My Dirty Little Secret...

Guess what? I am a Republican... the only political candidate I've ever given a dime to is Ron Paul (I love crazy people)... I thought about giving money to Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama too during the primary season, but eventually decided against it... I really liked Huckabee... he seemed to be rational and compassionate (the story about how he handled displaced New Orleans residents in the wake of Katrina made me cry harder than the last time I saw my weenie)... and initially, Obama inspired me... I thought he was "different"... by different, I don't mean black with a weird name... I mean like a different kind of politician... but much to my dismay, I have repeatedly seen that he is not much different at all... he ducks tough questions, his campaign spins everything, his television ads are deceptive, etc...

The problem is that the Republicans aren't Republicans... I mean, what do Republicans stand for anyway? Theoretically, they are the party of limited federal government, conservation of our natural resources, fiscal responsibility, state rights, strict interpretations and enforcement of the constitution, its amendments, and the bill of rights, etc... I support all of those things... but I'm not at all sure that Republicans support any of them...

You know what? I shouldn't say Republicans... it's fairly obvious to me that the Republican party has been hijacked by the Christian Conservatives and the Neo-Conservatives, and that my Republican heroes like Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would neither recognize nor embrace the current version of their former party...

I guess we'll start with the Christian Conservatives... first of all, let me say that although I am not a church goer myself, many of my friends who I admire the most are people of strong faith... in fact, my experience has been that Christians who have deep sincerity and conviction in their beliefs and make an earnest effort to live their lives accordingly are some of the kindest and most humble and most genuine and most unselfish people on earth... so please accept my sincerity that as I pummel the lunatic right wing Christian Conservatives, I do not by any means intend my remarks as an attack on Christianity and Christians as a whole...

Here's one of my favorites... when far right wingers decry the evil abuses of the lazy and shiftless welfare recipients, I often ask if they're aware of arguably the first example of social welfare in recorded human history... that's right, folks, it's Jesus Christ distributing the loaves and the fishes... boy does that ever piss these a**holes off... I mean seriously, What Would Jesus Do? Look, I'm no biblical scholar, but I'm pretty motherf***ing positive that one thing Jesus WOULDN'T do is s**t on poor people and cut off funding and health care for single mothers...

The typical retort to this line of questioning is that of course they believe in helping the poor... they just don't believe that it's the government's proper role to intervene directly... but have you heard the evil c**ksuckers like Ralph Reed and John Hagee decry the government's direct involvement in the run of massive bailouts for the Wall Street giants? I sure as hell haven't... so, it's OK for the government to protect your portfolio, but it's not OK for the government to look after poor children? Get the f**k out of my face with that bulls**t...

The point is that these people don't have actual faith-based convictions (by the way, let me again state that many of the people who follow the Christian Conservative leadership DO have sincere convictions about issues- particularly abortion- to use a relevant analogy, an attack against Hitler should not be perceived as an attack against all Germans) ... it's pure politics... how else do you explain the "Moral Majority" supporting a man who has no apparent regard for the 7th Commandment (6th Commandment if you're a Roman Catholic or a Lutheran)? By the way, every time the Republicans attack Barack's character (which they do constantly), the Democrats should hammer McCain's lack of regard for the 7th Commandment... they should then let the television pundits figure out and remind the people what the 7th Commandment is...

Now, on to the Neo-Cons... what is a Neo-Con anyway? To me, the Neo-Conservative movement has 4 basic pillars:

1. Domestic mean spiritedness and bigotry.
2. Hyper aggressive foreign policy that a) often backfires and b) is recklessly expensive.
3. Massive deficit spending (we want it all right now, but we're so irresponsible that we'll let our children and their children worry about the cost some other time).
4. A refusal to accept facts and/or scientific evidence that contradicts what they believe.

On the first point, let me say that in my opinion, the majority of adults in the US who wind up in dire straits find themselves in that position primarily because of their own lack of foresight and a series of poor decisions... but please, can we stop pretending that a lack of foresight and a series of poor decisions are the ONLY reasons people wind up in desperate situations? There are A LOT of factors involved... but right now, I am so hungry and in such desperate need of some cold beers that I'm quitting for now... I'll write more tomorrow... the other 2 entries took me a combined total of 30 minutes at most, but this entry has already taken me 45 minutes and I'm not even quite to the halfway point... so, I'm out of here...

