The Truth And Bad American

Kudos to Gentle Reader La Bruja of Venable City, Georgia, for the heads up on this e-mail. I would have provided a link but the craven bully who wrote a a rambling, disorganized discourse under the pseudonym "Bad American," but he didn't want to be linked to his cowardly repetition of fifteen-year-old Rush Limbaugh talking points.

Instead, we will attempt, through the use of the talking points employed by Mr. Bad American, to refute the propaganda of the right. Apparently these twits do not feel that America is large enough to hold an opinion other than their own vision of an all-white, technically Christian, English-speaking only nation that only existed on old episodes of Leave It To Beaver.

To the "Bad American," I am your worst nightmare. I am a southern, white, Christian, native speaker of English. I am also a LIBERAL, as is my President, my congress, and if we are fortunate, the Supreme Court. Very simply, conservatism has screwed up. Conservatism's strongest voices have moved from controlling the growth of Government and limiting its role to using Government to realize a vision of America which is closer to Hitler's Germany than the Nation I love.

I am proud of the millions of brave Americans who gave everything to face down the evil which would force those with whom they disagree from their jobs, homes and countries, if not declaring them "illegal," and committing genocide. Mr. Bad American, and proud conservative, why do you hate America? Does E Pluribus Unum only apply to Canadians who are unhappy with their health care system?

Our record with people not descended from northern Europe is abysmal. This does not suggest nobility or victimhood, but it does mean that people like YOU will not be allowed to dismiss a qualified LaToya Suarez from the inner city to employ an unqualified Laurie Shropshire from the suburbs.

Likewise, it appears that you have a great disdain for capitalism and profit. If a business owner chooses to make his products and services available to a broader market by employing bilingual staff, more power to him. In nine years of truck driving, over 48 states, I have as yet to find a place where I cannot order the meal of my choice, anywhere in the United States, in English.

If that business owner needs a bilingual staff because his market demands it, that is the business owner's decision. It is not up to you and government to ruin the man's business because you don't like his customers. This kind of disconnect is common to conservatives. I have thirty years of listening to Conservatives promise limited government, but every time I turn around they're making another law to restrict freedom.

If conservatives don't want to hear Spanish, they pass an English-only bill. If some competitor makes their unmotivated children look like the lazy, video-game addicted tubs of lard that many of them are, Conservatives will move the bar on immigration so their children don't have to compete as hard. If a Conservative feels that someone is moving into the position of succeding without their permission, they will perpetually find obstacles to that success.

At this rate, limited conservative government is on a track to make government bigger than Nancy Pelosi's wildest dream. The last three presidents who did not grow the federal deficit over their terms? Clinton, Carter, and Lyndon Johnson. The last Republican to leave a balanced budget? Dwight Eisenhower, with a top marginal tax rate of 90% So much for the myth about Tax and Spend Liberals.

Deregulation of out Financial services has cost American taxpayers more in the last year than four and a half DECADES of Great Society entitlement programs. These same programs are much less responsible for the lack of two-parent homes in some communities than a failed policy of drug interdiction and incarceration.

Do I want police to deal with someone committing a crime? Sure. But drug laws such as New York's Harriman laws, and zero-tolerance policies have filled our prisons with many people who are fundamentally harmless and stimulated a violent and highly profitable black market. I will believe that race is not a factor in enforcement when the stoners in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs (affluent, predominately white Atlanta suburbs) do time in similar proportions to African-American and Latino offenders.

Everyone has the right to pray to his or her God when and where they want to. Conservatives do not have the right to use a public venue to require that others pray to the God of Conservative election. One also questions the appropriateness of God's name on currency, but He may actually be all that stands between the US and hyperinflation. Of course, quite a few Conservatives have the inability to see the similarities between Tim McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, Fred Phelps and Osama bin Laden.

The Greatest Americans of the last century were people of action and courage. The men and women who served us in World War II, represented by President John F. Kennedy. Those who risked being murdered by their compatriots for participating in the Civil Rights Movement, represented by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. And those who felt that it was America's responsibilty to live up to its promise for those marginalized by politics, language, class, and historical animosities, represented by Edward R. Murrow and Cesar Chavez.

As an entire class, the NASA program deserves mention before any motorbike. Any putz with enough cash can buy a bike. NASA is America at its best, literally going where no man had ever been.

Before suggesting that those in Florida were unable to decipher the 2000 butterfly ballot, one asks if there were steps that should have been in place to assure that it was clearly produced. Let's just blame Ralph Nader and go get a beer-Ralphie has been as bad for America as most Conservatives.

If one dislikes people soliciting donations in intersections, there's a great word called no, and it needs no translation into Spanish. The issue is that an unemployment rate of nearly ten per cent means that people who really do need assistance are in positions of begging with the chronically lazy. Which one of them is Jesus? He ain't the one in a US$40,000 SUV.

Illegal is only Illegal when judged by a court of law. What part of "innocent until proven guilty," do Conservatives not understand? Until then "Illegal" is slanderous/libelous and likely actionable in civil court. One hopes that someone from MALDEF gets Lou Dobbs with this one.

As far as Mr. Bad American's desire for only the American flag to fly in the United States, we share his enthusiasm. But before we invest ourselves in taking action against symbols of living nations, states, and territories which may have legitimate connection to ethnicity, we need to move against the only banner which was the standard that flew over an act of overt treason as defined by the United States Constitution: The Confederate Battle Flag.

God never left our country. We left Him and his lessons about love, mercy, and tolerance. We are free because of the brave who share the vow to uphold, protect and defend the United States Constitution.

Perhaps Mr. Bad American and his Conservative cohorts should try it sometime.