Liberal Talk Show Host Humiliates ’100% American’ Caller With FACTS AND EVIDENCE
by Bob Cull
Last
Tuesday Michelangelo Signorile, host of the Sirius XM Progress radio
show named for him took a call from John in Houston, Texas who
identified himself as not Republican, not Democrat" but rather, "a 100
percent American." Of course he began to immediately attack the
President with Republican talking points, so Signorile responded by
educating him to the facts before he attacked and took all of the wind
from his sails.
His
claim of being an independent is the classic conservative ploy, they
seem to think that by claiming that they do not like either party they
will not be seen to be the staunch conservative that they are in reality
and John immediately took to attacking the President.
"…
But you was [sic] talking about the President carrying 49 percent of
Hispanics, 87 percent of Hispanics, but just like I said, it’s, uh, free money is votes, and I know for a fact, I’m a, I haul all over Texas, I see it all, I been there, done that, …."
This
of course shows that John is a trucker and this former driver can tell
you from first hand experience that many truck drivers spend their days
immersed in the right wing radio
rantings of hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage. They are
proficient at parroting all of the talking points, when it comes to true
independent thought however they tend to be sadly lacking.
Michelangelo
immediately pounces on the "free money" assertion asking him, “what do
you mean, ‘free money’?” To which John replies:
"How
many Hispanics as you call them, come over here, and I’ll give you
examples of the people that I know, that come over here and haven’t
worked a day in their lives, and they’re getting welfare, they’re
getting Social Security …"
Signorile comes back at him with the conservative's Achilles heel, facts, pointing out:
[box
type="shadow"]"First of all, there are no immigrants who are
undocumented getting any federal money. The people who are getting the
lion’s share of federal dollars because they are poor are white people …
Do you know that the majority of people on welfare are what John in
Houston is, ’100 percent American’ white people?… The majority of people
on unemployment
are white people. The majority of people on every program are white
people. So this argument, it really wears thin … the idea that people
voted for the President because he’s given them money, no. People who
voted for Mitt Romney were getting government money themselves. They’re
rich people on welfare. You know those people? They’re really rich and
they have all kinds of tax loopholes, and they don’t pay as much taxes
as you do."[/box]
Predictably, John retorts:
"Why are you against rich people? I mean, they didn’t take it away from you…"
Again Michelangelo responds perfectly:
"I’m
not against rich people, I want rich people to pay their fair share and
not get tax loopholes. Mitt Romney paid 12 percent in taxes while the
average American is paying 30 percent taxes."
Again John comes back with a typical right wing talking point, this time based in his religious convictions:
"Well, what I’m saying is, 10 percent’s good enough for the good Lord, why isn’t it good enough for the American government?"
Michelangelo
pauses, just long enough to let John smile to himself and think, "I got
him this time," before he gives him an answer that hits home with a
truck driver whose safety is dependent on good roads:
"We
cannot run this country on 10 percent, of everybody giving 10 percent
of their income, and still have roads, and highways and infrastructure
and bridges. You like those bridges, you like all those roads you drive
in Texas?"
With John now on the ropes, Michelangelo ramps up his attack mode pointing out the shortcomings of Texas and its government:
"Your
Governor [Rick Perry], right? He slashed the state budget, he slashed
the fire department, we were just talking about it earlier, and the
federal government had to come in and bail him out. I’m sick of bailing
you people out, and your big giant state. You should be paying more
money. You got a lot of people there, and your Governor has the gall to
ask for a bailout from the President of the United States? What a moocher he is."
With
the tables now turned on him and Signorile having usurped his
"moochers" talking point John goes on the defensive and attempts to
change the subject:
"If,
if the President’s so popular, why is [sic] his poll numbers down so
much, so what is the problem with that now? Is it because the Hispanics
and the blacks are finally figuring out that he, uh, kind of lied about
what he said?"
Signorile is way ahead of him, however, and ready to deliver more facts discrediting his dying arguments:
"The
President’s poll numbers are no lower than any other President except
for George Bush of the past 30 years at this point in his presidency.
Ronald Reagan was lower in his poll numbers than this President at this
point in time. The only one who was the lowest was your last President
who came from your state [George W. Bush], who ran your sloppy ass
state, Texas … and I say sloppy because your whole government is run in
such a sloppy and snide way … are you proud of your last Governor?"
Again,
John tries to avoid answering the question but Michelangelo is not
going to let him get away that easily, asking once more:
[box
type="shadow"]"John, are you proud of your last Governor, before Rick
Perry? Because he took this country … first he ran your state into the
ground, and your next Governor had to be a moocher and ask for federal
dollars, and then he ran the country into the ground, and took us to war
based on lies, and thank God that President Obama saved this economy
from George Bush, who bankrupted us with his war, and bankrupted us
because he let the banks bilk everybody of billions of dollars … Man,
John, you have some losers, losers who’ve run your state, and you have
the gall to talk about President Obama, man, or anybody else, when you
have all of these moochers and losers who’ve run your state? Give me a
break."[/box]
This
method of using facts and not allowing the subject to be changed is
always effective when debating far right wing ideologues and Signorile
has honed his skill in the technique to a razor's edge.
You can listen to the entire exchange in the audio clip below.
h/t: Daily Kos
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