Yes, believe it or not, one of my classmates thought I was a Republican. I wish I could follow this sentence by saying that I don't have anything wrong with Republicans, but unfortunately, I do. You see, Republicans don't think very highly of me either. You gotta love a party that takes an oppressed group of people and uses them to it's own advantage. I have to believe that for the most part, most Republicans do not hate gay people. I have to believe that for my own sanity. But, I think that the Republican Party has done a very good job of spinning gay issues into things that a lot of people might be afraid of. They use terms like "gay agenda" and "special right" to stir the far right into a hysterical frenzy of paranoia and fear. And, they're good at it. I once even got into an argument with a woman over the phone because she was calling to make sure that our household was voting to "protect families."
You see, these issues are not even fundamental to the Republican Party. Of course, they want the right wingers to think that they are so that they can keep getting voted into power, but what the Republican Party is supposed to represent, at least the way that I've always been told, is smaller government. The government is supposed to impose less on our lives. So, how is telling people who they can and who they cannot marry less government?
And, since we are on the topic, there are actually a lot of things that I do not like about the Republican Party. They like to perpetuate the myth that global warming is not real. I'm some kind of doomsday extremist, but I choose to believe the 99% of scientists who think that global warming is real. I happen to care about God's creation very much and I believe it is our duty as stewards of this planet to take care of it. I think we need to protect endangered species and that we need keep some spaces wild and clean so that we can go out into it and enjoy this world that God made for us. We also need to start looking into alternative fuels so that we can reduce our dependence on forgein oil and also reduce our carbon emissions.
I also believe in social welfare. There is no reason why people should be multi-millionaires while people starve in the streets. It is immoral. Yes, I believe that if people work hard that they should be able to benefit from that, but if we are going to be good Christians, we need to take care of the homeless and the hungry and the infirm around us like the Bible tells us too. It's always been so strange to me that the party that professes to have the most faith tends to be the one that is the most heartless.
And, while I think abortion, with the exception of when the mother's life is in danger, is absolutely wrong, I do not think that anyone can make that choice for a woman other than herself. It is unfortunate that there is no way to take a father's opinion into consideration, but a woman's body is her own, and any decision that she makes in that regard is between her and God. As I said when I was wrote about gay marriage a few posts back, you cannot legislate morality.
I do not believe in the death penalty. Besides the fact that it has been proven ineffective against reducing crime and the fact that innocent people are put to death, I do not think that I have enough moral standing to say that a person needs to die. By all means, keep them locked up if they are a danger to society; I certainly don't want those people running around. From a strictly financial viewpoint, it costs a lot more to kill someone than it does to keep them locked up for life because of all of the litigation.
Education is one of the most important things we can do as a nation. I reduces crime and boosts the economy. But, education, as well as hospitals and roads and emergency services and our military and a myriad of other things cost money. This stuff isn't free people!!! Where does this money come from? Taxes. I know for all of you Republicans out there that taxes is a dirty word. While I don't like paying taxes either, I'm just glad that we have a system in place where we can pay our taxes and that money will actually do something to benefit us all. Not everyone lives in a country like that.
And finally, I don't know all of the ins and outs of "universal healthcare," but I do know that the system we have is broken. Lack of medical insurance is the number one reason that people lose their homes. I have medical insurace and even for me it has been difficult watching my premiums increase by 100% over the last five years. Coming from the medical field, I think some of the medical policies out there are atrocious and someone needs to do something before the entire system collapses.
So, thank Marlene for getting me on this topic. Those are my political viewpoints, as inarticulate as they are. Believe it or not, I don't actually like politics and I feel that I typically don't know very much about it. I hope I didn't hurt too many feelings out there, if you don't like anything that I said, just write it off as "hippie tree-hugger" rantings and go about your day. You probably wouldn't want to know what I'm thinking about you.
You see, these issues are not even fundamental to the Republican Party. Of course, they want the right wingers to think that they are so that they can keep getting voted into power, but what the Republican Party is supposed to represent, at least the way that I've always been told, is smaller government. The government is supposed to impose less on our lives. So, how is telling people who they can and who they cannot marry less government?
And, since we are on the topic, there are actually a lot of things that I do not like about the Republican Party. They like to perpetuate the myth that global warming is not real. I'm some kind of doomsday extremist, but I choose to believe the 99% of scientists who think that global warming is real. I happen to care about God's creation very much and I believe it is our duty as stewards of this planet to take care of it. I think we need to protect endangered species and that we need keep some spaces wild and clean so that we can go out into it and enjoy this world that God made for us. We also need to start looking into alternative fuels so that we can reduce our dependence on forgein oil and also reduce our carbon emissions.
I also believe in social welfare. There is no reason why people should be multi-millionaires while people starve in the streets. It is immoral. Yes, I believe that if people work hard that they should be able to benefit from that, but if we are going to be good Christians, we need to take care of the homeless and the hungry and the infirm around us like the Bible tells us too. It's always been so strange to me that the party that professes to have the most faith tends to be the one that is the most heartless.
And, while I think abortion, with the exception of when the mother's life is in danger, is absolutely wrong, I do not think that anyone can make that choice for a woman other than herself. It is unfortunate that there is no way to take a father's opinion into consideration, but a woman's body is her own, and any decision that she makes in that regard is between her and God. As I said when I was wrote about gay marriage a few posts back, you cannot legislate morality.
I do not believe in the death penalty. Besides the fact that it has been proven ineffective against reducing crime and the fact that innocent people are put to death, I do not think that I have enough moral standing to say that a person needs to die. By all means, keep them locked up if they are a danger to society; I certainly don't want those people running around. From a strictly financial viewpoint, it costs a lot more to kill someone than it does to keep them locked up for life because of all of the litigation.
Education is one of the most important things we can do as a nation. I reduces crime and boosts the economy. But, education, as well as hospitals and roads and emergency services and our military and a myriad of other things cost money. This stuff isn't free people!!! Where does this money come from? Taxes. I know for all of you Republicans out there that taxes is a dirty word. While I don't like paying taxes either, I'm just glad that we have a system in place where we can pay our taxes and that money will actually do something to benefit us all. Not everyone lives in a country like that.
And finally, I don't know all of the ins and outs of "universal healthcare," but I do know that the system we have is broken. Lack of medical insurance is the number one reason that people lose their homes. I have medical insurace and even for me it has been difficult watching my premiums increase by 100% over the last five years. Coming from the medical field, I think some of the medical policies out there are atrocious and someone needs to do something before the entire system collapses.
So, thank Marlene for getting me on this topic. Those are my political viewpoints, as inarticulate as they are. Believe it or not, I don't actually like politics and I feel that I typically don't know very much about it. I hope I didn't hurt too many feelings out there, if you don't like anything that I said, just write it off as "hippie tree-hugger" rantings and go about your day. You probably wouldn't want to know what I'm thinking about you.
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