The Generous Heart of the GOP

I have had the same argument handed to me three times now by teabaggers on Twitter. As one might imagine, I am not able to speak in short sentences in real life, and I certainly cannot have a debate in 140 characters. But, I have my very own blog so I will put it all here and forward a link to the next moron who tries to hand me this line of shit.

Now, first of all, for all of my regular readers with an IQ in the triple digits, I want to make sure that you all realize what each of these people sent me. I want you to click this link to see the "fact" that they each sent me and #1 realize that they still do not believe that they are being conditioned even though I have somehow managed to come across this same message and link from three different people at three different times. #2 (giggle) tell me the other thing you see immediately as soon as you open the link (maybe even before it opens and you see the name of what you are opening in the address bar).

FOLLOW HERE

You saw it, didn't you? Its an Op-Ed! Jesus. Christ. And two of them were quick to tell me that its from a Liberal and from the New York Times. (sigh). Before reading it the first time, I told the teabagger who forwarded it to me "that's an Op-ED." His reply told me he didn't know what that meant. No part of me was surprised.

So here is what I would have said if I had not been limited to 140 characters at a time and just ceased my conversation several messages in because of ridiculous rants of my ignorance and insistence of the superiority of those on the right:

The OPINION piece said that Conservative households contribute 30% more annually to charities than those led by Liberals. A second study showed that it was up to 50%.

So here it is: Bullshit. I don't need any data to support what I know to be true and I will try to make this as clear as I can devoid of statistical data which could never be collected anyway:

1. As the article mentions, if you were to remove the amounts donated to churches, Liberals would be a higher percentage of donations. It feels funny to include monies that can be bullied out of a donor when being told Jesus wants them to tithe a percentage of their income. A much larger amount of those on the right identify as religious (and many have scared those from the left away altogether).

2. Any moron (most, anyway) could realize that the majority of millionaires and billionaires are Conservatives. The percentages of their donations would far exceed those on the lower end of the income gap spectrum when added together.Those who are wealthier have accountants give them numbers at the end of November to let them know exactly how much they need to donate in order to get the biggest deduction, are doing so for less than philanthropic reasons. It has nothing to do with generosity.

3. Those of us on the left are, traditionally, less well off. Therefore those of us who donate to charities do not keep track of how much we donate because its not going to help us when we file our taxes anyway. AND we don't do it for a tax benefit.

(I give to charities all of the time. I have never asked for a receipt. I kind of get upset when they ask if I need one. I was raised that you don't brag about your generosity or its not coming from the right place anyway. And if a pollster asked me to tell them what I donate annually, I would just give them a blank stare and start rattling off different times I gave $100 to this or $250 to that. I lost 175 pounds and donated an entire plus size Lane Bryant wardrobe once to a charity that gives women getting off of assistance a wardrobe to go to work. I don't know what that's worth. I don't ask. My only intention is to help others, it has never once occurred to me to consider thinking about myself in the new year).

4. Something else we on the left do give that I bet a lot of Conservatives don't - Time. It is much easier to hand someone a check than offer them a day or a weekend out of your life. At the end of any given year if I were asked which events or charities I had donated my time to in that calendar year, I could list some and still end up forgetting others. Again, I do it because it is important to me or someone I love, not because I think it will benefit me in any way later.

The piece didn't cite the actual data used or any means of obtaining it, but I feel confident as a thoughtful person who happens to live and pay attention to what goes on around me in America, the statistics were not inclusive or detailed enough to make a sincere representation of generosity in our society.

I will close by saying that the writer of this op-ed is a Liberal. And he wrote it a few days before Christmas with an urge for all to go out and donate. And he did it through a traditionally Liberal outlet openly encouraging Liberals to make donations. I dare say, had it been an Op-Ed in appeal to Conservatives in the Washington Post, it would've been used as a comical talking point around the Koch's New Years Celebrations before adding it as wadded up kindling on the roaring fire in the grand ballroom in the west wing of their winter hunting retreat.