You know, the older I get the more stuff that pisses me off, and I gotta tell you the derailment of the Republican Party is right at the top of the list. We all need to remember that in a free democracy anyone can start a party and pretty much say and do what they want. Those are the rules and they’ve worked for over 200 years.
For the last 29 or so years the Republicans have become the party of “family values” and have counted on the religious right for the bulk of their votes. Well, this is a good strategy for getting votes, but it keeps the party from performing its mission which is supposed to be limited government intervention, lots of personal freedom and an atmosphere that promotes business. But no more. The Republicans brought us the “Patriot Act” which circumvents our constitution, huge debts which naturally the Democrats think can only be cured with equal debts for their causes, and more “Big Brother” attitude than I personally can handle. Government is about doing the things that the people can’t do on their own…build roads, keep a standing army and defending our borders. Now I may be wrong but the last time I checked Canada and Mexico weren’t amassing troops on our borders so this should be a pretty easy job…just build some friggin infrastructure, make sure the American people aren’t getting hosed by the government, promote a climate in which both large and small business’s can flourish and then get out of our way.
That used to be the deal, but now the deal has changed. It’s family values (to get big voting blocks), its starting wars for the military industrial complex when a few key troops could do the job for almost free, and its about limiting our freedoms so the giant corporations can get what they want. Let me ask you: Do you have car insurance? Shouldn’t that be optional? It is not optional and a lobbying group made damn sure you had to buy it. Every big business in the world wants part of your paycheck. Some will spend more money making Washington give it to them than others. We’ve all heard that “no fault” insurance states pay more for coverage than states that have mandatory insurance laws. That’s because insurance is a numbers game. Personally, I would rather insure myself and my ability to dodge the idiots on the road than not, and if they crash and burn the financial responsibility is on them…but that doesn’t translate into free money for the insurance companies. They actually have to do their jobs when it comes to no fault insurance. Nuff about that.
Lets talk about abortion for a minute. For it or against it, nearly everyone has an opinion and that opinion is based on their religious values. The key part of this is “when does a fetus become human, or have a soul”? That of course will never be known, but it does bring up the equal and opposite question of people who are dying. Lets assume we all have souls (sorry to you athiests out here, I’m keeping it simple) and you are going to have an operation, or you are dying of cancer or some other tragic disease. The doctor tells you that during the operation or final days of your disease that if you die that he can revive you but you will be on life support and pretty much be a veggie with no awareness at all for maybe a couple of extra days before you die anyway. Do you have him keep reviving you even though it does you personally no good, or do you sign a DNR (do not reccusitate) order? Almost everyone would pick a DNR if they knew they were going to be on life support and have no awareness of the world around them because you are just prolonging your family’s and possibly your own pain. But for this discussion we assumed you had a soul, so is that murder or suicide? People live and people die – it’s the way life works.
So for the abortion part of this scenario: Let us say that some teenagers or anyone else, really, had sex and in a couple of days found out the female was pregnant. The only way you can even begin to tell me it is wrong is if you believe that God assigns and installs a soul the instant a sperm drills its way into the egg. The morning after pill is not wrong unless you believe that. My test for abortion is this: If the fetus can’t survive outside the womb without being on life support and in an incubator you are probably in the clear. In my opinion God is a conservative and isn’t going to throw souls away on a fetus until they have a chance of survival. Do you think God hates the birds and fish that eat 90% of all baby turtles that are born and heading towards the sea? Life is tough and sometimes having a baby makes it tougher.
Late term abortion is a different story for me. I once refused to do business with a Doctor who bragged that he was the only Physician in the state who would do an abortion in the third trimester. He later was exposed for disposing of aborted fetus’s in the field behind his office. Abortion is a tough issue to tackle, especially for guys because we can’t have one, but the main point from all of this is that it is a moral issue and has nothing to do with what government is supposed to be about.
The religion I grew up in, Southern Baptists, told me that all Jew, Catholics, Muslims and danged near everyone else was going to Hell because they weren’t “immersed in water”, or didn’t worship God they way they did. This later became my test for a cult: “If your religion believes that everyone who doesn’t believe as they do is going to Hell then you are in a cult”.
Believe how you want to believe, I don’t care, but keep it out of politics! The founders of our country were pretty clear about the seperation of church and state and it is one of the most important tenets of our form of government. How would you like it if a snake handling, head shrinking, voodoo practicing, animal sacrificing religion got to tell you how to run your life because they were in the political majority? I’ll tell you how you would like it. You wouldn’t like it one little bit. “But my religion is the right one” you whine, we have been established for x amount of years and have x amount of members…we are a majority. Ya, maybe you are a majority religion but you don’t have the right to tell the non snake handling, head shrinking, voodoo practicing, animal sacrificing people how to live. Politics is about governing a country and religion is about how you choose to run your life, but not mine. I personally find it funny that you even think you have the right to tell me how to live. We have laws that govern much of the way we live already, why do you get to overstep those carefully plotted bounds? You don’t. Give up. Live your life the way you want, teach your children that it’s ok to stick a pin in a shrunken snakes head to cause pain to an enemy if you want to, but get out of our collective faces. Not everyone believes the same way, and that is the point.
So then, now that I have probably pissed everyone in the country off, how do we fix the Republican party? Well, for starters we throw the religious angle out the window. Then we set up clear rules that say your business can’t intentionally screw anyone over or trick or force them into buying your product. Then we quit messing with other people’s lives. If the Islamic religion believes that you can’t draw a picture of Allah or Mohammad that is well and good for them, but they don’t get to tell me how to live. If they live like good citizens and care about the people of the world and generally garner my respect, I probably won’t draw a picture they don’t like because I respect them, not because I think they will come blow me up if I do. Which in fact, I have known many many Islamic people in my life and they were almost all good people who love freedom and business and generally respect the values of this country. The problem with all religion is the extremists who will not stop until they have made everyone believe the way they do, or killed all the opposition. Most religious people live a life that other people respect, but the extremists are the squeaky wheel. They always speak up out of turn and want to tell you how to live. Regular people are content to live their lives in their own way and lead by example, not force.
So, Republicans. Give up on the moral majority and their one sided issues. Quit letting big business tell you what to do. Don’t start wars because your political contributors will benefit from them. Pull our armies back to our borders in case those pesky Canadians and Mexicans decide to gang up on us. Stop trying to tell the rest of the world how to live. Listen to the regular people who won’t speak up unless asked to. Once again be the party that promotes freedom, personal responsibility and financial conservatism. If you are going to claim to be the party of family values then don’t hire illegal aliens to work for you, don’t cheat on your wife/husband, and generally try to live so that people will respect you…you are going to get caught otherwise…Do the right thing even when no one is looking, and for the love of God put the snake handling, head shrinking, voodoo practicing, animal sacrificers on the back burner where they belong.
If I have made you mad with this post then you may have a personal problem and need therapy. If I have made you so mad that you decided to retaliate against me with violence you should know that the address that ICANN has listed for this website is not even close to where I live, and that if you some how get lucky and do find out where I live I own guns, am a very very good shot, and I will kill you.
Promote a Free America people!