No, see, it's not solely due to his (R), not by any stretch of the imagination. You keep saying that over and over again as if somehow it would become true by repetition. You keep accusing me of it being personal, when again you know that not to be true. Nice go at the Big Lie technique, but you're not as good at it as Goebbels was. Again, as well, I find your decrying lack of objectivity amusing, when you're one of the least objective people on this board, and the one most likely to post articles and posts from utterly slanted websites, such as the National Review, etc. Go back and find 1 case where I've posted something from MoveOn, Soros, etc. You won't find one, because I never have. You certainly can't say the same, however. Who's the partisan, hmmm?
The issue is, the Republican Party as a whole has, in it's platform planks, certain things that I am dead-set against. It's hard to support a party when their entire basic ethos is things you disagree with.
Here's the 2004 republican party platform:
http://www.ontheissues.org/2004_GOP_Platform.htm
Let me go through them 1 by 1:
1) Abortion. They're against it, I'm for it. Doesn't get more black and white than that. They also strictly promote abstinance, and are against sex education and free condoms. I'm far more realistic, in that I know high school kids are GOING to be fucking, so I'm all for providing free condoms and having real sex and STD education.
2) Civil rights: The only one there I can undconditionally agree with is promoting women's advancement in the military. I'm pro-gay marriage, pro-gays in the military, very anti-constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, and I'm against a number of the provisions of the Patriot act, as I feel they infringe upon our personal freedoms, and, like Goldwater, I consider personal freedom to be paramount over ANY security need, period.
3) Crime: I am anti-death penalty, not on a morality basis, but due to the fact we have so many false convictions, and the thought that we might execute an innocent man is horrifying. What's the old saw? "I would rather a thousand guilty men go free than 1 innocent man hang"? If we had a perfect system of determining absolute guilt, I might change my mind, but we don't. I also feel there's better ways of deterring crime than arresting more people and building more prisons.
4) Drugs: Well, as has been discussed here many times, I am very against the War on Drugs. I consider it as misguided and pointless as Prohibition, and just as effective. ie, not at all effective at cutting off supplies of the illicit substances or preventing people from using them, but very effective at promoting organized crime. I'd much rather legalize most things and tax them, providing a net gain to the government of up to 500 billion dollars a year, if not more.
5) Education: I'm for improving public schooling, not taking everyone out from it, and am VERY against prayer in schools of any kind. Don't care which religion wants to pray, even if it's a group of pagans, it's not appropriate in public schools.
6) Energy & Oil: I'm pro-mandatory emissions controls, not necessarily pro-Kyoto, but generally so. Saving and preserving the environment is vastly more important than energy and oil companies making a few more tenths of a percent of record obscene-level profits. Spend a few billion of those profits and cut down pollution drastically.
7) Environment: It's been well-demonstrated that most industries won't do squat about pollution until forced, thus I think the fed is forced to lead the effort, not leave it to private owners.
8) Foreign Policy: I think we can all guess my opinion of the Republican-led foreign policy. I think it's been incredibly damaging to our standing in the world, and mostly completely non-effective. Whatever happened to "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick"? This administration would have it, "Yell at people, and when they don't immediately kowtow, hit them with a stick". Yes, I'm glad Libya has disarmed, but I think that would have happened regardless of the administration in power.
9) Government Reform: Judges striking things as unconstitutional are what they are SUPPOSED to do, it doesn't make them "activist judges". Judges overturning Roe v Wade after 40+ years WOULD be "activist judges". I'm also all for keeping any religious trapping out of the political arena, and yes, that means no 10 commandments, no torah, no vaidika dharma, no pentacles or statues of the green man, nothing. Likewise, the public declaration of allegiance to the nation should be free of forced declaration of belief in, and allegience to, any diety whatsoever. The original version of the pledge lacked "under god", and that was good enough for a far more religious time. Why is it such a horrid idea now? So again, lets mark this plank down as "completely disagree"
10) Gun control: More public land for hunting: dunno, would have to see some serious environmental impact statements as to what the end result would be, both on flora and terrain, as well as the local fauna (both hunted and non-hunted species). "Frivolous" gun lawsuits are what, exactly? I believe entirely in people's right to own firearms, but I don't see what's wrong with licensing, as long as you're guaranteed the license unless you're a felon. There also should be some mandatory safety training, and mandatory purchasing of child safety locks. But beyond that, you want a gun, by all means, get one.
