A Day in the Life of Joe Conservative's World

A Day in the Life of Joe Conservative's World

Joe Conservative wakes up in the morning and goes to the bathroom. Joe is a middle aged, overweight, evangelical Christian and, is the king of his castle (a small single-wide mobile home). He flushes his toilet and brushes his teeth, mindful that each flush & brush costs him about 43 cents to his privatized water provider. His wacky, liberal neighbor keeps badgering the company to disclose how clean and safe their water is, but no one ever finds out. Just to be safe, Joe boils his drinking water. He doesn’t know that boiling water will only kill germs. It won’t remove the mercury and other pollutants that seeped into the aquifer from the mining operations, refineries and the nearby nuclear plant.

Joe steps outside and coughs. The pollution is especially bad today. Corporate
lobbyists for the auto industry convinced their representatives that clean air
regulations would hurt the factories by cutting into their profits. Catalytic
converters were expensive and a waste of materials. The cars that pollute the
most are the cheapest, so everyone buys them. Joe checks to make sure he has
enough toll money for the 3 different private roads he must drive to work.
There is no public transportation, so traffic is backed up and his 10 mile
commute takes an hour. Joe is nearly out of gas. At 15 dollars a gallon, it’s
hard to fill the tank.

On the way, he drops his 12 year old daughter off at the clothing
factory she works at. There are no child labor laws because everyone needs to
pull their own weight and contribute to society. Paying for kids to go to private school until they’re 18 is a luxury besides, Joe needs to keep the extra income coming in. Times are hard and there are no social safety nets. There are no public schools either so, a basic education is something only for the rich.

Joe is raising his 3 children alone. You see, his wife died a couple of
years ago. She had a (treatable) form of breast cancer. Joe’s wife lost her job
when she got too sick to work. There was no way to get treatment for her, they
had no insurance and, no money. Another “luxury” Joe could not afford. Joe has a 17 year old son who was working in a foundry. He was burned badly when molten iron splashed on him. He is in a convalescent home recovering from his injuries. The medical bills are mounting by thousands of dollars.Joe’s son may not be able to work again. His son’s job did not provide medical insurance and, there are no labor and industry regulations or coverage. Joe is liable for all the medical bills.

Because of the traffic jam, Joe gets to work 5 minutes late. He misses the call for Christian prayer and, is immediately docked an hour’s wage by his employer. He is not feeling well today but, he has no sick leave or health insurance. Since neither his employer nor the US government provide it. Paying for it himself is really expensive and, since he has a precondition the insurance companies won’t insure him or his family anyway. He just hopes that it is nothing serious. Joe doesn’t complain because the unemployment rate is up to 35 percent due; to all the jobs being shipped overseas. Joe doesn’t want to risk losing the job that he has. Finding another job would be very difficult to impossible. Joe’s workday is 12 hours long, because thereis no regulation over working hours. Today is an especially bad day. Joe’s manager demands that he work until midnight, a 16 hour day. Joe does, knowing that he’ll lose his job if he does not. Joe makes $6 an hour and his daughter makes only 50 cents an hour. There is no minimum wage. Again, he will lose hisjob if he complains or worse; tries unionize.

Finally, after midnight, Joe gets to pick up his daughter and go home. His daughter shows him the deep cut she got on the industrial sewing machine today. Joe is outraged and asks why she doesn’t have metal mesh gloves or other protection. She says the company will not provide it and she’ll have to pay for it out of her own pocket. Joe looks at the wound and decides, they’ll use an over the counter disinfectant and bandages until it heals. She’ll have a scar but, getting stitches at the emergency room is expensive. Half of Joe’s wages are being garnished, for the medical bills from his deceased wife and maimed son. There simply is no money for “luxury” things like, stitches. His daughter also complains that the manager made suggestive overtures towards her. Joe counsels her to be a “good girl” and not rock the boat, or she’ll get fired and they’ll be out the income. This is the same boss his 15 year old daughter worked for. The 15 year old was harassed by him and eventually forcibly raped. No charges were filed against her 50 year old boss. It was her word against his. He said it was consensual sex, she “claimed” it was rape. Nobody believed her even though, she suffered multiple injuries from the rape. There is no “age of consent” since fundamentalist extremists successfully lobbiedfor it to be lifted. They cited their religious rights were being restricted. So, statutory rape charges could not be filed either. She got pregnant as a result of said rape. She currently is in a home for unwed pregnant women and girls. She is taught how her brutal rape was all her fault. She’s forced to carry her rapists baby to term. Abortion is illegal and birth control is only available to married women.

They get home and there’s a message from his elderly father who can’t afford to pay his medical or heating bills. Joe’s father is a US army veteran. He served our country for 35 years. He has no social security, medicare, pension or veteran’s benefits. Joe can hear him coughing and shivering. There is nothing Joe can do. He has no money and his dad lives over 150 miles away. The tolls alone to get there would cost him a day’s pay. Joe turns on the radio and the top story is a proposal in congress to raise the voting age to 25 for men and, repeal women’s voting rights. A ranting, bleeding heart liberal states that “It’s an attempt to keep power out of the hands of working class Americans”. The conservative host immediately quashes him, screaming over him, calling him “a utopian idealist”. The host agrees with the congress that, men aren’t mature enough to make good choices until they’re at least 25 and, women can’t make them at all. They are seriously considering revoking voting rights for minorities too. Gay people have already lost their right to vote. The conservative congress labeled them insane and unable to vote with a sound mind....

Joe chuckles at the wine-swilling, cheese eating liberal egghead and says; “Thank God I live in Conservative America where I have freedom!