Some Thoughts On 'Joe the Plumber'....

[USA4ME]

The Magistrate

Some Thoughts On 'Joe the Plumber'.... 

This tragi-comic episode embodies a propaganda line long pressed by the right in this country, that is deliberately aimed at persons ignorant of basic facts about business income: a population of persons, like Joe the Plumber himself, who know nothing about running a business and will never own or operate one, though they may comfort themselves with fond dreams of someday being in charge and bossing other people around. Republican propagandists on this subject employ a form of 'aspirational marketing', a marketing style which aims to draw people into purchasing something as a means of feeling their social and economic status is higher than it actually is, so that they can avoid the stigmatized feeling of being nearer the bottom than the top of the social heap. In this case, rather than, say, a package of lunch meat with a trim of gold foil and a concocted tale of preparation by artisans in a beautiful mountain valley, as opposed to that Oscar Meyer stuff, what is sold is an idea, and the promise that by identifying with and accepting that idea, you, too, can be part of the over-class which possesses and employs, and not part of the working class which is bossed around and owns, really, nothing. The idea is that you can easily become a member of this over-class, and that the chief obstacle to your doing so is restrictions on its ability to amass profit for itself, and public policies that require it to pay for assistance to people that eases their burdens in their actual present economic and social state. Because accepting this idea allows people to imagine they are themselves a portion of the over-class, they submit to being moved politically in ways that work to its best interests, and against their own best interests, and they do this in exchange for reveling in fantasies of future prosperity and power over others they will never physically enjoy. The dynamic is rather similar to that of a dedicated aficionado of celebrity pornography, imagining himself actually in the embrace of some starlet, whatever the actual situation in which his genitals are experiencing friction may be....

The weakness of it, as a totemic emblem brandished by a candidate for President before an audience of scores of millions, is that basic facts of the situation differ from what McCain imagined them to be. The fact is that Joe the Plumber is a mope, who is dreaming of buying on credit a business which grosses perhaps a quarter million a year, rather than an actual prospective purchaser of a business netting more than a quarter million a year. The spectacle of McCain, grinning like an eager gnome and congratulating Joe on being rich, is an iconic moment of idiocy that deserves to echo in political lore down the years with Dole's 'Democrat wars' and Ford's impromptu liberation of Poland. For Joe is not remotely rich, by any conceivable standard, and even Joe knows that. Joe is effectively a plumber's helper, clears perhaps forty thousands or so a year, who probably does not even own more than a tenth of the house he lives in, or even possess free and clear the automobile he drives. To state so clearly as McCain did the lie that he depends on being believed by Joe, and by millions more, is to tear the elaborate tissue of illusions on which belief in that lie depends. You cannot state a thing like that too starkly; you must sell it by hints and implications, by innuendoes and suggestions, for acceptance of it is wholly dependent on the believer never examining the thing too closely, since it is in fact nonsense, and pretty lame nonsense to boot, well within the capability of even those who allow themselves to be imposed on by it to see through, if it is ever stated clearly. Joe may not know much, but Joe knows damned well he is not rich, not by a long sight.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4251696&mesg_id=4251696

What a blowhard.

Read it if you wish, but short version is that Joe the Plumber is just a schmuck who's been sold the idea of the American dream that doesn't exist, but it's all just pretty packaging to make you "feel" like you can actually achieve that dream.

Unfortunately for the minor civil officer primitive, too many Americans over too many decades and years have achieved the American dream, thus kicking the legs out from under the stool upon which he propped his shaky argument.

Democrats/liberals and "The American Dream" are a non sequitur.

.

[Texacon]

What a blowhard.

Read it if you wish, but short version is that Joe the Plumber is just a schmuck who's been sold the idea of the American dream that doesn't exist, but it's all just pretty packaging to make you "feel" like you can actually achieve that dream.

Unfortunately for the minor civil officer primitive, too many Americans over too many decades and years have achieved the American dream, thus kicking the legs out from under the stool upon which he propped his shaky argument.

Democrats/liberals and "The American Dream" are a non sequitur.

.

Next time ..... please put THIS part of the post at the TOP!!   

 

KC

[USA4ME]

Next time ..... please put THIS part of the post at the TOP!!   

 

KC

 

The whole arrogance of the DUmp in general is on full display with Joe the Plumber.  Here's a guy they don't even know, but they've already decided that if he were to acquire his own business, he can never be as successful as he wishes to imagine he could be.  The non-stated conclusion then becomes "Why even try?"

