Subject: Why I'm no longer a liberal

You know Bart, I was a liberal for quite a few years. I used to think people were stupid for
saying things like "Homeless people are lazy, and many of them actually WANT to be homeless."

Stupid Greedy Republicans, I always thought. Then, as I continued my downward spiral of drugs
and alcohol, I ended up homeless myself, multiple times.

I couldn't help but notice when I was homeless, that there were a few people who really could use
a helping hand, and had simply fallen on hard times, through no fault of their own. I also couldn't help
but notice how many homeless people "played the system". When I used to live in the Panhandle of Florida,
there were many homeless people who would go to one church in the morning for breakfast, then panhandle
for beer money, then go to another church for lunch, then panhandle for beer money, then another church
for dinner. Of course, when food stamps came in, many of these upstanding citizens would go into Publix
and buy a $10 dollar container of decaf coffee and walk out of the store. Then they would throw the receipt
away (showing the coffee was purchased with food stamps), and send another homeless buddy inside.

Once inside, the buddy would go to the returns counter with the decaf coffee, and say "My damn girlfriend
got decaf by mistake, and I like my coffee with some caffeine in it". The clerk would then ask if they had
a receipt, and the hobo would say "nope, she lost it", or, "it got rained on", at which point the cashier would
then ask how they paid for the coffee. "Cash" was always the reply. Then the cashier would promptly put
the money on a Publix gift card and wish the parasite a good day. The hobo would then purchase a 12 pack
of cheap beer, and go get drunk.

I tried living the "don't stereotype people" lifestyle before as well, when I was a drug addicted liberal.
I hung out with people who dressed like thugs, because I didn't want to stereotype them as people who
would steal from me, or were overtly violent. I always thought I was such a good liberal for focusing on
the "Exceptions to the rule", and not the rule itself. Wow, what a bad way to make friends. I got physically
abused by these friends of mine, mentally abused, and stolen from. And don't even get me started on the
"talking behind people's backs" stuff. I kept thinking that they liked to get high like I liked to get high,
and I'd rather be around them than these stupid holier than thou Christians.

After all, Christians didn't wanna hang out with me, cause I smoked crack and shot up meth and what not.

One more example, then I'll get to the point of this ramble.

I was at a laundry mat in Springdale, AR some number of years ago, and wanted to get something to eat.
I was the only white person in there. Everyone else was Mexican, which I thought was cool, because I
speak some Spanish and always love the chance to stay sharp having someone to speak it to. I got hungry,
and decided to go across the street to get something to eat. However, I was nervous because I didn't want
any of my clothes to get stolen while I was gone. I wasn't automatically assuming that my clothes would be
stolen because these people were Mexican, I was assuming it because they were POOR, like me. Honestly,
how many rich people are going to go out of their way to go to a laundrymat and steal something out of a dryer?

Anyway, I asked a man and his wife to please watch my clothes while I was gone. They said "Sure", but the
way they looked at me I'll never forget. It's as if they were thinking "This gringo doesn't trust leaving his clothes
in a laundrymat with a bunch of mexicans, he's judging us."

I went to get a bite to eat, and came back, and my clothes were still there. I felt horrible. Here I had undoubtedly
hurt these people's feelings, and they had done nothing wrong to me. So, the next time I went to the laundry mat
and wanted to grab a bite to eat, I made it a point to not ask anyone to watch my stuff, I just went to get something to eat.

As I ate my burger, I felt good, because I knew I didn't hurt anyone's feelings this time around. When I returned to
take my clothes out of the dryer, 2 pairs of blue jeans were missing. I've reached the conclusion that hurting someone's
feelings vs. having to buy new clothes...well, it's the lesser of 2 evils. In other words, you can get over having your
feelings hurt, but buying 2 new pairs of blue jeans costs money.

There is so much more I could say, and probably will say at some point in the future, but basically I wanted you
to know why I've gone back to being a Libertarian. I've seen WAY too many people abuse our social safety net,
and use it more like a hammock. Hell, I was one of them. Now that I'm sober and able to save money, I can
understand where the Right is coming from on this issue.

On the other hand, I wrote this to say that I thoroughly enjoyed your site for many years during my tenure as a
liberal, and even though I'm not anymore, I still enjoy reading it from time to time, because it's very entertaining
 - even if I no longer agree with the vast majority of what you say, you have a unique and rare talent of making
politics humerous, and I respect that. I know you are just fighting for what you believe in, just like me, just like
Rachel Maddow and Ron Paul, and Bill O'Reilly.

I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas, and just to let you know, once I save up some more money (I've only
been sober 2 months...), I plan on sending you a donation because I never could afford to send one to you back
when I was one of your loyal liberal readers, but it's my own fault cause all my money went to getting high and drunk.

Anyway, congratulations for making it thru this entire random assortment of words, and take care.
 Mark

PS - Just so you know, the examples above aren't the only reasons I changed my political affiliation,
but I wanted to let you know part of the reason why.

Mark, this certainly wasn't the type of e-mail I was expecting.
When you accused me of not having the courage to run this, I assumed you were looking for a fight.

I'm sorry you've been thru some tough times, but I'm not sure you should base your political philosophy
on anecdotal evidence concerning who stole your clothes. Had you gone to that laundromat a day sooner,
the opposite might've happened so what political affiliation would you have joined then?

These days, I'm not sure what "libertarian" means.
It seems like it's what Republicans and Democrats call themselves when they are
ashamed or fed up with the incompetent assholes running their former party.

By the way, it wasn't your liberalism that sent you into a downward spiral of booze and drugs.
You're doing better now so maybe your goal should be holding on and not falling backwards.
 
Take care and I wish you the best luck.



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