in the "isn't this what you voted for?" category,

[jdj]

my Mother told me last night that she just found out her health insurance payment is going from $25/paycheck to $75/paycheck, or an extra $100 a month. We actually had a long talk about malpractice caps and how they are really not related at all to the cost of health ins. and all the other taxes we are being nickeled and dimed with, and I actually got to say that "Republicans are going to nickel and dime working people to death". I explained how people (here) are saying that the only way the privatization plan for Soc. Security will work is if payroll taxes are raised, and how if they institute a flat tax and raise sales taxes that working people will pay a much bigger percentage of their income on sales taxes than the rich do.


She seemed really depressed, she is a one-issue voter, abortion, and she has had to listen to me telling her for years that the repukes have used this issue and religion to sucker people into voting against their best interests.

I hate it for them, this is alot of money for my parents as my Dad is on disability (!!??!!, and STILL voted for W.), but I fear it is only going to get worse.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. What gets me about people who vote on the abortion issue is that

if poverty goes up, so does the infant mortality rate...so LIVE births actually suffer for republican policies...but if poverty goes down...SO DOES ABORTION!!

[jdj]

2. yep.

very good points I can't wait to relay.

My mother is the product of a horrendously abusive childhood at the hands of an alcoholic/compulsive gambler who sexually abused her until she left home at 18, her mother died when she was ten.

Watching her has formed my belief that abortion opponents over-identify with the aborted fetus because of abuse or mistreatment in their own childhoods, which would be the only explanation for their pathological obsession. (Not people who are disturbed by abortion and want it to be infrequent, but people who are fanatically obsessed with this issue to the detriment of the stability of this country). Abortion is the perfect issue for them, it gives them a victim to identify with yet releives them of any responsibility to put works to faith and do something.

I'm interested in seeing if any other posters have similar stories about Bush voters beginning to see the light a little too late.

[displacedtexan]

14. Thanks for the insight into the abortion opponents' reasoning.

You make a lot of sense!

The rich (yes, Republicans too) have always had abortion and birth control available to them. In the 1920's, my mother was taught the precautionary arts by the family physician's nurse.

As long as people believe that Republicans don't have abortions, they'll continue to identify with abuse victims and never see the hypocrisy.

[wabeewoman]

16. Good observations but

I also think there is a little bit of 'holier than thou' in the anti-abortionists. They are somehow a bit superior to us because they 'get' the life at conception thing and they are saved(at least among most people I know-my brother was a hell-raiser and left a string of children with different moms, did drugs, outran the police etc and yet when he got 'saved' he was better than the rest of us and had the gall to tell my mother she was going to hell). The irony is that their lack of understanding of science(and rational thought processes) leads them to unproven and unlikely beliefs. I can't even wish they get what they voted for, only that they wise up and believe in reality.

[lawladyprof]

20. Obsessed by abortion

You wrote
"abortion opponents over-identify with the aborted fetus because of abuse or mistreatment in their own childhoods, which would be the only explanation for their pathological obsession."

If you look into the family history of a lot of the social conservative/fundamentalist leaders, you find a lot dysfunctional family history, especially absent/distant/abusive fathers. I believe their is a nexus between childhood rejection and dogmatism, especially on the abortion issue (could be construed as the absolute parental rejection, perhaps has particular resonance for them because it is Mother doing the rejecting and she was the only one who gave them love).

[JaySherman]

3. Sorry to say but anyone who voted for * gets what they deserve

Not wishing any ill will upon your parents, but they really have no right to complain. They should just take their spoonful of medicine and swallow it, bitter as it is.

[jdj]

6. this is just the beginning

4 years from now, $100 a month will seem like nothing.

of course, I, who have only a temporary catastrophic health ins. policy, envy her being able to go to the dr. when she is sick.

[gratuitous]

4. It's awful hard not to turn their sanctimony against them

Let your mother know that everyone is against abortion; but sometimes, it's necessary -- just like war, right? And the Bible speaks far more harshly and directly against war and violence, but we seem to find all sorts of rationales for making more wars.

She seems depressed, according to you. Is she starting to put together a slightly bigger picture? If she is going to do that, it will be up to you. Good luck.

[jdj]

9. I've said it all

no dice.

I just make sure that when stuff like this comes down the pike, they know exactly which party is behind it.

And I continue to assert to them that they are being used by repukes for their belief, and that why have the repukes as a congressional body started very little leglation against abortion this term? I keep telling her it is the old bait and switch, and she is falling for it.

[nostamj]

5. your mother will be among the MANY

single-issue voters who will PAY (in many ways) for electing a cabal that cares NOTHING for their 'issues' after they've schemed to manipulate them for their votes.

will there be a backlash? or will the repukes convince them that their woes are all Clinton's fault?

[jdj]

7. thanks for depressing me more.

Can they REALLY blame it on Clinton this late in the game??

I hadn't even thought of that...

[RPM]

10. everything is clintons fault

I heard a clip on stern this morning where a publican congressman blamed the having to raise the debt limit on the overspending in the clinton adminstration....

Asshat

[nostamj]

11. no, I don't REALLY think they can

it was more of a 'flip' remark.

i think that when enough of their children DIE in Iraq
when enough of their jobs are GONE
when enough of them lose their HOMES

they will know who to blame.

send a DISTRESS message!

[BurtWorm]

8. Will she stop being a one-issue voter now?

Maybe she's a bellwether for other right-to-life voters. Maybe she's not the only one who's feeling suckered by her single issue.

[jayfish]

12. I Went Over To My Mothers House The Other...

night to pick-up a table and the first thing that came out of her mouth was a frantic, "did you hear the new thing about check clearing?" I said "oh Check-21? Don't even bother talking to me about it. Call your illustrious President, you voted for him" She looked genuinely frightened. I got the same reaction from her when I told her about overtime. Maybe shock therapy isn't such a bad idea after-all.

Jay

[Wallew]

13. Flat tax scares me ...

The idea of a flat tax may sound good to some. IT scares me big time. Mainly because it will start out small and eventually will end up large. On everything I buy. As only my wife works, we don't have lots of money. And seeing it go up in smoke in a flat tax scares me senseless.

[Dulcinea]

17. Won't happen.

It'd eliminate too many tax breaks for the rich.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. Welcome to DU Wallew!! n/t

[WolverineDG]

15. i went to a meeting this week

and one of the presenters spoke about the cuts in the juvenile justice & COPS programs...there were audible gasps in the audience filled with good catholics who voted for bush because the priest told them to...those programs have really worked in our community....they gasped again when it was brought up that due to federal budget cuts, the DA's office was going to have to cut 2 positions.....the only comment from the moderator was "now the election's over, you see what you've done. it's not going to get any better."

dg

[jdj]

19. wow, thank you moderator.

I guess our assignment for the next few years is to be there and connect the dots for people who aren't sure what their vote did.