Who are these moocher taker "government workers" anyway?

The GOP is sooo fond of talking about cutting government. Awesome blossom. Except they forget a few details.

1. Every single "government worker" who is extraneous, superfluous  a drain on society to the GOP is a person. A person who contributes to our economy. A person with a family, who needs to be able to feed, clothe, and shelter that family. A person who will likely need to now collect unemployment (which will be blamed on the President - he's not a job creator!) and who has to support a family without a job, so might need food stamps (WELFARE!!! NOOOOO!) and now cannot contribute to a growing, healthy economy.

2. The majority of losses in the public sector have been presided over not by the federal government, but by Republican governors and local entities. 12 Republican states have presided over 70% of the total public sector job losses. Simply put?

Republican states are responsible for the high rise in unemployment overall.

Why? Well, private sector jobs are up 30 months in a row, and have driven the national unemployment rate to 7.8%.  Just imagine if we didn't vilify teachers, firefighters or law enforcement officers.  Unemployment could be driven down even further.

President Clinton, Secretary of Explaining Things put it perfectly. I want a Congress who cheers when unemployment goes down.

Yes. This.

I don't want a Congress who refuses to enact legislation put forth and then blames those same folks for not getting the job done. I don't want a Congress who secretly (and not so secretly) roots against the American people simply to retain power. I don't want a Congress who looks down on the same people they want to lay off as deadbeats and moochers, takers, not givers. And I want a President who has the best interest of the American people at heart, not just the best interest of his bank account.

Teachers, firefighters, police officers, and others are not superfluous. They are real people. They are the people responsible for educating our children, for keeping us safe in our homes and on the street. Without them, we go back to the lawless, uneducated society we once were.

Oh. Right. Never mind. That's the end goal anyway. Put guns in the hands of every single American (the more uneducated the better) so we can all STAND OUR GROUND because VIGILANTE JUSTICE AHOY!

I do not want to move backward. We've been there, done that. Obviously it didn't work. So we made changes. That's what civilized society does. It recognizes that society and societal values have changed, and shifts laws and other rules and regulations to fall in line with societal norms.

On the national level, we add amendments to the constitution. If our founding fathers had meant for that document to go unchanged foreverandeveramen, they never would have allowed the amendment process. As it is, they wrote the Constitution and immediately added 10 other things to it. At the state and local level, we write, update, repeal, and change laws also.

• We decided it wasn't proper to have people in the streets carrying firearms and shooting people when they had a disagreement.
• We decided it as important for our children to all be educated.
• We decided it was important that we not discriminate against others based upon the color of their skin, and that we not enslave those people.
• We decided that people shouldn't be allowed to drink alcohol, and then we decided we were wrong about that.
• We decided that presidents should only serve 2 terms.
• We decided that women and black people were smart enough to vote.
• We decided the government can't run without funds, and so gave the government the right to tax us.
• We decided that child labor was wrong and that children shouldn't be forced to work in unsatisfactory conditions.

I want to go FORWARD not backward.

I don't want to go back to the times when:

• Women had no control over their bodies.
• Women were 2nd class citizens.
• Discrimination was not only rampant and accepted, but condoned.
• Disputes were settled by guns at dawn.
• Only the rich were entitled to any deference.
• Children were only educated if they were wealthy and white.
• Children should be seen and not heard.
• Women who are raped brought it on themselves.
• We looked down upon those who came to us for refuge.
• It was ok for people to live on the street because they had nowhere else to go.
• We blamed people for not working, when they could lose their job at the whim of their employer.
• Only rich people could afford a higher education.
• People worked in unsafe conditions, and there was nothing they could do to protect themselves.
• It was ok to force children to work long hours in unsafe conditions for almost no pay.
• Equal pay for equal work was unheard of.
• It was ok to beat the crap out of your wife and children just because a man felt like it.
• You couldn't serve your country simply because of who you loved.
• We had a short life expectancy because people couldn't afford to receive medical treatment.
• Angry rich white men looked down on the rest of society as unworthy losers, inferior, not full people, or contemptible - to be sneered at and ridiculed. (Oh, wait...)

Add your own in the comments. What don't you want to go back to?

Let's move FORWARD not backward.