>I was then lucky enough to another call from this phone bank a few weeks later. I then told them that not only were they deaf, they were dumb, that if I ever heard from them again, I would call everyone I can think of and tell them this story.</p>
<p>BEHOLD, the RNC, is a bad as the Democratic Party, says it is. They called again . </p>
<p>True to MY WORD… I am telling you this story. The promises that the Republicans made to me, have not been kept, not even in the smallest of terms.</p>
(The callers were not from all over the his area either - they were only from Monroe and Wayne Counties - and the geographic boundries within those counties are heavily Republican.)</p>