OK... I'm back... one thing that took me less than 3 full entries to discover... I am definitely not going to make an entry every day... I think realistically, we're looking at Monday through Thursday until the end of the election... my track record says that goal is pretty unreachable... we'll see...

A couple of things I thought about between last night and now that I'd like to add before I continue... one, on my earlier accusation that Christian Conservative leaders are often if not usually more political than Godly... consider the moral issues of the day... on abortion, Christian Conservative leadership rallies around the Pro Life cause... while I understand all sides of this issue, the Pro Life advertisement of "abortion stops a beating heart" really rang true to me as a scientific fact... as such, from a moral perspective, I think Pro Life is the correct position... when asking the litmus morality question from the Christian perspective (What Would Jesus Do?), it's fairly clear in my mind that Jesus would be Pro Life... however, I think that Jesus would favor slightly higher taxes for rich people to help the country as a whole (factually speaking, the Bible favors a charitable heart and deplores greed)... I also think it's pretty obvious that New Testament philosophy based on Jesus Christ's teachings would likely reject both the death penalty and an aggressive foreign policy based on the threat of violence that often leads down a path to war... so when you look at many other issues of a political nature that involve big picture questions of moral values, the Christian Conservative leadership demonstrates quite clearly, at least in my mind, that they value their position as a political power broker a lot more than they do Judeo Christian moral principles... I believe that they use abortion as a means to rally a lot of decent people to support them in their otherwise un-Christian political positions...

The other point I wanted to mention quickly is the issue of state rights... allegedly and on paper, Republicans favor state rights... and yet, if you look at the cases of assisted suicide in Oregon, medinal marijuana in California, or the Terry Schiavo case in Florida, Neo-Con posterchild John Ashcroft (presumably at the behest of the Bush administration) directed the Attorney General's office to interve aggressively and directly on behalf of the federal government... considering that every Republican I've ever had a conversation with will say they support state rights, these interventions make a mockery of one of the most important traditional pillars of the alleged Republican platform... it's very similar to Vladamir Putin's position on freedom of the press... they can write anything they like, as long as he agrees with it... it's a joke, except that it's not funny... if you claim to support state rights, but you support federal intervention in state affairs without a clear constitutional basis (for example, JFK intervening to integrate several of the larger Southern universities is justified by the 14th amendment), then I have a news flash for you- YOU DON'T SUPPORT STATE RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!! Man, that kind of s**t pisses me off...

Also, let's talk quickly about conservative vs. liberal... the root of conservative is conserve, as in keep things the way they are... conservatives were against abolition, trustbusting, women's suffrage, the civil rights movement, etc... liberals, on the other hand, are often labeled "Secular Progressives" by the talking heads, most notably Bill O'Reilly... what's the root of the word progressive? That's right, folks... PROGRESS... keep things as they are or even return to the idyllic 1950's (I'm not sure that women and American black people feel like the 1950's were quite so wonderful, by the way, but I'll save that for another post), or move forward and make progress... that shouldn't be such a tough choice...

Now, back to the causes of some Americans finding themselves in some very tough spots... as I said, I think most people are largely responsible for their own destinies... however, I think we can agree that the circumstances surrounding your birth play an important role in where life takes you as well... if you are blessed with 2 college educated parents who own their own home, for example, you have quite a head start over the children who are born to uneducated single mothers with limited financial means... domestically, it's my opinion that we should do what we can to ensure that poor children have better opportunities to live the American dream... a poor child's efforts plus a poor child's talents should produce proportional results similar to an affluent child's efforts and talents... regardless of your political affiliation, this is a goal we should all share... let's try to make things a little better and a little more fair for poor children... I think the Neo-Con talking points on personal responsibility don't acknowledge or care about the discrepancy between opportunities for children based on their parents' circumstances... to me, that's mean-spirited, un-Christian, and un-American...

As for the bigoted accusations, just listen to the patronizing and condascending comments white conservatives make toward Barack... the only compliment they'll pay him at all is that he's "well spoken" and a"gifted orator"... um, he graduated from Columbia and Harvard law school, and he taught at the University of Chicago's law school... so, yes, he's well spoken... but I haven't heard Lindsey Graham or Rudy Giuliani call any white politicians "well spoken," have you? It's very thinly veiled racist code... fortunately, Barack's campaign is too smart to take the bait, as the Republicans are looking for any excuse to accuse Barack of "playing the race card"... and by the way, white men in their 60's and 70's who grew up during segregation and if they were being honest (which they wouldn't be) would admit that segregation suited them just fine hopefully won't get away with patronizing and condascending remarks directed at American black people...

