My arguments vs. my conservative cousins
Okay... I've been trying to go on the offensive as much as possible... I'm sick of hiding my liberal leanings with the conservative side of my family and I'm sick of their anti-Obama status updates on Facebook. So. Here's what I've got. Um... I hope I'm not misrepresenting anything.
The status update was praising Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney's RNC speeches. It's pretty typical, so I won't post it here. My side:
Paul Ryan's speech showed him to be a habitual if not a pathological liar. And as for Romney... he's a vulture capitalist who made his fortune by gutting established businesses; handed Bain Capital, he didn't "build it," just ran it, and d...
idn't even do more than an average job of it, never posting great returns for its stock holders. While he was in charge and up until 2004, Bain owned shares in a medical waste firm that made money off of aborted fetuses. Oh, and he's also very likely a tax dodger. And to top off the pie, he wants to cut all government funding for PBS, which would very likely leave me unemployed. So. Yeah. Romney. Not gonna vote for him.
Factcheck Ryan: http://factcheck.org/2012/08/ryans-vp-spin/
Factcheck Romney: http://factcheck.org/2012/08/romneys-big-night/
Bain Capital: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829
Aborted fetuses: http://ncronline.org/news/politics/which-presidential-candidate-truly-pro-life
They asked me "but please don't tell me you're voting for Obama" So, I came back with:
Of course I am. He's been pumping money into student grants, which will be great for me when I go to grad school in a couple years; he supports grants for the arts, one of those being the grant that supports PBS, which will mean I'll have ...
a job; Obamacare will allow me to get out from under the crushing weight of a $500/mo insurance plan (though single-payer would still be better). And he believes in the government stimulus model for getting our economy back on track (which is working) rather than the failed trickle-down economics theory supported by Romney. And, not unimportant among my reasons for voting for Obama: a vote not for Obama is a vote for Romney, and as I said, I will not vote for Romney
Someone piped up that Obama would cut 50% of the DoD budget and leave us open for more 9-11-like attacks. My response:
Firstly, the US's military budget is grotesquely bloated. Our military spending makes up 41% of all of the military spending worldwide; we spend as much on our military as the next 14 countries *combined* (and roughly 7x more than China). ...
Secondly, this 50% cut was a result of the failure of the deficit supercommittee (of which Ryan was a part and a leader of the faction that voted against the committee's recommendations) and the sequestration; the automatic 50% cuts were pushed through by the Republican House leadership. And finally, let's not forget where this "crushing" deficit came from in the first place:
Spending under presidents since Eisenhower: http://tinyurl.com/bmr9nra
Top 5 military spenders in 2011: http://tinyurl.com/8sqm97l
Fact-checking Ryan (see Deficit Commission): http://tinyurl.com/9ygfjxt
Mandatory Budget Cuts: http://tinyurl.com/d6zz29f
The only response to this was my uncle: "bull shit." Great counter-argument, that. Anyway. I guess I'm looking for encouragement or, I don't know... I feel like it's a lonely battle I fight on the Book of Faces sometimes.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Keep hammering away with the facts.
Challenge them to disprove what you know to be true.
They won't be able to.
You've done some excellent work! And....you are not alone!
for all the feed-back and encouragement! I don't think I'll ever have an effect... these are people who were raised practically from birth with Rush Limpballs in the background. But I still asked my cousins to at least read the links, and told him if he wanted to send me any links back, I'd look at them... I've gots no fear of being proven wrong LOL... One of their friends PM'ed me just this morning, and it kind of made things worth it:
Just read your post on Lyin' Ryan & Mitt the Twit..... I don't know you, but you may just be my new hero......thanks for your insight and intelligence!!!!!!
That's the thing I like about Facebook, you might just be posting your own status update, or you might just be having an argument with a friend over theirs, but that sh*t gets seen
Also, Angry Dragon, thanks for the clarification. I knew that didn't sound right when the # popped up.
