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François Boucher, Le Devoir, Le Monde, Le Monde diplomatique, Mitt Romney, New York Times, Paul Ryan, Tea Party, ultra-conservative, WordPress
- Coffee, by François Boucher, 1739
(1741-1816). (I will send the words and a translation)
Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) has chosen Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) as his vice-presidential running mate. According to The Telegraph, Mitt Romney’s vice-president pick, Paul Ryan, is an “unknown quantity.” At the moment, we cannot know who Mr Ryan really is. Lying is turning into an epidemic.
However, in the age of the internet, it is somewhat difficult to remain an “unknown quantity” for long. We know, for instance, that Paul Ryan is an ultra-conservative.
An Ultra-Conservative
So, what is an “ultra-conservative?”
According to Dan Lavigne of the Avon-AvonLakePatch, “Tea Party members are ultra-conservative and one wonders whether or not they are Christians.” So let us look at Mr Lavigne’s description of Tea Party members. “Tea Party members are
-White at least 55 years old -Ultra Conservative -Evangelical Christian -Fairly wealthyPer an interview with a Tea Party person last year in the state of Indiana and what they stand for:
-Against all religions except Christian -Against all labor unions -Against gays and lesbians -Against all government social programs (for women-children-elderly) -Against Planned ParenthoodAccording to Mr Lavigne, “Repulican members of the House (Tea Party) voted last week to cut $16 billion from the food stamp program. That would eliminate benefits for at least 2 million people and cut more than 200,000 kids from the free-lunch program. It would not cut farm subsidies.”
It is best not to be an alarmist. However prudence is essential. Will this gentleman work for the people? Will he be compassionate? Will he maintain the health-care reforms brought in by President Obama? Will he work at putting into place other social programmes? Will he discourage shipping outside the US too large a number of jobs. Will he be active in supporting job creation?
And, what will he do for women? What will he do for children, the elderly, the disabled, the unemployed, the veterans, and other people in need? Will he make sure people of colour can exercise their right to vote? Will he keep Wall Street and Banks on a short leash? Will he be a man of peace?
Or will he support tax-cuts for the rich, destroy the long-awaited health-care reforms, let greedy insurance companies remain just that. Will he allow the middle-class to continue disappearing while the very rich deposit too large a proportion of their money in off-shore accounts.
Will he let the current assault on the environment continue? Will he know that we cannot eat our grandchildren’s bread?
So let me ask you to be very careful.
