The Ramblings of Miss Pissykitty

1. 27
   Dec
   

   *Insert Snarky Title Here about Family and Politics*

   One night a conundrum was presented to me: How can any middle-class person not like Obama?

   I did not have a catchy, witty reply at the time with which to adequately answer such a question and last night gave me just the chance I needed to find the answer to this question. It eventually turned into a (sarcasm) nice, fun (/sarcasm) discussion between myself, a cousin, a cousin-in-law (CIL), and my future brother-in-law (FBIL) which the FBIL and I turned into an impromptu sociology project.

   Let’s just say it was… interesting.

   The summary is: The people who do not like Obama have always had decent healthcare, decent jobs, or their needs provided for… they’ve always had it relatively easy and have never really had to actually struggle. Also, the people who don’t like Obama aren’t highly educated and feel that listening to some hateful, bigoted Reich-wing talk show host keeps them “informed”.

   To make more sense of everything, let me introduce you to the main characters, all middle-class folks, all with decent, respectable jobs. This is what makes it all so interesting.

   ME: Liberal, feminist, sarcastic, assertive, outspoken ex-Catholic school girl who rebelled hardcore from the Catholic faith which was shoved at me since childhood. I was kicked out of the Catholic school and attending public high school for 3 years where I received a REAL education. There isn’t a Catholic trait left in me at all and I have nothing to do with the faith at all. I’m hovering somewhere between Judaism and Athiesm and I think I align more with the Judaism so I can basically rub in the Christian peoples’ faces that Jesus is more like me than them and knows my customs and they can stuff it. I’m the Liberal that neocons wish did not exist: I’m a gun-owner and my grandpa and I have been making our own bullets since I was 7 years old. Cancer survivor who finally received insurance worth a damn in May 2010, first good policy I’ve had since 2002 when I was dropped for having the audacity to get cancer again (silly me!) I’m also 30 weeks away from a Master’s degree in Psychology, work a respectable job as a teacher of social and behavioral skills. I’m pretty well-read in history and I do not watch TV. I’m also happily single and child-free and do not wish to ever have children.

   COUSIN: He is as conservative as I am liberal. He’s also as devoutly Catholic as I am anti-Catholic, a Catholic school alumni. He uses verses from the Old Testament (aka Jewish Bible) to justify his salvation and my condemnation. Jesus would not approve. Basically, imagine my polar opposite and there you have it. He has a high school education and couldn’t be arsed to finish one quarter of college. Works for the state… in other words, draws a goverment check, has government healthcare. Love him dearly but… hate his views. Married, 2 daughters.

   COUSIN IN LAW: Generally speaking, we do not get along but can be counted on to have each other’s back when it comes to certain things like politics and religion He’s as Atheist as my cousin is Catholic. While his wife is Catholic, they believe it’s live and let live as far as religion goes. He’s also very Liberal and had the biggest Obama sign in my city. Married, with a boy and a girl. Has a public education and a Bachelor’s degree and his wife holds a Master’s.

   FUTURE BROTHER IN LAW: Relatively quiet until you start trash-talking Obama then he’ll speak up. He normally prefers to stay out of the religious and political discussions but somehow gets roped in anyways. His religious affiliation is something of a mystery… like me, he views it as a personal choice and not a justification for hatred and bigotry and is cool with the views of others as long as they respect his views. Like me, a public school graduate and he is on the brink of obtaining his Master’s degree.

   So… we have all the above. For some reason, Cousin decides to knock me for being “stupid” and “ignorant” for voting for Obama, telling me I should watch Fox News and would learn a thing or two from Glenn BecKKK (as I call him). Now, mind you, BecKKK is a Hitler nutswinger and uses more swaztikas and Nazi propaganda than the SS. I’m Jewish. See where this could be a little bit of an issue?

   So since stupidity and ignorance were brought up, the FBIL and I decided to do a little survey because we had a theory that the more education one had… the more liberal one leans. Granted, our little survey conducted among about 20 registered voters was informal and had no scientific basis… it proved us right.

   There were 4 people (Cousin, Uncle, Mom, Dad) in the house who considered themselves Conservative. All 4 of them only graduated from high school. Two voted for McCain, Cousin being one of them, and an uncle being the other. My dad voted for Obama because he felt Obama represented the needs of the middle-class better than McCain and said Sarah Palin was what caused him to change his vote. He has no issues with women in politics but thinks a box of rocks could do better than Palin. My mom does not vote, and therefore her political “opinions” (which, in reality, are only Hannity or O’Reilly talking points) do not mean jack shit since she does not vote and therefore will not be discussed- but she does think Sarah Palin is full of shit and she is also pro-choice.

   The rest of us? Well, the remaining people in the house all held Bachelor’s Degrees, graduate degrees, or were in the process of obtaining a college degree. NOT ONE voted for McCain, we all voted Obama. NONE of us watched Faux News, most of our information on current events comes from a variety of sources.

   My cousin could not give out ONE valid reason why Obama was bad, and EVERY “reason” was merely a Faux News talking point which has been debunked. My cousin is against “government” healthcare, yet he enjoys his government healthcare.  He’s NEVER been catastrophically ill like I have, and he has always had insurance whether from his parents or his job.  He’s never had real college debt, so he can’t see why Pell Grants are necessary and how they will boost the economy (an O’Reilly talking point).

   Here’s small example of how a Pell Grant boosts the economy: Mine was cut to $500 in Bush’s last year in office. Banks that handled my college loans weren’t lending more money and I really did not know how I was going to finish college. Obama increased my Pell Grant to $3500. Between that and my $4000 scholarship, I had enough to graduate. I get a job making 3x what I did before I graduated college and guess what? I’m SPENDING 3x as much money as I did before, too. Multiply that by all us college graduates and that’s a nice little kick in the economic ass.

