Book Face (political posts)

[canpakes]

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A Facebook post from Lori Gallagher Witt, in 2018:

I'm a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. PERIOD.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

3. I believe education should be affordable. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (by the way, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on me or mine.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is the enforcement of present laws and enacting new, common sense gun regulations. Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?
I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.”

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

[Chap]

A Facebook post from Lori Gallagher Witt, in 2018:

I'd be interested to hear if anybody markedly disagrees with any of those points.

If so, it would be good if they could quote the part they disagree with, and explain briefly why.

I am not interested in generalised ravings about 'woke communist lunatics', by the way.

[huckelberry]

This is so good. I completely endorse it exactly as it is written. From the first word to the last.

Frank Villani

We want our damned country back. Your neighbor is not your enemy. The teacher down the street. The farmer in Iowa. The Black mother in the Bronx. The white guy driving a pickup truck in Kentucky. The immigrant pouring concrete in August. The boy holding another boys hand. The MAHA mom reading the ingredients on a cereal box. None of them is your enemy.

We have been sold a magnificent steaming pile of BS. We have been told that America is two hungry tribes crouched on opposite sides of a river, sharpening knives, waiting for the opportunity to wade across and murder one another.

The great political scam of our time was convincing 340 million people who share a country, schools, roads, rivers, grocery stores, hospitals, fears, children, mortgages, illnesses, dreams and funerals that we have nothing in common. That we are enemies.

There is an enormous amount we agree on. We want clean water. Clean air. We don’t want corporations filling our children’s bodies with poison. We don’t want plastic in our oceans, our soil, our blood and our babies. We want food that is actually damned food. We want our children educated. We want to be able to go to the doctor without wondering whether the bill will bankrupt us.

We want a decent job. We want Social Security when we’re old. We want politicians to stop using public office as an ATM. We don’t want political violence. We don’t want our government owned by billionaires. We want our votes to matter. We want a country where the law applies to the rich bastard in the penthouse as surely as it applies to the poor bastard standing before a judge.

And while we’re being made afraid of one another, somebody is picking our damned pockets. The billionaires figured something out before the rest of us did: Anger, fear, loneliness, and resentment are business models. And Donald Trump understood the product better than anybody. Grievance. Barrels and barrels of grievance. Bottle it. Brand it. Sell it.

Tell a man whose factory disappeared that an immigrant stole his country. Tell a struggling mother that some other struggling mother is getting something she isn’t. Tell rural America the cities despise them. Tell the cities rural America wants to destroy them. Tell white people Black people are coming for them. Tell Black people every white neighbor is secretly waiting to put them back in chains.

Keep everybody suspicious. Keep everybody angry. Keep everybody separated. Rape us one by one. Then watch as Trump and the billionaires walk through the wreckage taking everything. We all see it.

Democracy will be saved by finding the places where we already agree and building from there. Citizenship is not a subscription service. Democracy is not something delivered to your doorstep. You don’t get to order it from Amazon. You don’t get to complain that democracy is dying while sitting on the toilet scrolling Instagram. Democracy requires something from us. Time. Courage. Attention. Neighbors. Argument. Forgiveness. Work.

And sometimes the willingness to stand up and say No. No, you will not make me hate my neighbor. No, you will not make me afraid of somebody because they pray differently or vote differently or love differently or were born somewhere else. You will not convince me that cruelty is strength. You will not convince me that corruption is patriotism. You will not convince me that billionaires need another tax break while teachers buy their own damned pencils. No, you will not divide us and then sell off the pieces to the oligarchs.

Reimagine the country. Rebuild the democracy. Rework the communities. Find each other again. Fight like hell for the enormous territory we share. Because beneath all the noise and BS and algorithms and campaign advertisements, there is still a country here. Ours.

Thankyou Jersey Girl.