On hyper-aggressive foreign policy, let me simply say that we can't afford it... as you know, I think that large-scale deficit spending devalues our currency and destroys our economy... as for how often it backfires, consider this... actually, first, let me say that our enemies dislike us for all kinds of reasons... the Neo-Con belief that "they hate us for our freedom" is not altogether incorrect, although it makes people sound like idiots when they repeat that talking point like sheep... if you don't think that the CONSERVATIVES in the Islamic world (can we all agree that no one would describe Al Qaeda or the Taliban as liberal or progressive?) take issue with the allure of American culture to many youths in the Islamic world, you're nuts... 7 year old little girls in the Middle East probably want to dress like Brittney Spears and I'm sure many Muslim women admire and would like to emulate a strong American businesswoman like Meg Whitman or Oprah Winfrey... and just as Susan B. Anthony pissed off conservative American men, you can bet that cultural revolutionaries in the Muslim world piss off conservative Muslim men... and the pervasiveness of American culture is as reasonable of a scapegoat as any... and being that freedom is such a huge part of our culture, it's not too much of a stretch to say that "they hate us for our freedom"...

But FAR bigger issues are little things like, oh, I don't know... how about the vital role Harry Truman played in the creation of Israel? Or the role all subsequent American adminstrations have played in arming, training, and protecting Israel? Or, maybe Iran's still mad about the time we toppled a traditional regime to install the pro-west Shah? Or, maybe the Taliban is still mad about how we deserted the Mujahideen and failed to help rebuild Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out... wait a second, aren't the Taliban and the Mujahideen the same exact people? Oh, so they are still mad then? If you look at the Marshall Plan and if you look at Douglas MacArthur's role in rebuilding Japan, it's pretty clear that when we intervene and help rebuild afterward, we create new allies... but when we intervene and bail out the minute it suits us, leaving destruction and chaos in our wake, we create enemies (if you're wondering, the answer is yes, I think we'd be stupid to leave Iraq before the Iraqi government and security forces are ready)...

You already know how I feel about deficit spending... goodness, I hope the Obama campaign figures out that deficit spending and the debt it creates is catchy and simple enough to resonate...

As for the 4th pillar of the Neo-Cons, why in the world do conservatives hate science so much? I mean, faith healing and creationism is OK I guess, but science and medicine are OK too, right? I really don't understand it... the only rationale I can think of to stand in the way of science is that you're uncomfortable with mankind trying to "play God"... the problem with that, however, is that when it comes to government policy, we have a little thing called separation of church and state (by the way, I think it's literally unconstitutional that I can't buy a bottle of booze on a Sunday)...

As for not letting facts stand in the way of their beliefs, I'll give 2 quick anecdotes before I sign off until Monday (I have a feeling that this rambling post is getting WAY too long)... Joe Biden told Lindsey Graham on Meet the Press- "Lindsey, you're entitled to your own opinions... you're not entitled to your own facts." Although I definitely believe that Republicans do not have a monopoly by any means on dishonest politicians, I think they are by far more stubborn about their beliefs in the face of contradictory evidence than are the Democrats (by the way, sticking with your guns in the face of contradictory opinions is conviction, but sticking with your beliefs in the face of contradictory facts is stupidity)... I think about the father of Neo-Conservatism, Ronald Reagan... I just read Reagan's authorized biography by Edmund Morris, and one of the points Morris makes that amazed him and amazed me is the amount of times Reagan would repeat incorrect information that validated his beliefs... the example that sticks out most vividly to me is Reagan citing the incredible bravery of the American troops who liberated Auschwitz... when people on hand would try to correct him and let him know that it was in fact the Russians who liberated Auschwitz, Reagan would get his nose out of joint and accuse the people on hand of denigrating the service of American troops... then, a few weeks later, he would go right back to praising the bravery of the American troops who liberated Auschwitz... I know this is a silly example, but it is vintage Neo-Conservative bulls**t... I mean, seriously, Neo-Conservative types, please stop pretending you're entitled to your own facts...

OK, I'm finished... I'm not sure what I'll write about Monday... anyway...