   Cousin is also freaking out that Obama is going to raise his taxes sky-high. First off, unless he’s sleeping in his newly-made bunker (NOT kidding) and since he doesn’t watch actual news, then he must have missed the deadline about the Bush tax cuts. Besides, he makes under $30K a year, so Obama’s proposed tax “increase” wouldn’t even affect him anyways. Yet he’s freaked about it. Because BecKKK is freaked out.

   He also says “No good comes from Liberals”. CIL, FBIL, and I asked him the following:

   • Do you like your 40-hour work week?
   • Do you like your overtime pay?
   • Do you like regular breaks?
   • Do you like the fact you work in a safe environment?
   • Enjoy the benefit packages?
   • Enjoy your right to be a part of the Union?
   • Like your childrens’ public educations?

   Of course, he said YES to all the above. We told him he could thank Liberals for that. Didn’t sit well.

   Basically, Cousin has never wanted for anything. He’s never known what it’s like to have no money because he had to choose between buying food or paying for medical bills because he got extremely sick, has never taken out college loans, and if he runs short of money… well his parents or in-laws are there to bail him out. He and his wife are content on their combined $60K a year. They live relatively simply and modest.

   CIL and FBIL also paid their own way through college like I have…. and FBIL and I primarily went to graduate school because our current salaries (while nice and comfy) would not be enough to pay back our loans. Sure… more debt. But the difference in pay between a BA and an MS, and in a few years a PhD… substantial enough to justify the extra $40K in debt (because I’ll make that back my first YEAR as after my PhD). We don’t live large, but paying for a good education and also basic living expenses does not come cheap. When FBIL and I had our Pell Grants increased, better believe we were thinking “THANK YOU OBAMA!!!”.

   Cousin also threw out the “Christian Nation!!!”and “based on Christian values!!!” malarky. I asked him what Christianity was our country based upon; Westboro Baptist Church? Al Sharpton’s? Amish? Catholic? Lutheran? Methodist? He was also telling me he has a book on the Founding Fathers (that he is waving atb me) that will PROVE YOUR IGNORANT LIBERAL ASS WRONG ABOUT THIS “NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION SHIT”

   *Snicker* I can’t WAIT until he reads about Washington and Jefferson and how they felt that organized religion was nothing but superstition and stupidity. Won’t he be in for a rude shock?!

   Naturally, CIL, FBIL and I already know about the Founding Fathers and their views and exactly why legislation will never be based on any religion… because um…. those Founding Fathers were kind of sick and tired of their leader (King George III, who by then had gone off his nut thanks to poriphyra) basing legislation off religion and religion off legislation. Their Deist views were illegal under the English law. It must be remembered, thanks to King Henry VIII (who changed religious inclincations more than he changed wives… and the oaf was married 6 times) the King of England was the head of Church. If the King felt that rubbing your nipples across the window of the butcher’s shop was a way to show thanks to God… then you either DID that, or you were fined/imprisoned. Thanks to the enlightened views of the Founding Fathers… we have the freedom to have a different religion and different degrees of religiousity (or lack thereof) than our leader.

   I know I wasn’t going to get into my mom’s political views because she doesn’t vote… but here’s another middle-class person who doesn’t like Obama. Background info- she was a stay-at-home-mom until about 14 years ago, married as a teenager, and basically went from her parents providing for her to her husband providing for her. She decided to get a job outside the home when she realized running a daycare from the home was a bigger buttpain than it was worth. She says she doesn’t like Obama because he doesn’t feel sorry for her and she feels that he SHOULD feel sorry for her. He has the NERVE to go on vacation when she doesn’t get to go because she has to work. Apparently running a classroom of 10 5-year olds and being in charge of 6 different classrooms is more tedious than running a country of 50 states and 310,729,000 people. I told her since she doesn’t vote, she’s a non-entity to Obama (and ANY politician) and why would he feel sorry for someone who doesn’t have the desire to vote? She listens to Hannity and O’Reilly on the radio while she cleans the house. She cleans a lot. Everything she hates about current state of the country… lack of decent insurance options, shitty access to healthcare, the idea that MEN are trying to outlaw women’s reproductive rights… and she is oblivious to the fact that it’s all shit caused/exacerbated by Republicans and they’re the ones blocking everything that could be remotely beneficial to her. But, she says… Hannity says Republicans are our FRIENDS. I reminded her that Hitler used the same shit excuse about the Nazis.

   So yea… there’s two examples of middle-class people who do not like Obama and Faux News talking points aren’t the only thing they’re full of, either!!

   One last thought… a funny aside. During the election of 2008 my dad and I were initially on opposite sides. Mom said we could not put any signs in the yard. I hung Obama signs in every window. My dad hung McCain signs from the tree. Then once he saw reason and switched sides, we had a massive Obama sign.  Still, on the eve of election we realized our street was rather split. Houses literally alternated between McCain and Obama signs. We had a lot to drink and decided to have some fun and dusted off our sign from 1992 that said “Now there’s a choice… Perot for President!” My mom was beside herself at the plummeting maturity level.

   The next day on my way to go to work, I’d see people slow down as they drove by the house to take a picture, or pull in a nearby driveway to get a picture of it. They were probably thinking “Those stupid assholes… I can’t believe this shit!!”  The mailmain told my mom that he had the biggest laugh out of seeing that sign and it made his morning. She wanted to crawl under a rock and die. Still… mission accomplished… we made people laugh!
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