Stephen King's message to Mitt Romney

[Poiuyt]

This is really an excellent article:

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What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility—America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts. Charity from the rich can’t fix global warming or lower the price of gasoline by one single red penny. That kind of salvation does not come from Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Ballmer saying, “OK, I’ll write a $2 million bonus check to the IRS.” That annoying responsibility stuff comes from three words that are anathema to the Tea Partiers: United American citizenry.

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I guess some of this mad right-wing love comes from the idea that in America, anyone can become a Rich Guy if he just works hard and saves his pennies. Mitt Romney has said, in effect, “I’m rich and I don’t apologize for it.” Nobody wants you to, Mitt. What some of us want—those who aren’t blinded by a lot of bullshit persiflage thrown up to mask the idea that rich folks want to keep their damn money—is for you to acknowledge that you couldn’t have made it in America without America. That you were fortunate enough to be born in a country where upward mobility is possible (a subject upon which Barack Obama can speak with the authority of experience), but where the channels making such upward mobility possible are being increasingly clogged. That it’s not fair to ask the middle class to assume a disproportionate amount of the tax burden. Not fair? It’s un-fucking-American is what it is. I don’t want you to apologize for being rich; I want you to acknowledge that in America, we all should have to pay our fair share. That our civics classes never taught us that being American means that—sorry, kiddies—you’re on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay—not to give, not to “cut a check and shut up,” in Governor Christie’s words, but to pay—in the same proportion. That’s called stepping up and not whining about it. That’s called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn’t cost their beloved rich folks any money.

more-

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html

[Stuart G]

1. K and R nt

[Canuckistanian]

2. Bravo!

Gee, this King fella really knows how to write!

[LeftofObama]

5. That actually made me LOL! n/t

[redwitch]

6. Me too.

Bravo Mr. King!

[russspeakeasy]

8. Yup. I think he's gonna do o.k.

[Plucketeer]

45. Loved this line.....

"That annoying responsibility stuff comes from three words that are anathema to the Tea Partiers: United American citizenry."

That line set my imagination going. WHAT IF... Tea Partiers (or any other anti-tax sorts) had the option to "step out of" the taxes we all pay as we go our way in this society. It would be really easy to assign the looming national ID system (card or implanted chip) so that a person could be automatically recognized as a "player" or an "independent". THAT WAY - any infrastructure they wanted to make use of, they'd be livied a toll to do so - rather than pay those nasty ol' taxes all the rest of us rubes submit to.

[Panasonic]

49. All tax evaders should be permanently microchipped with RFID

That RFID chip should have the capability to remove all assets touched and sent to the U.S. Treasury (marked by GPS satellite) to be seized for repartitions.

No amnesty should be given to any tax evaders. That includes Mutt Rmoney.

[Buns_of_Fire]

67. Impressive! He might even be able to write a book or two if he puts his mind to it!

[Dalai_1]

3. K&R n/t

[liberal_at_heart]

4. that was fantastic

The carrot of hey you can be rich too if you just work hard enough is not working anymore.

[xtraxritical]

40. The possibility of upward mobility in the USA is way less than in the European Democratic Socialist

countries. The only things we're top dog in are defense spending and weapon sales.

[Control-Z]

7. Wow. n/t

[graywarrior]

9. Stephen gets it coz he hangs with ordinary folk

and he's been poor.

[eShirl]

15. he IS ordinary folk

born & raised

[graywarrior]

17. Yes, I know

[Cactus Jack-2012]

50. He's a Red Sox fan

He often travels down from Maine to Boston to attend a Red Sox game,
and sits in the bleachers, with the regular fans.

[Inkfreak]

56. Well, we all have our flaws.....

GO YANKS!!!!

[graywarrior]

58. He hangs out in North Conway, too.

I used to run into him all the time in NH, ME and FL

[allan01]

10. re: Stephen King's message to Mitt Romney

thank you to who posted this i just finished watching a video of jfks acceptance speach in his term. things change and things stay the same . mainly the poor and our falling apart infstructure and how inifective the rnc was then and still is . dang obstructionists . i agree w what mr king states

[Poiuyt]

29. You're welcome

You can repay me with brownies!

[BrainMann1]

11. Thanks

We needed that.

[me b zola]

12. K&R

[cali]

13. Word! Thank you Stephen King

[99th_Monkey]

14. AAaak! What's up with the Grover Norquist video embedded that disputes King? ~nt

[Liberalynn]

16. Fantastic

[sulphurdunn]

18. Only an English Major

could write something like that.

