From the files of Dr. Liberal
Dear Dr. Liberal,
If conservative tax protesters were given the upper peninsula of Michigan, western Sussex County Delaware, or some similar unused corner of the county to be the new teabag homeland where they can live without being oppressed by taxes, constantly losing elections, and rap music, how long do you think it would be before Glenn Beck got appointed emperor?
Sincerely,
New Castle Quaker
Dear Quakey,
Great question. It would take 18 days for Beck to be fully installed as the infallible King of Wingnutia. In the first two days, they would decide that Beck would be a benevolent and kind dictator, then it would take the next 16 days for Beck to kill enough of them to collect enough femur bones to build a suitable throne.
Democratically Yours,
Dr. L
Send your questions to “Ask Dr. Liberal” in the comments section.
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Dear Dr. Liberal,
If liberal “blue states” stopped giving money to conservative “red states”, what would happen? And would those conservatives think that stopping this undeserved “welfare” was a good thing or a bad thing?
When will the DNC come up with its own MegaMillions lottery, in which people contribute $5 for the 1:100,000,000 chance to earn enough money to personally benefit from the tax regime favored by the Republican Party?
Special election changes proposed for New Castle County
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120402/NEWS02/204020323/Special-election-changes-proposed-New-Castle-County?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s
State lawmakers want to get rid of a special election for one New Castle County office and create one for another.
Senate Bill 182, sponsored by Sen. Bruce Ennis, D-Smyrna, would eliminate a special election to fill a vacancy in the office of New Castle County Council president. (Enis wants a president appointed by council from council leaving 12 members and a risk of tie votes. 500 thousand was spent filling Paul Clark’s county-wide seat vs. 39 thousand for the last councilmatic district-wide special election).
A second bill, which Rep. Mike Ramone said he will introduce soon, would create a special election in the event of a vacancy in the county executive’s position.
…Councilman George Smiley said he favors Ennis’ bill and opposes Ramone’s because of the money involved.
“One saves the taxpayers $500,000 and one would cost them $500,000,” Smiley said.
Councilmen Jea Street opposes both.
“Neither are appropriate,” Street said. “Voters, not the council, should decide who is council president. With county executive, who would run the government while we wait for a special election to take place?”
Street thinks the bills appeared because some people don’t like Clark and Kovach.
“You shouldn’t pass laws because of the current personalities involved,” Street said. “You should base it on what’s best regardless of who’s in office at the time.”
Contact Adam Taylor at 324-2787 or ataylor@delawareonline.com.
“If liberal “blue states” stopped giving money to conservative “red states”, what would happen? And would those conservatives think that stopping this undeserved “welfare” was a good thing or a bad thing?”
Answer: Eventually Texas would become the economic center of a new nation, whose borders more or less correspond with the watershed of the Missippi, Ohio and Missouri Rivers. A trade war would ensue between this new nation and the rump city-states on its periphery, with the later ultimately losing out due to a lack of means for energy production and because all the food is harvested in the former.
Let the above delusion be a warning to you kids. Alternative histories are not harmless. You start with a gateway drug, “What if Lee had won at Gettysburg?” and end up a blabbering mess like Señora Pasa.
Dear Dr. Liberal,
In light of President Obama’s absurd comments regarding the potential for an “unprecedented” move by the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare as unconstitutional; do you think Obama A) slept through his first year law class that covered Marbury v. Madison, B) is setting up a hail mary election strategy that banks on the continued ignorance of the voting populace or C) both?
Respectfully,
QP
Uh…its an allegory to stem the notion that ‘blue states’ don’t, for whatever reason, need ‘red states’.
Actually a better breakdown to this ultimately rural vs. urban argument would be to look at all things ‘red’ and ‘blue’, county by county.
If liberal “blue states” stopped giving money to conservative “red states”, what would happen?
Red states would revert to the dusty godforsaken hellholes God meant them to be. Their men would labor in our mines and their womenfolk would stay home to raise more miners.
Yes, puck, whatever you say. Though don’t forget that the ‘blue’ cities, without access to food, energy and raw materials would, within days, if not hours, devolve into anarchy, as the ignorant, government dependents, with little to no survial skills, begin rummaging and looting to survive. Have we not seen this recently?
Not really. Especially since what counts as real food is imported from all over the world. Blue states would still be able to buy what they can’t produce. Not so much red states.
Uh…cassandra, I hate to break it to you, but “real food”, i.e. the basis for just about every meal we make, consists of grains which, as you don’t seem to realize, are produced en mass in the ‘red’ Mississippi River Valley more so than anywhere else in the world save the steppes of Russia.
So are you telling me, Komrade Kassandra, you’d rather deal with Russians an ocean away, where the customer is never right?
