Yesterday Evening ...

[1StrongBlackMan]

I met my (white) fox-watching, small-business owning, rightwing, conservative family friend and his college bound (Black adopted) son for drinks and a burger.

When I got to the gastropub, fox"news" was on the big screen and my friend was paying rapt attention. The segment had gop politician after gop pundit decrying, "With unemployment at 8+%, you just can't raise taxes on anyone!"

I watched the segment until the waitress came to take my order. I ordered an IBT (that I had fallen in love with on a previous visit) and a burger ... and oh yeah, a "Can you please turn the channel to some sports, any sport'll do."

The waitress smiled, said "Thank you, the customer is always right" and practically ran to the bar to change the channel.

My friend looked at me like I had lost my mind; but I cut him off saying, "Look, we both know we have different political views. Let's just watch Sportscenter."

About two segments into Sportcenter, my friend brought up the Senate's having voted to extend the tax cuts for those under $250K; but not for those making more ... "That's class warfare; that just not right!"

I ignored the comment and asked the son if he was excited about going off to college. (He was)

I looked at the son and said, "You know ... The best thing about going away to college is you get a chance to evaluate your thinking and values; you get a chance to get to know you."

My friend kept talking about the Senate vote, parrotting the "You don't raise taxes when there's an 8+% unemployment rate."

So I asked, "Why not?"

He responded, "it'll kill the job creators. Everybody knows that."

I responded "How so? As history has shown, the unemployment rate is unconnected to the tax rate of the upper incomed. In fact, raising the tax rate for businesses incentives them to re-invest profits into the business rather than subject them to increased taxation. Besides, the Senate vote will STILL extend the tax rate for everyone, even the higher incomed folks ... It just raises the rate for income over the $250K."

His response was, "That's not true! It will raise the rate on all income if you make more than $250K! You really need to get informed."

With that, I turned to the son and said, "The other best thing about going to college is you learn an appreciation for facts because if YOUR facts don't comform with reality, you quickly learn to re-evaluate the validity of your facts."

[Walk away]

1. It's nice to think about the son coming home for the holidays,

giving his Dad a big hug and agreeing to disagree

[goclark]

3. I agree with you

I believe that is the best way to handle the situation.

Maybe one day the dad will see the light - maybe the son will set an example for him.

[Jamaal510]

2. No offense,

but your friend is hopeless. It's a shame that he's so adamant about trickle-down economics, even though it has been proven the past few decades to be the detriment of the working class. Who knows what it would take to get people like him to finally see the light.