[Poiuyt]

28. My cousin actually went to college with King

They were in the same journalism group. He went by Steve back then!

[tavalon]

41. Still does to his friends

Just as our President's friends call him Barry. But we don't or shouldn't.

[Dont call me Shirley]

19. Plenty of the folks who lost their jobs* due to mitt's actions at bane want apologies;

*and healthcare and pensions and houses and spouses.....

[Cha]

20. Thanks Stephen King! No we don't want mitt to apologize

for being wealthy. We just want him to stop his DAMN LYING and SHOW US HIS TAX RETURNS. Do ya think he could do that?!

F*** willard mitt's Distractions.

[patrice]

39. If he REALLY wanted to win, he'd show those tax returns.Secrecy PROVES he's a puppet for someone(s)

else.

[spanone]

21. he could buy romney with his foldin' money

k&r

[dawg]

22. I take back everything I ever said about the tv adaptation of The Langoliers.

If you didn't, click through and read King's entire piece. It's great.

[dionysus]

60. wasnt Balky Bartokomous from Perfect Strangers in that?

[JBoy]

23. I cheered when I got to "Tough shit for you guys, because I’m not tired of talking about it"

[Iliyah]

24. This man cares and lives in reality.

John Lennon song "Imagine"

I mean can you imagine with the the super pacs' monies being poured into the election how it could help America right now, its people, its infrastructures, schools, hospitals, healthcare, etc.

But you have the selfish and greedy non-caring sobs hiding behind the Bible and tottings guns, checks, wanting more power inorder to screw more people and nature. The pathological liars, plain nutso evil hateful so called "Christians".

I grew as a Methodist and believe me Hucklebee, Bachmann, Palin, Santorum, Newt, Pat Robertson, Limpballs, and tons of other lunatics are the farthest from Christianity as can be and have the nerve to questions someone else's religion, really?

[northoftheborder]

25. Great read!

[ismnotwasm]

26. K&R

I'm a fan of a lot of Steven King books--especially his Gunslinger series, this is awesome for me to read.

[CrispyQ]

27. King knows how to tell a story.

I bought a "How to Write" type book once. It was basically the advice of many published authors. Each author had 2-4 pages of advice. King's advice was the best.

It was the scariest story I've ever read with The Shining close behind. I still never park or walk near a sewer grate. Fuck you Pennywise.

[patrice]

30. Thank you, Stephen King!! Wheww! I "need a cigarette"! nt

[AzDar]

32. Great article from a great American.

[Mkap]

33. He's knocking down the door

He is knocking down that GOP door with an axe "Here's Johnny!"

[tavalon]

38. Hah! good one!

[calimary]

47. Welcome to DU, Mkap!

Glad you're here - and we need your help!





Now get to work.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

34. I love King. His calling Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged little bother" was a classic.

I'm glad to see this is being brought back up. It was an amazing letter he wrote.

[DeSwiss]

35. K&R!!! n/t

[patrice]

36. What are Stephen King's radio stations? Do they stream to the web? Would they hire Thom Hartmann? nt

[WonderGrunion]

62. Here is the webpage for Stephen King's stations

http://www.zoneradio.com/pulse/index.html

Yes they stream online and Thom Hartmann is on every evening. There local morning broadcast features former Green Party candidate Pat Lamarche.

Edited to add: The photo gallery has pictures of Randi Rhodes recent visit to Bangor on the website

[tavalon]

37. I have always liked Stephen King but never thought about his politics

Seems we are quite similar in that aspect.

[clydefrand]

42. I love this article

Thank you Stephen King. You know how to say it. Keep it up, please.

We need to hear more of this from you. I am sharing this with others now.

[clydefrand]

43. Should we suggest to Obama

that he might be able to get Stephen King to speak at the convention. I know it will be better than Clint and the chair. I would love to hear him cut Mitt down to nothing...oh, heck he is already nothing...but a bunch of lies.

[amuse bouche]

44. Thank You Mr King

[calimary]

46. He's come up with several of them.

I love this passage in particular:

"...our civics classes never taught us that being American means that—sorry, kiddies—you’re on your own. That those who have received much must be obligated to pay—not to give, not to “cut a check and shut up,” in Governor Christie’s words, but to pay—in the same proportion. That’s called stepping up and not whining about it. That’s called patriotism, a word the Tea Partiers love to throw around as long as it doesn’t cost their beloved rich folks any money."

God Bless You, Stephen King! You get it.

And thank you, too, Poiuyt, for posting this! Well worth sharing!