Well then, Let Them Eat Soy Beans! Or Feed Corn!
And Senora Pasa, go to your grocery store and come back with a list of everything in your produce department that comes from Russia.
@QP “In light of President Obama’s absurd comments regarding the potential for an “unprecedented” move by the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare as unconstitutional;”
You’re correct. It’s not unprecedented. It did happen once before in 1935 (major regulatory bill declared unconstitutional).
Komrade Kassy,
You missed the point of this little exercise…go back a re-read.
Regardless, soy and corn, when not consumed as is, are typically processed into the building blocks of much of what we eat. Did you ever read a food label before?
@Liberal Elite “You’re correct. It’s not unprecedented. It did happen once before in 1935 (major regulatory bill declared unconstitutional).”
No, try 158 times!
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-CONAN-2002/pdf/GPO-CONAN-2002-10.pdf
Do I hear #159…coming ’round the corner?!? LOL!
Soy beans and feed corn are not the healthiest things on the planet to eat in mass quantities. But hey — it’s a Red State Paradise!
And of course, since these things are also grown in blue states, it isn’t as though we’d be lacking in edamame for everyone. But then, I work at buying the least processed food I can get. Mostly. A bag of frozen green beans shouldn’t have soy beans or feed corn or any of its components in them.
@QP “Actually a better breakdown to this ultimately rural vs. urban argument would be to look at all things ‘red’ and ‘blue’, county by county.”
The welfare that liberals pay to ungrateful conservatives have little to do with food production and the like. It mainly has to do with numerous people backing into the safety nets we have in place. If you look at where the large dollars are going (and why) in places like Mississippi, I think you’d be rather amazed.
It’s ironic that the very people who are helping themselves to large dallops of welfare are the very people who are screaming about black welfare queens. It’s not that they’re against all welfare…
@QP “No, try 158 times!”
And how many of those are major regulatory bills?
….ticking……ticking…..
LE,
Who knows, maybe you have time to check?
But does it really matter the size or scope of a bill? Unconstitutional is, after all, unconstitutional!
Komrade Kassy,
It may be nice for you to eat like a rabbit, but it’s not possible to sustainably feed a few hundred million people on edamame alone. Just like our electicity production, feeding a populace on that scale requires ‘energy density’. For example, see how East Asian countries “process” soybeans into the more energy dense tofu to feed their enormous populations.
Wow and you’d think a communist would already get this.
LE,
We’re against people who produce NOTHING, but expect everything in return.
The subsides that ‘blue’ areas send to ‘red’ areas, are typically sent for the production of goods and products in need of subsidization in order to get started. Don’t like it, have YOUR Senators and Congressmen vote against it in Congress and have YOUR President sign the Bill (yeah, I thought so). Regardless, the ‘red’ folks aren’t sitting around doing nothing, and to use a favorite Obama metaphor, significantly ‘punch above their weight’ when it comes to contributions to society. What are the folks on, say, Wilmington’s bluest of blue East Side contributing?
Also, don’t act as if individual liberals in urban areas fund everything via their income taxes. After all, there simply aren’t enough six-figure law associates and non-profit directors to mathematically accomplish this. It might make for feel good cocktail hour banter…so I’ll leave you to indulge in your own fantasy.
@QP “Unconstitutional is, after all, unconstitutional!”
Yes it is, and I’m hoping for exactly that. The individual mandate is a conservative idea. This paves the way to a single payer system (public option), which is what we should have done in the first place. Do you think that independents and conservatives like to see “Denied: Pre-existing conditions” “Cancelled: You’re too sick”. This becomes the only viable way forward.
And it will help Obama get re-elected in the fall if you can believe what is proposed here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/could-defeat-for-obamacare-mean-victory-for-obama/2012/03/30/gIQADM1llS_story.html
I didn’t say we would stop buying food or commodities from red states. That is QP’s cute little strawman. In fact, once their net-positive flow of tax money stopped, the red states would be working overtime to sell us stuff for cash. The blue states would have more food and be paying less for it.
Red staters have been brainwashed by Rush, and Reagan before him, to believe they are the ones sending money to Washington. That’s what makes them red states.
But this is all hypothetical, since the blue states would never cut off services to needy citizens even in red states. That’s what makes us blue states.
@QP “The subsides that ‘blue’ areas send to ‘red’ areas, are typically sent for the production of goods and products”
Not true. That’s part of it, but only a small part. And I’ll give you the roads too. But the rest in a huge amount of money, and it’s pure welfare going to the unfortunate but also undeserved. Puerto Rico is another money pit liberals pay for.
Another cute little meme being perpetrated here: “Red staters are all virtuous farmers.”
I know. LOL. I am reminded of that clip from Mississippi that Cassandra posted. Salt of the Earth. They don’t need nothing from the government except medicaid and food-stamps.
