A Republican fishermen

[worldcat lemon]

A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below. She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground at an elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Republican!" "I am," replies the man. "How did you know?" "Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me."

The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Democrat." "I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well," says the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

[longfisher]

A woman in a hot air balloon realizes she is lost. She lowers her altitude and spots a man fishing from a boat below. She shouts to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consults his portable GPS and replies, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground at an elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolls her eyes and says, "You must be a Republican!" "I am," replies the man. "How did you know?" "Well," answers the balloonist, "everything you tell me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you're not much help to me."

The man smiles and responds, "You must be a Democrat." "I am," replies the balloonist. "How did you know?" "Well," says the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

one side cares for others and the other side doesn't. It's really just that simple.

Although I'm libertarian (voted lib. straight ticket this year), I can see these differences as plain as day. It even creeps into my professional life as an insurance agent.

It's said in the business that the very best leads to prosepctive customers are referrals. I don't do politics in my career as it's irrelevant and I don't want anything but professionalism to influence my judgement. But my customers often try through various means to learn what my political stance is on issues.

If you're interested it's fairness and liberty, on all issues. But that's another topic.

Of all the customers who I have who are white, rich and conservative in their many hundreds I get less than a handful of referrals each year. And, these people are in a position to refer dozens and dozens to me for sure with all the networking they do.

Of the few score of customers I have who are lower income, secretaries, construction workers, restaurant managers, mechanics, I get literally hundreds of referrals a year. Most of them are not conservatives judging by what they say about their views. I don't know if they're democrats or not. But they don't fit the mold of the traditional Texas Republican.

The mismatch is as stark as night and day.

I've pondered this over the years. I've toyed with the idea that those who are Republican are just too busy or they're not connected or they're angry because I don't take partisan sides in my work or they're stupid or they don't know that referrals are important (not likely as I send out automated e-mail to the periodically directly asking for referrals) or so on and so on. But I've given up trying to make excuses for them.

They don't just not like the Democrats. They simply don't care about others, republicans or democrats. They are so uncaring that if someone even close to them mentioned they were having difficulty with an insurance issue they must just let that voiced concern dissipate in the wind. I don't think they even hear it. So, no referral.

And, it's certainly not that they don't like the work I do for them. They regularly express deep appreciation for the work I do. Some even say that I'm as good as any HR department they could ever hire. And, they've been customers for years and years.

They just simply don't care about anyone but themselves or members of their immediate family. And, that's become my working construct for building my business. Get referrals from people who care about the plight of others and that means don't expect much from Republicans.

They're just selfish and uncaring. In my view, the historical and progressive liberalization of America over the 2.5 centuries we've been around is a good thing as it tends towards communalism. As a group we can solve societies increasingly complex problems but as a bunch of tribes we cannot.

I look forward to the day that conservatism is eliminated or moderated. As it stands today, it's a true social ill. I'm also of the opinion that conservatism as it is currently enshrined in the Republican party is not only sociopathic, but also, revolutionarily anti-American.

LF

[scattered_grass]

one side cares for others and the other side doesn't. It's really just that simple.

Although I'm libertarian (voted lib. straight ticket this year), I can see these differences as plain as day. It even creeps into my professional life as an insurance agent.

It's said in the business that the very best leads to prosepctive customers are referrals. I don't do politics in my career as it's irrelevant and I don't want anything but professionalism to influence my judgement. But my customers often try through various means to learn what my political stance is on issues.

If you're interested it's fairness and liberty, on all issues. But that's another topic.

Of all the customers who I have who are white, rich and conservative in their many hundreds I get less than a handful of referrals each year. And, these people are in a position to refer dozens and dozens to me for sure with all the networking they do.

Of the few score of customers I have who are lower income, secretaries, construction workers, restaurant managers, mechanics, I get literally hundreds of referrals a year. Most of them are not conservatives judging by what they say about their views. I don't know if they're democrats or not. But they don't fit the mold of the traditional Texas Republican.

The mismatch is as stark as night and day.

I've pondered this over the years. I've toyed with the idea that those who are Republican are just too busy or they're not connected or they're angry because I don't take partisan sides in my work or they're stupid or they don't know that referrals are important (not likely as I send out automated e-mail to the periodically directly asking for referrals) or so on and so on. But I've given up trying to make excuses for them.

They don't just not like the Democrats. They simply don't care about others, republicans or democrats. They are so uncaring that if someone even close to them mentioned they were having difficulty with an insurance issue they must just let that voiced concern dissipate in the wind. I don't think they even hear it. So, no referral.

And, it's certainly not that they don't like the work I do for them. They regularly express deep appreciation for the work I do. Some even say that I'm as good as any HR department they could ever hire. And, they've been customers for years and years.

They just simply don't care about anyone but themselves or members of their immediate family. And, that's become my working construct for building my business. Get referrals from people who care about the plight of others and that means don't expect much from Republicans.

They're just selfish and uncaring. In my view, the historical and progressive liberalization of America over the 2.5 centuries we've been around is a good thing as it tends towards communalism. As a group we can solve societies increasingly complex problems but as a bunch of tribes we cannot.

I look forward to the day that conservatism is eliminated or moderated. As it stands today, it's a true social ill. I'm also of the opinion that conservatism as it is currently enshrined in the Republican party is not only sociopathic, but also, revolutionarily anti-American.

LF

That's funny, I have plenty of friends that happen to be "Republicans", that would give me the shirt off their backs if I needed it. If I needed it.