Frazier vs. Ali, Tyson vs. Holyfield, Brody vs. an ultra conservative who refuses to give his real name, these are the great battles of our time. Well, two of them are at least, and the third one (with two pasty white guys battling politics instead of two athletes literally pounding each other in the ring) is coming to a close today. I hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Anti-Union Andy, but I also highly doubt he’ll be back. Even he might have a tolerance for how long he can debate someone on the internet. We join this debate from last week’s stopping place…
Anti-Union Andy: …I do think it’s very clever to paint Walker as a fascist instead of Obama as a socialist.
Brody: Are you really going to trot out the old “Obama is a socialist” line?
Anti-Union Andy: It’s not a line. He fits the definition—
Brody: Wanting to make it illegal to drop people’s healthcare after they get cancer isn’t socialism, it’s something that should have already been in effect.
Anti-Union Andy: It’s interfering with business. It’s the government telling an industry it has to do something, how to operate, which is absolutely socialism—
Brody: So you think Obama fits the definition for Socialism better than Walker fits the definition for fascism?
Anti-Union Andy: Walker doesn’t fit the definition for fascism—
Brody: I laid out why he did earlier.
Anti-Union Andy: And he still didn’t fit it. Obama has clearly overreached into what industries are supposed to—
Brody: Cut the shit Andy. Obama is barely a liberal, let alone a socialist. He has barely talked about the Wisconsin protesters and the plight of unions in America today, and doesn’t really get along well with the AFL-CIO. He’s even said bad things about the teacher’s unions and NEA before.
Anti-Union Andy: And I applaud him for that. That’s probably the thing I like about Obama.
Brody: You like that he’s pissing off his own base and not fully supporting the last real muscle his party has?
Anti-Union Andy: Yes actually [laughter] I love it.
Brody: Why don’t you tell the truth about why you’re really calling Obama a socialist? People see a black President named Barack Obama, his mom’s an atheist, and his dad is a Muslim from Kenya, and he has an association to the Weather Underground because he’s met Bill Ayers, and his church might have been extreme at one time because of the comments his former pastor made. All of these things make him seem like some sort of radical that he really isn’t. Wouldn’t you rather just call him the Black Panther President but can’t?
[There is a long silence before Andy continues] Anti-Union Andy: I think that’s…that’s definitely not true. I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying or suggesting.
Brody: I’m saying that lily white conservatives think he’s a socialist because in their worldview an America that’s equal enough to where a black man can become President is socialism.
Anti-Union Andy: No, that’s false, that would go against Libertarian ideals—
Brody: Libertarians talk a good game, but that really just seems to be a codeword for racist.
Anti-Union Andy: I don’t know what basis you have for saying that.
Brody: Every Libertarian I’ve ever met is the basis. They don’t really give two shits about minorities or their struggles or inequality and just think, typically, the government shouldn’t get involved in anything that isn’t someone trying to steal property from a rich guy. They want to see all social programs and entitlements dismantled because they don’t want to pay taxes on anything. They always paint the movement as “radical freedom” but it really just seems like a bunch of well off, stuffy white fucks wearing bowties and trying to accumulate as much stuff as they can get their hands on.
Anti-Union Andy: Private property rights do play a big part in right leaning libertarianism.
Brody: Which is more or less the only kind currently on the menu. You guys pretend like the government shouldn’t get involved in social issues, but every one of you I’ve talked to doesn’t believe in abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action, and thinks Obama is a socialist. You’re just extreme fiscal conservatives who want to abolish all things like Medicare and social security.
Anti-Union Andy: Those things should be abolished.
Brody: You’re just so conservative the main Republican Party doesn’t want you. So you call yourselves Libertarians.
Anti-Union Andy: Obviously, I don’t see it that way. It sounds like I really need to take a minute to educate you on Libertarianism. Libertarianism is a movement—
Brody: No, you really don’t. I’ve heard this probably 5,000 times. I would like for you to tell me why I have seen you wear a colorful bowtie on multiple occasions, why I have also seen other conservatives such as Tucker Carlson wear colorful bowties, and why nobody else on the planet wears them?
Anti-Union Andy, puzzled for a second: Wait—I want to go back to Libertarianism.
Brody: I don’t. Also, I have seen the US chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood wear colorful bowties. Did you ever think you would have something in common with them?
Anti-Union Andy: I have to defend Libertarianism against some of the charges you made earlier. The movement is—
Brody: Jesus, you sound like a guy defending your girlfriend’s purity when everyone knows she’s been around. Why are you ducking my bowtie question? What is it about bowties you don’t want us to know? Do they hold power in and of themselves?
Anti-Union Andy: I will talk…bowties, I guess, if afterwards you allow me to defend and explain Libertarianism against what you accused it of.
Brody: Sure, absolutely, so bowties, go.
Anti-Union Andy: I know I for one, and I cannot speak for the others, but I really liked wearing bowties from a young age. They make me feel a little more distinguished. It’s something my grandfather probably would have wanted as he always wore them. I don’t always wear one, and prefer a necktie, but I will wear a bowtie a few times out of the year. I don’t know if there’s some conspiracy as you’re suggesting and I find it actually very absurd, but I do like them.
Brody: Okay, well that’s all the time we have. Thanks for dropping by Andy.
I think people at the top are extremely disconnected from what’s going on in the real world
Eisenhower is rolling over in his grave at what the Republican party has turned into. He even believed that abolishing medicaid and social security was stupid and that only a few people people in the party actually believe that….smh
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