Reply #7: So here's what I got from big brother:

[SPQR]

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for distribution of all wealth.

She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican which she expressed openly. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich & the addition of more government welfare
programs. Based on the lectures that she had participated in and the occasional chat with a professor she felt that for years her father had obviously harbored an evil, even selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

The self professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school. She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she studied all the time, never had time to go out and party like other people she knew.

She didn't even have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying.

That she was taking a more difficult curriculum.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your good friend Mary doing?"

She replied, "Mary is barely getting by." She continued, "She barely has a 2.0 GPA," adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies." "But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung over."

Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0." He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter visibly shocked by her father's suggestion angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said,
"Welcome to the Republican Party"


and my reply (mostly courtesy of redqueen). My first response had been something like: "I hope that this kind of crap insults your intellignece as much as it does mine." Then I got even more pissed off and sent the following (bear in mind that out of three brothers, he's the only straight one):

I'd also hope that your devotion to that sad, hateful, violent, hypocritical, selfish, small-minded, greedy, reactionary gang of thugs called the Republican Party would have waned a bit in light of their attempts to codify discrimination against your two brothers into the very founding document of this county; a document designed to restrict the powers of the goverment, not the rights of the people.

But let's take just a moment of our time and sneak a peek at an average day in this young woman's father's life; let's call him Joe Republican:


Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee.
He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water
because some liberal fought for minimum water quality
standards.

He takes his daily medication with his first swallow
of coffee. His medications are safe to take because
some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as
advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by
his employers medical plan because some liberal union
workers fought their employers for paid medical
insurance, now Joe gets it too because his employer
needs to offer competitive benefits to hire the best
people.

Joe prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs
this day. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some
liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing
industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his
shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with every
ingredient and the amount of its contents because some
liberal fought for his right to know what he was
putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath.
The air he breathes is clean because some tree
hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries
from polluting our air.

Joe drives to work in one of the safest cars in the
world because some liberal fought to raise safety
standards and emission controls.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with good
pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and
vacation because some liberal union members fought
and died for these working standards. Joe's employer
pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't
want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt
on the job or becomes unemployed he'll get a worker
compensation or unemployment check because some
Liberal didn't think he should lose his home because
of his temporary misfortune.

Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so
he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally
insured by the FSLIC up to $100,000 because some
liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from greedy,
unscrupulous bankers like the ones who ruined the
banking system before the depression.

Joe needs to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage
and his below market federal student loan because some
liberal decided that Joe and the government would be
better off if he was educated and earned more money
over his life-time.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father
this evening at his farm home in the country. He
arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third
generation to live in the house financed by Farmers
Home Administration because bankers didn't want to
make rural loans. The house didn't have electric until
some big government liberal stuck his nose where it
didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
(Those rural Republican's might still be sitting in
the dark!)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His
dad lives on Social Security and his union pension
because some liberal made sure he could take care of
himself so Joe wouldn't have to. After his visit with
dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.

He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying
that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He
doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have
fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys
throughout his day)

Joe agrees, "We don't need those big government
liberals ruining our lives; after all, I'm a self
made man who believes everyone should take care of
themselves, just like I have".

I think that's a much more interesting story. Don't you?