[progressoid]

48. FucknA!!

[Sugarcoated]

51. WOW! That rocked my world!!!

Reading this was wonderful . . . masterful. I recently read a 'Stephen King's 5 tips for writing fiction' type of thing, and one thread that ran through the article, and seemed to be his main point, was use a minimum of words, re-read several times and take out more words. Throw out your thesaurus, keep it simple and to the point, speak from the heart.

I can't WAIT for my husband to read this, gonna send it to family and friends! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

[juajen]

52. WOW! The Man Wonder! So glad I got to read this. Thanks for posting it, and

thank you Mr. King.

[flamingdem]

53. I love how this sounds: United American citizenry.

[HiPointDem]

54. "most rich people are as boring as old, dead dog shit"

[graham4anything]

55. Thanks Stephen.

the rightwinglibertarianteaparty should be forced to pay their fair share.

and Herr Mittens with his idiotic claim about charity, also forgets that he gets a nice deduction for that charity (betcha without it he wouldn't give a penny would he?)

the poor and middle class of course have no extra money to give, as everything goes to live.

whereas Herr Mittens uses his extra dollars to get daily botox treatments and scheme to figure out how to screw mankind (yeah, the dinasaurs walked with man in the year 6000bc on an earth that is flat and has no oceans at all, rising or otherwise, yeah, right Botoxed Mittensman.

how does Herr Mittens and all the other republicanteapartylibertarians sleep at night?
Do they count dollars as they twist and turn?
Did you hear the cold, cold answer he told a Hurricane victim the other day in New Orleans?
how does he live with himself?

Redemption for the world is Obama's reelection in a landslide in Nov. and the permanent second class status to the real life evil that is republicanteapartylibertarians until each and everyrepublicanteapartylibertarian is voted out of office in 2014 and 2016.

and then the world will live as one to quote John Lennon.

Keep rockin' and writing Stephen King.

btw, I always wondered about that mysterious event when Mr. King was walking and thinking and was hit and almost killed by a van driven by someone who claimed something about a dog, nearly killing Mr. King. A good number of years were taken from his writing new material while recovering from that and those injuries Mr. King sustained were very painful.

The world is lucky Mr. King is still here and actively again writing.
(also loved his year writing a sort of fan page in Entertainment Weekly about movies/records and other fun stuff, and written like the fan of it he is.)
And we can also hope him and the other writers reunite again and someday do some more concerts that they did in the past occasionally.

[Pat Riot]

73. King's book "On Writing"

is part autobiography and part the best, most practical guide for writers out there, IMO. He talks about the writers' band and the accident that almost killed him. I won't spoil it for you. There's also some stuff about marriage and love and substance abuse that I found personally interesting and valuable.

[burnsei sensei]

57. His eyes are open.

And his patriotism is so clear to see.
He differentiates between the interest of the money class and national interests.
Knows the difference between a private commodity and a public good.
Every citizen should be endowed with knowledge of this kind.

[heaven05]

59. never

really cared about this guy, did like 'something wicked this way comes' though. He's got integrity and is sane. His stock has gone up in my book

[Poiuyt]

61. That was Ray Bradbury

But I think King did say he was influenced by it.

[heaven05]

64. thanks

I knew he was involved or mentioned it. so long ago, sometiems it is hard to just do facts without googling. try to dredge up from memory

[MatthewStLouis]

63. Love the part about "stepping up and not whining about it."

Thank you Stephen King! That line sums up the whole "Tea Party" thing. They are nothing but a bunch of whiners who want the benefits of government for free without paying their fair share.

And in response to their faux patriotism: Freedom isn't free: so shut up and pay your taxes!

[ibegurpard]

65. I've been reading Stephen King for 30 years

He doesn't get the respect he deserves as a writer. Some of his stuff is better than others but even on a bad day he's never written a book that is unreadable.
Glad to see I can admire his personal philosphy as well.

[DirkGently]

66. I like Stephen King's nonfiction more than his books much of the time.

[WillyT]

68. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[jsr]

69. A must-read

[MrMickeysMom]

70. Thank you, Steven King... and now, on to the scariest story...

What happened to the party of Lincoln? What happened to the last generation's Republican party?

That is some scary shit.. It may not fit into the genre typical of your novels, but boy... is it scary!

[OmahaBlueDog]

71. One nit to pick

I guess some of this mad right-wing love comes from the idea that in America, anyone can become a Rich Guy if he just works hard and saves his pennies.

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have worked their way from poverty to being millionaires. They don't get much mad right-wing love.

[obxhead]

72. Excellent read!