Interview with a Strongly Conservative Voter

What's in the Foreground?  View Northwest from Redstone, CO, September, 2012

What's in the foreground? View Northwest from Redstone, CO, September, 2012

by Daniel A. Jones, October 14, 2012
arthbuus@gmail.com

On too many occasions I encounter conservative voters. I say too many as it doesn’t make much sense to me why there are so many conservative voters; after all, very few people benefit from the recent traditional and still en vogue conservative agenda – to help a few very wealthy people to pay a very low rate of income tax. So, I decided I would interview a fairly typical, non-wealthy conservative voter:

Daniel: Hello, Johnn.

Johnn: Hello.

Daniel: You have agreed to sit down and answer my questions about your conservative voting record. You’ve also agreed to answer to the pseudonym “Johnn” to keep your identity hidden. Are you ready?

Johnn: Sure, go ahead.

Daniel: Are you opposed to the Affordable Care Act?

Johnn: What’s that?

Daniel: It’s a piece of legislation that was passed to help Americans to have health care. It’s helped millions of Americans to afford healthcare since it was enacted into law, and will help reduce the cost of health care for all Americans when it is fully implemented in the near future. It’s one law that helps all economic classes of Americans, but especially the middle and lower classes.

Johnn: I’m against that. It’s a bad law.

Daniel: Why do you say that?

Johnn: I don’t know; the conservative politicians are against it – it must be bad.

Daniel: Are these the same politicians, Republicans, that want to get repeal the Affordable Care Act?
Johnn: Yes, it will bankrupt America.

Daniel: Do you have any evidence to support your position?

Johnn: No, my guys must be right.

Daniel: You do realize that the Affordable Care Act is helping to reduce costs for healthcare, and it allows all Americans to be covered? The United States has had historically very high health care costs, poor access to the health care system and a very poor record for healthcare as compared to many other nations in the world.

Johnn: I don’t need any healthcare coverage, and I just don’t trust anyone that wants me to be covered.

Daniel: So, you are willing to gamble with your life for now, but why would you insist on making everyone else including children and young women with potential pregnancy issues to remain uncovered or at best poorly covered?

Johnn: It’s not my problem.

Daniel: That’s what you say now until you or someone you know is in trouble. That’s when it’s too late and you and your family face thousands and thousands of dollars in medical bills. The Affordable Care Act allows you to have the peace of mind to get healthcare regularly to prevent and cure illness.

Johnn: So, it’s like insurance?

Daniel: Yes. Insurance for everyone. You can bet most if not all the wealthy have it. It frees you and give you peace of mind to work hard at your chosen profession. Almost every nation of the developed nations has a very robust form of universal healthcare. And, they spend much less per capita than we do.

Johnn: Hmm. I don’t know. I don’t trust liberals.

Daniel: I trust our politicians for the most part, but I trust the conservatives much less to be moving us in the best direction. I trust that they will help the wealthy continue to pay less than their fair share. They have promised that much consistently.

Johnn: But, I’m against abortion.

Daniel: Who isn’t? The right of a woman to choose what happens to her body is the real issue – the freedom of choice. Do your part to eliminate unwanted pregnancies by not participating in poor sexual practices. Make sure you and your partner practice safe sex by using protection and using appropriate contraceptives. Help other men to only get involved with partners where the relationship is absolutely of a consensual nature of the same kind. Pregnancy should be a result of thoughtful planning and not ignorance or force. Help people become better educated about sex.

Johnn: Well, we need the economy to get better, and the conservatives are definitely better at that.

Daniel: That’s absolutely not true. The Bush administration took a good economy and ran it into the ground. The deficit skyrocketed while the economy nearly came to a complete halt. The Democrats haven’t been perfect at all, but the economy has been improving and will continue to improve with their leadership. We need more Democrats in office today to ensure the economy moves forward.

Johnn: But, I see all these commercials that tell us how bad the liberals are, and how good the conservatives are. It makes it seem like I’m right.

Daniel: Money trying to get more money, Johnn, with not cares about the real costs. One billionaire has indicated that he is willing to spend in the hundreds of millions to get so called conservatives elected, so that he will get two to three billion dollars in super-wealthy income tax savings. Have you ever heard of propaganda?

Johnn: Yes, do you really think these ads are made to fool people like me?

Daniel: Sure. They just want to get elected. Just like the abortion issue, where these wealthy people say they want to keep America free, but that freedom doesn’t apply to women, they want to remove and restrict the freedom of women from the time of puberty until they are about fifty years old. Just think, if you were a woman, would you want the government to limit your freedom?

Johnn: No.

Daniel: Do you want to pay the taxes that the super-wealthy don’t want to pay?

Johnn: No.

Daniel: Then vote for the Democrats. By the way, contrary to popular belief, per capita the super-wealthy cause more government costs than the average citizen especially due to their propensity to be in court for all kinds of civil litigation. I haven’t seen the numbers recently, but I believe that the wealthy and super-wealthy can easily demand over a million dollars in government services a year. Who is more dependent on government? The super-wealthy are by far.

Johnn: What? Is that true?

Daniel: Yes, it is. And, when they are telling you that they want to cut taxes for everyone, they are also telling you that they are going to cut your government services and increase the fees you pay for them, while they will continue to get at least the same level of government services.

Johnn: So, I have to pay taxes to support the wealthy?

Daniel: That is for sure. Has the United States every spent millions upon millions of dollars to protect your economic interests in another country?

Johnn: No.

Daniel: Well, the wealthy want you to keep paying their bills.

Johnn: I don’t want to pay their bills.

Daniel:  Do you need a job?

Johnn:  No, but a few of my friends do.

Daniel:  Do you believe the candidate that closed down companies and sent his money overseas is the best one to create jobs?

Johnn:  Probably not.  Why would he do that, if he is for America?

Daniel:  He’s for making money for his family, but he certainly wasn’t helping us.  President Obama turned around the Great Recession and has us moving in the right direction.  He’s helping us pay off our national debt.  He’s not promising us a potentially inflationary tax cut that will require you and I to pay more and higher fees.

Johnn:  But, what about all those negative ads?

Daniel:  I see that some wealthy conservatives believe that they can influence you with distorted facts.  One local ad is an example of this insensitive people trying to make profits off of tragedy, and not supporting the right to a fair trial.  Are the conservative activists just fascists?

Vote by November 6th

This is a fictional account of a very real voter composite. Any resemblance to any real life person or persons is coincidence and should not be taken seriously.