The Intrepid Arrogance of "I Don't Believe It"

So you're chatting with your favorite conservative friend. You present a fact-based, well-researched position. That's when they pull out the "I don't believe it" card. You guys. I am so sick of it I can't even. Not only is "I don't believe it"  a conversation-stopper,  doesn't it kinda sound like your friend will gladly re-engage in an adult conversation, if only you could provide some facts? Oh, would that it were so! But this is not our reality.

Personal "belief" in any social, historic or scientific fact has become the conservative voter's staunch position on so many vitally important things that I'm afraid we're freefalling down the rabbit hole here. You don't "believe in" the dangers of fracking, offshore drilling, global warming, the existence of gender-based pay inequality, the realities of sexual crimes, the gross unfairness in tax law, lack of affordable housing, the need to make good health care available to everyone...well...what DO you believe in? That these things are even up for debate is astonishing. There's...data. There are experts in the subject matter. We don't care what you "believe."

Could We Bring Back Experts, Please?

Here's an example of this craziness. This happened in June of this year. Do you know who Pavar Snipe is? I guess she's a blogger of sorts. I can't claim to know a single thing about her, only that it seems every story she covers is pointless drivel that has zero impact on anyone's life. Right now, for example Pavar is arguing online about whether or not Halle Barry was legally married to her last boyfriend. Who. Gives a shit. But, as the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and this image posted by Pavar Snipe hit me pretty hard. It's a garage door that someone spray-painted "Foreclosed! 3 tours in Iraq but no bailout for people like me."

Before blogging about it, I'd really hoped to find out more, such as whose garage is this and what was the back story? All we were able to learn was that this home is somewhere in West Virgina. This image is awful. You risk your life defending the country and you're just left twisting in the wind while your lawmakers argue about my vagina? What universe is this? No one who went to war should lose their house, end of story. The GI Bill should be enhanced and expanded, not gutted, which will almost certainly happen if things go terribly wrong in November. So I shared and posted on Facebook in response to this image: "When will it end?" With a quickness one of my conservative friends replied, and I quote.

"In November. 

It's not going to happen 

under Obama!"

What. It's not going to happen under Obama? You know what? You're a nice lady. But you must be inserting your over-processed blonde head directly up the ass of Fox News in order to say something this stupid. Surely it's the pinnacle of ignorance, is it not? It should be noted that, during the RNC speeches last week, this same Obama-hating person watched Paul Ryan's speech and posted "that was so inspirational!" Inspirational? Paul Ryan is certifiable. That is a dangerous man. 

JOBS: The Actual Facts

What about the alarming evidence every day in the news proving that the Republicans have been systematically voting down every single jobs bill that would deliver literally millions of jobs opportunities? Blocked, every one of them. Not because the jobs bills weren't good. Just because. They have no agenda, what do you think is supposed to happen in November? What exactly? Here's the gentleman from Kentucky, Senator McConnell speaking in December 2010 to explain.

"Over the past week, some have said it was indelicate of me to suggest that our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term. But the fact is, if our primary goals are to repeal and replace the health spending bill, to end the bail outs, cut spending, and shrink the size and scope of government, the only way to do all of those things is to put someone in the white house who won't veto any of these things."

Sure enough, in June, yet another bill was voted down, this time it was a comprehensive act called the "Pay Equity" bill. This one was really good. The Pay Equity bill seeks to prevent a corporation from immediately firing any woman who goes to her boss and says "Hey, I just found out that (male colleague at same pay grade) makes more than I do, that's not fair." What's worse than coming back with "I don't believe it" is that, in this case, the Senate Republicans DO say that they believe that women are being fired for asking for equal pay, but apparently that's irrelevant. The Pay Equity bill was also blocked, so the Republicans basically said, "You'll get less pay and you'll shut up about, honey. Now go make some coffee."

“It is incredibly disappointing that in this make-or-break moment for the middle class, Senate Republicans put partisan politics ahead of American women and their families.” (Barack Obama, New York Times, June 6, 2012)

A month later in July, yet another jobs bill was voted down, this time it was the "Bring Home Jobs" bill. Voting down the Bring Home Jobs bill was a huge slap in the face to American workers, especially those whose jobs have been disrupted by advances in technology and automation. The Bring Home Jobs bill had one goal, and that was to curtail this damaging outsourcing of jobs to China and India and other places where labor costs corporations mere pennies. If your job went to another country, that's because your company didn't want to pay you anymore, because a guy over there will do it so much cheaper and the shareholders now get to see their portfolios grow. Is that what you're voting for? Congratulations, you're voting against your own livelihood. So much for putting America back to work. The Bring Home Jobs bill would have amended the tax code in this way:

(1) grant business taxpayers a tax credit for up to 20% of insourcing expenses incurred for eliminating a business located outside the United States and relocating it within the United States, and

(2) deny a tax deduction for outsourcing expenses incurred in relocating a U.S. business outside the United States. Requires an increase in the taxpayer's employment of full-time employees in the United States in order to claim the tax credit for insourcing expenses.

That's just two jobs bills that Republicans blocked. Your heroes. All told, seventeen job bills from the original Obama "American Jobs Act" were blocked by Republicans, not for any reason or debated against with any alternative plan—just blocked. It's deplorable. It's obstructionist.

By the way, the entire Jobs Act is available online for anyone and everyone to read, and I suggest that you spend some time doing that, and watching the videos, so that you can learn a thing or two before you cast your lot with these people who seek to destroy the American Dream. Believe it or not, babe. Had your "inspirational" clown not helped deliberately sabotage our President's efforts, there WOULD be two million more jobs right now.

"More Americans are realizing that Republicans have worked for several years to undermine the president in every way possible. Americans believe that it requires a complete lack of patriotism to take such actions during a massive economic collapse. They are beginning to ask, 'Who in their right mind would block any job creating plan to bring us out of this crisis because they want power?'" (PolicyMic.com, August 1, 2012)

Who in their right mind indeed? Then there's the open letter that my old mayor, Joe Curtatone, posted to voters on Friday August 31st. In part,

"Now they've got Mitt Romney standing up in front of the nation, rehashing his snake oil line about the millions of jobs he'll create, when Congressional Republicans took a pass on actually creating jobs. They know he's full of it. Anyone who lived in Massachusetts when Romney was Governor knows he's full of it. What he's proposing is a return to a set of failed policies." (Mayor Joe Curtatone, August 31, 2012)

I've been maintaining an online journal of some kind since 1999, and above all I've always sought to be honest, and I have to say that I'm officially depressed. It's getting to be an Herculean effort just to get up in the morning anymore, and every day I feel more tired, more worn down from this kind of blind partisanship. I just can't even, anymore. Your guys blocked the initiatives to create two million jobs, not my guys. Your guys are pissing on your head and telling you it's a champagne fountain. To say "Obama failed to create two million jobs he promised" is to reach for a crystal fluted glass and drink up. All that's left is to pull the lever, and "in November" we can only pray that truth and policy prevail over lies and ignorance. ∎