Romney's garbage man stars in new attack ad....

[m00]

You could say you were a fish but you couldn't live underwater.

Oh, so I don't pass your political purity test to be able to vote Republican? Noted.

Actually, I think attitudes like yours is why the party is in such shambles.

[Unreconstructed Reb]

Seriously though, just because I self-identify with the "right" side of the American political spectrum, doesn't mean I'm not allowed to agree with certain positions that have been traditionally categorized as "left" on the spectrum (again, in the USA). My point was that Obama doesn't even adhere to (what I consider) the good ideas of the left.

What good ideas from the left? Name one! I can't think of one single good idea that comes from the democrat/communist party.

[RobJohnson]

I duct tape (it can get windy here) and give my garbage man a Christmas card and a gift each year. He works hard for a private company and often I really have my green plastic can on wheels packed and it takes some extra work on his part.

He's never left one scrap of garbage behind, I truely do appreciate him.

[Adam Wood]

My garbage guys don't make it here before I leave in the morning. I see them, and I wave to them, but I very sincerely doubt that they give two shits about me. They stick the can on the hydraulic lifter, the garbage is dumped, and they put my can basically back in the same place from whence it came. I will leave them a couple of tens in an envelope this Christmas, because that is the polite thing to do at Christmas. But I damn sure ain't going to be late getting to the office just so that I can give them a hug in the morning. How ridiculous.

You want to hug your garbage man? Go right ahead. Want to give him a good handshake and a "thank you?" I'm all for that, and if I ever actually directly encountered the guys who pick up my trash, I would. But 99.9999% of all trash pick-ups occur when no one is around to say "thank you" or "kiss my ass," because they are happening either when people are asleep or when they are away from home at work. Do I appreciate the work that these guys do? Absolutely. Life would really suck if I had to take my trash down to the landfill every week on my own, and it would suck even worse if I had nowhere to take it. Garbage men do a valuable job. But you know what? I don't hug every cop on the street, who are, in effect, garbage men themselves. I don't hug every fireman who drives by. I don't hug every person who works for our local electric company, or the sewer service, or the cable guy, either. All of these people work for a living, and they don't want hugs. They want money paid for a job well-done.



What ..... well, garbage.

[LukeEDay]

My garbage man makes $45,000.00 a year...

[m00]

What good ideas from the left? Name one! I can't think of one single good idea that comes from the democrat/communist party.

Well, I said liberal not democrat (which under Obama has betrayed a lot of the classical liberal ideals). But civil liberties is one.

[Unreconstructed Reb]

Well, I said liberal not democrat (which under Obama has betrayed a lot of the classical liberal ideals). But civil liberties is one.

Actually, you didn't say 'liberal' or 'democrat'. Here's what you said: "My point was that Obama doesn't even adhere to (what I consider) the good ideas of the left."

You said 'left' and that's what I responded to. So, I'll give you another chance: Name one good idea that's ever come from the left?

[NJCardFan]

My garbage men are assholes. They leave our cans in the street far too often. Not to mention the Draconian rules regarding trash collection in my town. If your lid is open by the slightest degree, you will be fined $75 the first offense. If you want to have anything that doesn't fit in the can picked up, you have to buy a sticker for $3 and make sure that sticker is on whatever you want picked up. If not, it's a $60 fine. When I first moved into my house, they picked up every thing as long as it was properly set for pick up. For example, if you has construction wood to be picked up, it must be bundled and secured, not just laying around. But of course the city needs money so they go after the tax payers for it. Not the 20,000 or so illegal Mexicans all over town driving illegal vehicles.

[m00]

Actually, you didn't say 'liberal' or 'democrat'. Here's what you said: "My point was that Obama doesn't even adhere to (what I consider) the good ideas of the left."

You said 'left' and that's what I responded to. So, I'll give you another chance: Name one good idea that's ever come from the left?

Yeah my mistake -- I was being unclear. I meant the left ideology (liberal), not the current representation of the left in political-party form (Democrat). I think the problem with Democrats is that they throw away the good ideas from the left, and keep the bad ones. And lets put the rhetoric aside for a second, and accept that an ideology with hundreds and millions of adherents has both good and bad ideas.

So for example, if you look at the DMCA which Clinton signed into law (and it's a bad law), the left was against it, but Democrats were for it. Same with the Iraq war. Same with Obama's expansion of spying on US citizens, and hassling us at airports. If you believe in civil liberties, Obama is waaaaay worse the Bush. Which is why the left was very strongly against SOPA, but strangely the Republican presidential candidates (other than Santorum) were also against SOPA to varying degrees while the Democratic party keeps trying to ram through different versions.

So how odd is this, right? If you've skimmed through the above, just read the following:

SOPA is a good example of an issue where liberals (and presumably Democratic voters) aligned with the Republican presidential candidates including Mitt Romney, but not with elected Democrats. So personally I think it's pretty silly to be closed-minded and calling the left a disease while at the same time lamenting the ratio of Republicans-to-Democrats in our 3 branches of Federal government. Because there are ideas that come from the left, that Republicans typically agree with (I can rattle off a few more), and Democrats don't. In fact, Obama does a terrible job of representing left-wing values (the real values, not the parody of the values) on key issues. This is an opportunity for Republicans to pick up voters if not in the presidential race than at least in Congressional elections. But calling someone a disease, or being elitist, or having a purity test, or telling someone they have no good ideas because of ideological sympathies (even when there actually is common ground) is a pretty big turn-off.

So, good ideas that came from the left (liberals) -- and note the discrepancy between liberal and democrat:

1) Limiting executive authority
2) Not going to war in Iraq (specifically, being against the War Powers Act and foreign adventurism)
3) Stopping any number of privacy/civil liberties violating bills (and generally being against Homeland Security / TSA from the very beginning)
4) Not allowing commercial banks to be investment banks (which is a huge reason for the recent crisis)
5) No corporate handouts from government
6) Don't bailout wall-street


But as they say: this is just my opinion, man.