Actually the subsidies that blue states send to red states include alot of social services — medicaid, food stamps and the rest. You’ll have to come to grips with the fact that it is the red states that are the takers and the blue states the producers. Of course, it is the red states who are howling about a smaller government, but don’t want to give up their bit of it.
And I certainly do not eat like a rabbit. It is just that a diet washed in soy beans and feed corn wouldn’t be too hard to leave behind. You just have to stop eating Cheeseits for dinner.
Red Staters are the Biggest Beneficiaries of the Social Safety Net
The question is: would the confederate states be considered second or third world?
Second aspiring to, and working toward, third world status.
“…red states that are the takers and the blue states the producers.”
Producing what? Fusion food and legalese?
Also, I said “goods” and “products”, not just farm stuffs.
And furthermore, the initial discussion was predicated on a theoretical future whereby ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states fractured into separate nations, under the postulation that blue urban areas could somehow ‘go it alone’, because, after all they ‘give’ so much to others. Given population densities and economic realities at the moment of theoretical severance this is not even remotely possible.
Point being, under the current paradigm ‘blue’ states need the ‘red’ states –based on humanity’s inherent requirement to satisfy needs (food and shelter) before wants (cell phone apps and yoga studios)– more than the reverse. If society ended tomorrow, I’d rather be living on the edge of a small town near a moutain stream in a ‘red’ state, rather than on the 35th floor of a condominium next to a brackish sesspool and several million hungry souls.
Plenty of blue states produce food and build houses. And you keep ignoring the fact that blue states produce more to the economy so can certainly buy the stuff they would need. No one says this wouldn’t be hard, but if you didn’t have to support the level of taxes that are funneled to red states, you are in a position to spend their money differently.
‘blue’ states need the ‘red’ states
Accepting this is true – under your separation model, the red states will still be there. They just won’t be getting government checks anymore. And they will be desperate to produce and sell the blue states anything they want in exchange for cash.
I’d rather be living on the edge of a small town near a moutain stream in a ‘red’ state, rather than on the 35th floor of a condominium next to a brackish sesspool and several million hungry souls.
More mythology about the purity of red states. Do you know what is happening to the mountain streams where the unregulated free market is blowing the tops off mountains? Have you seen the flammable tapwater and exploding wells in red-state fracking districts?
puck, those details are immaterial to the general gist of where one would rather live should the sh*t hit the fan. Of course one would check the water and from where it comes. Though if one were trapped in a tenament, on an urban island, with no means to produce anything, they’d be screwed a bit quicker than, say, a failed crop.
Also, there are plenty of non-producing urban areas within ‘red’ states that would need the infusion of goods and products, just as well as there are producing areas in ‘blue’ states to offset the dearth of such capability in the urban areas. My point, and I’ll say it again, is that ‘blue’ states shouldn’t smuggly feel they can go it alone merely because they subsidize other states. There are trade-offs and benefits to the specialization of certain areas.
cass, you keep ignoring the fact that ‘blue’ urban areas are built-up as much as they are because of goods and products received from rural ‘red’ areas. otherwise, they would never have been able to become so populated and dense. And speaking of dense…
“If society ended tomorrow,”
This is the sort of fantasy that fuels much of the Randian nonsense so many conservatives like to engage in — you know, the kind most grownups outgrew in about ninth grade.
Though the American South has a longer growing season than the north, it’s already short of water, a situation expected to worsen significantly by the end of the century. If the climate computer models are at all accurate — and so far they have under- rather than overestimated the changes that have occurred already — the Southeastern US will be a dust bowl by the end of the century.
Should be interesting to see what the good ol’ boys will do when they can’t go fishing anymore.
I think we can all agree that Blue states would trounce the Red states economically. In a match-up between science and superstition – my money is on science.
cass, you keep ignoring the fact that ‘blue’ urban areas are built-up as much as they are because of goods and products received from rural ‘red’ areas. otherwise, they would never have been able to become so populated and dense. And speaking of dense…
The density is of someone so invested in such a spectacularly stupid argument that he can’t even make the effort to recognize the economy of the blue states he chooses to live in. The knowledge economy is part of what drives blue states, as well as some manufacturing, and food production. The lesson of the NAFTA years is that good and products can come from anywhere for dirt bloody cheap — that is the business model of Walmart. Lots of Americans aren’t Buying American in the first place. The *goods and services* you think you get from Red States can be procured from pretty much anyplace.
That’s not a bad argument for the Blue States to Go Galt, right?
maybe after the Conservatopia flames out and everyone illegally (but is welcomed with open arms) immigrates to “lefterica”, we can turn Kansas and Arizona into solar panels… that way we wont need to let the Gulf states back into the union.