Who knows, Joe the Plumber could start or acquire his own company and expand it to 2 and then 3 and then 10 or more shops.  Or he could use the contacts he would newly acquire to discover and enter another field of work and open a second line of business.  What an individual is capable of doing when given the freedom to chase after their dreams is remarkable.  Keeping more of what you earn is the engine that helps drive that freedom and that dream.

But according to the blowhard primitive, it's just a line that's he's been fed to get him to vote against his own best interest.  Because, you see, Joe the Plumber is incapable of all that he dreams, so it's best he vote to have money from those above him redistributed down to his level via the gov't and at least he can have a little something.

If there's ever been a scheme dreamed up by a political party to keep the rich wealthy and to make sure the middle class and poor stay in their place, it's the concept of redistribution of wealth and making sure they believe the American Dream is a fantasy.  Kill the dream, make gov't the god coming to your rescue.  Welcome to the Democrat Party.

These commies are just trash.

.

[Carl]

This tragi-comic episode embodies a propaganda line long pressed by the right in this country, that is deliberately aimed at persons ignorant of basic facts about business income: a population of persons, like Joe the Plumber himself, who know nothing about running a business and will never own or operate one, though they may comfort themselves with fond dreams of someday being in charge and bossing other people around.

They can never give up their dream of always feeling oppressed,put upon or victimized.
It is why they will never amount to anything in life,they don`t want to be anthing more then the bottom of the barrel and have all the world pity them.

F**king losers.

[DarkHalo]

Jeezus the magistrate is a pompous buffoon. The only thing in nature even possibly more full of itself than this long winded bag-o-gas would be a black hole. A really LARGE black hole.

The DUmmies think the American dream is nothing more than a marketing ploy??? 

That explains a lot about their thinking processes and lack of ambition.

[Chris_]

though they may comfort themselves with fond dreams of someday being in charge and bossing other people around.

Ladies and gentlemen, Psychological Projection.

[jukin]

Dear The Magistrate,

Please be so kind as to suck a wet fart out of my asshole, sir.

Sincerely,

Jukin.

[JohnnyReb]

I've known rich people that could barely sign their name on a check. They hired educated DUmmies to do the paper work. 

My daddy complained once about he could have done better if he had had more education (he did just fine with what he had). I was feeling my oats that day. I said, "No you wouldn't, just look at Pete T. and Nelson W.. They're both rich and they both have absolutely "NO" education." He said, "Oh but if they had had some education they'd be even richer." I told daddy, " No they wouldn't, they'd be like you, to much education." He wanted to know how I figured that was. I told him, "You had just enough education to think it wouldn't work. They were to stupid to know it wouldn't work and plowed ahead anyway........and things have worked out well for both of them."

It's true, Pete T. and Nelson W. had a grand total of 1 day in the first grade between'em. They did have one thing in common, they both had good wives.

Let me tell a little story here. Pete T. and my daddy were at a Amry surplus auction in N.C. at the end of WW2. Daddy had bought a truck load of something and was talking to Pete T.. The auctioneer was trying to get bids on something at 1/2 cent each, Pete T. raised his hand and bought the entire lot. Daddy asked Pete T. what he had just bought. Pete T. said he didn't know what it was but at 1/2 cent each he wanted them all. Well, it turned  out to be several truck loads of 3' oak mess tent stakes. Pete T. laughed and said he could sell them for firewood if nothing else.

Next day, daddy was back in N.C. to get the last load of what he had bought at the auction and Pete. T was loading the last of the tent pegs up. Daddy asked Pete T. what he had done with all the tent pegs. They both lived in the same town and daddy knew there was no way Pete T. had hauled all those stakes home that quick.

Seems that on his way home with the first load of tent pegs, Pete T. had noticed some surveyors working in a large cleared off place. He stopped and asked what they were doing and did they have a need for some more 'grade stakes'. They were laying off the airport in Charlotte N.C. and he had sold them all the tent pegs at a nickel each. He had been hauling tent pegs all night long. 

[BlueStateSaint]

Dear The Magistrate,

Please be so kind as to suck a wet fart out of my asshole, sir.

Sincerely,

Jukin.

He might enjoy doing that. 

[HACKSAW]

I AM JOE THE PLUMBER!

[DumbAss Tanker]

I AM JOE THE PLUMBER!

ICH BIN EIN PLUMBER!

 

[JohnnyReb]

ICH BIN EIN PLUMBER!

 

Is that German for "Yikes! I been screwed"?..........