Troll -
Thanks for reminding me that all Republicans don't come from the upper and upper-mid classes. There are always those with the good old "Protestant ethic" who's belief in "Christian charity" only extends to people they know personally. The rest gets what they deserve, so they can go to hell the whole lazy lot of them. From reading your past posts, troll, I wouldn't have lumped you in with them. Of course I don't believe in lumping people together so that I can dismiss what they say, anyway. Which is just another way in which we differ.

You see, that's what makes me mad. It seems that I've been getting written off for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, it was because we really couldn't afford to move out of the city and I didn't really match fashion with the kids in the 'burb where we ended up. My first job was cleaning toilets after school at the Catholic grade school I was attending. That was in the 7th grade and I have never been without a job of some kind since.

I'm not going to bore you with my life story. You'll have to buy the book someday for that. But when fifteen years as a professional musician bottomed out, with a job in the mailroom, a wife and son, I realized no one was going to pay much attention unless I got a degree. Luckily, I still had the state scholarship I'd given up all those years before, and with government help I got into a nice cushy job as a corporate trainer. Until I got laid off. Back on the dole – for two months. Funny, though, they'd only let me draw money that was contributed during the time I was employed and then based on the level of wages I had drawn.

Yeah, troll I have a mortgage, and three kids, and credit card debt up the ass (some run up while I went back to school, but most my own fault – I never was very good at saying no to my kids). My wife has a part time job at a Hospital, but mostly stays home with the kids, because we believe that's what kids need.

Anyway – what's my point? I don't need you or anyone else telling me that I haven't earned the right to my opinion. And my opinion is that we're better off trying to help people than writing them off. And I don't resent the taxes I pay to build a country that I can be proud of. Yes, I work for my money but that doesn't mean I am going to clutch every nickel, while I bolt the doors against lay-abouts and welfare cheats.

When I was getting my teaching degree, I saw what kind of schools the poor kids on the west side of Chicago get compared to the suburbs. I saw good kids and bad kids at both kinds of school. And I saw clearly that we would get a lot more value out of the few additional dollars thrown to the city schools than out of the tax breaks being promised to people who's kids already drive better cars than their teachers. And if Mom or Dad could be home with the kids when they get out of school, rather than scraping the rent out of some fast food job that they spend an hour on public transportation to get to (big business abandoned the west side of Chicago decades ago; and now public transportation is being cut back there, too), I would consider any public support that made that happen money well spent, too.

Troll, you insist on pointing the finger at those around and below you rather than at those on the hill. Do you imagine that you're going to be up there with them someday? Not if they have their way. Unfortunately, there are too many "running dog" Republicans in this country who will never let anyone rise "above their station" and Troll, I'm not lumping you with them. But I can't help remembering a quote from Marat/Sade: "All your revolution amounts to is a prison riot, to be put down by corrupted fellow prisoners".

Troll, you are entitled to your opinion. But don't jump to "confusions" and make judgments about people you really don't know.

One last thing, for all you wanna-be Republicans, remember what Bill said at the convention (quoting Harry S Truman, I believe) "If you want to live like a Republican, you have to vote Democrat".