11) I'm all for universal health care, our current system is incredibly broken and leads to incredible inequalities among our citizens. We're also one of the only 1st world western nations to NOT offer universal health care, and the ranks of the uninsured are growing rapidly daily. I'm yes for stem cell research, especialy considering the embryos they want to use are extras from fertility clinics that are going to be destroyed anyway. Might as well get some use out of those lumps of cells rather than just flush them down the drain, yes? On AIDS, we need more work on finding a cure or for treatments, and more aid for long-term care, plus governmental negotiation with the pharmaceuticals to get the costs cut. I also have no problem with assisted suicide for patients that are terminally ill. Why should someone be forced to live 3-4 months more, all of it in agonizing pain, when there's zero chance they will recover? Seems exceedingly cruel to me.
12) National Security: Well, I disagree that Bush has done much of anything to improve national security, just look at the 2005 grades for security that were given out, where most every government department got a D or an F. Of course I'm for improving security, just not at the expense of personal and civil liberties. I'm also for improving pay and benefits to soldiers, so here we have another rare point of agreement. As for missile defense, I'm against it if it would violate the ABM treaty we've signed.
13) I don't see illegal immigration as a huge bugaboo, and think that helping Mexico improve their economy to the point where people want to stay THERE rather than illegally coming HERE is a better long term plan than turning our borders into armed camps. Furthermore, did Reagan's illegal alien amnesty destroy the fabric of this nation? Didn't think so.
14) Principles and Values: Well, they don't say anything here, so I can't agree or disagree.
15) Technology: Hey, a point of agreement, I also support do-not-call and do-not-email lists. What other points they may have on this plank, I don't know, so I can't agree or disagree.
16) War & Peace: I am sure that there are terrorists seeking WMDs, but I think the likelyhood of them obtaining them is small. I also believe that you will never, ever, stamp out terrorism militarily, period, any more than the Romans were able to stamp out Christianity militarily. It is impossible to stamp out a set of beliefs at the point of a sword, period. Suggesting it is possible is naiive at best, deluded at worst. I feel Iraq has made us less safe from terror, not more safe. I was FOR Afghanistan, but we fucked up HOW we did it, and now the Taliban controls more and more of the country, the place is back to being the single biggest world supplier of Opium poppies, and we never caught a single one of the senior taliban or al-qaida leadership when we invaded. We are still safer from going there, yes, but we could have been vastly more safer, if we'd done it RIGHT, and not been distracted by Iraq.
17) I feel that Republican policies have increased the amount of poverty in the nation, not decreased it. I am also dead-set against government grants of money being in any way faith-based, because I feel the wall between church and state should be involate. Getting people off welfare is all well and good, as long as there's real jobs to move into. Also, how can you move a single mother off welfare if there's no one to care for her child or children? There's no way in hell a parent of even 1 kid working minimum wage can pay for day care, none, even with the upcoming increases to minimum wage that the Republicans are fighting tooth and nail (gee, another point of disagreement).
OK, so, there's the Republican Platform of 2004. Just about nothing on there that I agree with. Every single Republican political candidate, by virtue of being in the party, agrees that those are the issues they will try and advance, and how they will advance them. Why, exactly, should I support people who are actively working to promote things I disagree with so strongly? Can someone explain that to me?
Yes, I am sure there are some Republicans who may hold similar views to mine. When they act on them, I'll give them credit for it, like those that voted with the Democrats in the recent (albeit toothless) non-binding resolution. But, so long as they support that platform, by being in the party and not working to CHANGE the platform, I can never give them my full support, as they have at least tacitly dedicated their time in office to achieving a large number of things I consider negative at best, reprehensible at worst.
So, once more I ask for those who were complaining I never say anything good about Bush: What has he done that I SHOULD be applauding him for? I'm not aware of a damn thing he's done for quite some time (if ever) that is in accordance with my beliefs and values, so why should I applaud him when he hasn't done anything I liked? You list me some things he's done I DO like, I'll happily applaud him for them. Until then, my opinion of the man and his policies is unchanged: If any president other than Nixon has deserved impeachment, Bush certainly heads the list.
-Arlos
