Making Money The Old Fashioned Way

Every once in awhile I feel the need to just lay it all out there on the table and tell you how I really feel. Today’s target is the Republican primary candidates, and I think I have even decided who I am going to vote for.

First, let’s get this straight; all the Republican candidates are millionaires. Some, like Mitt Romney are open about it, others like Rick Santorum, not so much, but that’s okay. Let me rephrase that, as long as they have come about it honestly, i.e. they earned it. My definition of earning is you had to go out and actually do something to get it. This could be going out and starting a business, working in a business, either one but you had to be responsible for managing people, payroll and budgets. You could even be a Doctor, like Ron Paul, where you had to go to school and actually have to do some hands on work, start a practice and deal with those issues. I don’t necessarily even have a problem with a guy like Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich who have earned money lobbying, although it isn’t my first choice of carrers to admire.

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What doesn’t count is going to college on someone else’s dime, or getting into school through some kind of, oh I don’t know, affirmative action program. And inheriting your money or marrying someone for theirs doesn’t count either. Claiming you have run a business and managed people when al you did was hand out cupcakes at a union hall to community organizers doesn’t count either. And, while I have all the respect in the world for lawyers, okay maybe not all the respect in the world, suing people and companies for frivolous reasons and then taking most of the winnings, well, I think you can guess what I think about that. And then there is the whole book thing, if you actually write the book, then all the more power for you, but if you don’t actually write the book, you know like sit at a keyboard and type away until your fingers bleed, but only read something someone else writes, even if you tell them what you want in it, well that doesn’t count either.

Finally, if you are filthy rich, or even only slightly dusty rich, don’t try to convince me you know what it is like to be “one of us” and that you know what we are going through in this economy, because you don’t. Taking off the tie and wearing jeans just isn’t going to convince anyone you know what we are dealing with. Maybe at one time you were like us, when you were young and starting out, but you aren’t now, you’ve made it, be happy you have, hell flaunt it, just don’t be fake about it. I hardly think that any of the four Republican candidates nor the current resident in the White House really have to worry if they will have enough gas in the tank to get to work until the next check comes in. When you live off the government’s dime and get to take the kids all over the world on that same dime, you have absolutely no clue what the peasants are dealing with.

So who do I like? I won’t say, but you can figure it out. Eliminate one right off the top who I have said I won’t vote for based on the paragraph I just wrote and also who I have had recent experience with and it narrows it down to three. Then there is one who I really don’t think has a chance, even though there is no argument he has the most ardent and passionate supporters, and I may even vote for him in the primary. That leaves two. Of those one is certainly more or a Washington insider than the other, and I am surprised by this time he hasn’t said something really stupid. Which leaves one candidate, who whether you like him or not, and who has said some interesting and somewhat controversial comments, but through it all hasn’t hemmed and hawed like another candidate, back tracking and changing his positions. He is stuck to his guns in all cases, and like his views or not, he isn’t afraid to say them and back them up. That might just be enough for him to get my vote.