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dunedan: my brother runs a successful small business, supports obama, is informed about the policies he actuall advocates and runs out a scenario for small business that has not resemblance to yours. why do you suppose that is?
on guns---i think obama supports local gun control. hell, i support that. i've lived in cities for a very long time and see no reason why urban spaces should NOT have strict controls over guns. but i don't see the same need for it applying everywhere. i don't think obama does either (dc put up some good posts about this question)---so i don't see the basis for your position on that either.
on the last point---what you're running into is the outline of your own economic views mapped onto obama. i don't see anything like the scenario you outline as happening. but this is obviously the diciest area, because the mutation of capitalism that seems to be underway could go in any number of directions and coping with change is not something that any system does terribly well. so on taxation, the main change is a reversal of republican tax breaks for the wealthy because the famous "trickle down" theory has been demonstrated empirically to have been not worth the napkin laffer drew his curve on. there are a host of areas that could be transformed---i maintain (speaking entirely for myself here) that the republicans have used bloated, obscene levels of military spending as a way of diverting tax revenues into the economy by way of the faction of the capitalist order that most consistenty supports the party--you know, patronage--and that an enormous amount of money could come from ending the candy binge of unnnecessary shiny high-tech toys for the military. a rethink of what the military is and what it's role is needs to happen--the cold war logic, which the reagan period simply extended and which has been extended since--except for the fact that the republicans saw the draft as anathema (the one thing they seemed to have learned from vietnam)...there are all kinds of other areas that can be rethought. the period of conservative domination may well be over---i hope it is--good riddance---and maybe it will be possible to develop a saner social system for that.
end political part===========================
i suspect that while you may not like what appears to be coming politically, you'll end up better off that you think you will.
at least i hope that's the case.
i seriously hope that your predictions for yourself and your family are wrong.
political differences aside, no-one wants to see others suffer, particularly not if they're linked by a sense of community, no matter how curious that community might be.
i hope you're wrong, sir.
best of luck and try not to worry so much.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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