Rare political post
Aug. 6th, 2004 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01I usually try to restrict my posts here to fluffy fandom things, but I feel compelled to do this. I'm angry. I'm disillusioned. And I'm really motivated to do anything I can to get W out of the White House.
I know there are people on my f-list who are Republicans, and who support Bush. If you like, you can skip the stuff behind the cut. ;-)
I was raised as a Republican. I was also raised as a Southern Baptist, and I think part of my issue with the Republican party is its alignment with the religious right.
I'm an atheist, but I'm pretty quiet about it. In general, I don't like it when anyone pushes their religion in my face, and most people don't, to be fair. One of my best friends is a minister, so I don't have a problem with people being religious. I think my big problem with the religious right is their assumption that it's perfectly fine for an entire country's laws to be based on their religion's holy book. I'm tired of being forced to pray at public functions (including the state Democratic convention, where I was a delegate), and I'm sick of the continued attempts to oppress people who are gay, bisexual, or transgendered. I'm pro-choice, I support gay rights, and am deeply offended that anyone would use the Bible to justify discrimination against any group of people in the form of controlling their bodies. (I know many Christians who agree with that sentiment, of course.)
I also have major issues with the war in Iraq, and Bush's horrid ignorance of the world outside our borders. It makes me sick to my stomach that my government has kept hundreds of people locked up in an internment camp in Cuba for two years, without charging them for any crimes or allowing them any defense. Geneva Convention? What Geneva Convention? It doesn't apply to us, you know. (And I don't count this latest attempt to satisfy a Supreme Court ruling, thank you very much. That's a farce, IMO.) It's un-American, and if any other country in the world did that, we'd probably invade them. We're holding these people based on what, our intelligence? The same intelligence that told us there were WMDs in Iraq? Yeah, I trust them.
Another part of my reluctance to support Republicans comes from my up-bringing, again. I grew up in the south, and many of my family members are Republicans because they see the Democratic party as belonging to African Americans and other minority groups they view with suspicion. In my family, being a Republican is definitely associated with being racist. I realize that represents a small minority of Republicans, but I can't separate my family's small-mindedness and racism from the issues they talk about. For example, they're against welfare and other public aid because of the stereotype of an unemployed black woman with eight children getting a monthly check. Telling them that welfare accounts for a miniscule portion of the budget in comparison to social security doesn't seem to make a difference. None of them have ever been on welfare. Those people are just lazy, they say. This is America, after all. The land of opportunity! You just have to work hard enough!
Of course, my own stories about working with battered women and teaching in gang-infested urban schools don't garner any sympathy for people who don't have the same opportunities as middle class folks. My family doesn't have any concept of the playing field not being level, because they won't even drive on that side of town for fear of being mugged. They just believe the stereotypes, and don't bother thinking for themselves.
I'm a big supporter of many causes the Democratic party traditionally champions, even though I disagree on free trade. (I think globalization is inevitable, and we'd best find a way to deal with it.) I'm all for tax cuts, as long as they go to the middle classes, where the people are actually likely to spend the money and contribute to the economy. (I'm a little tired watching people get trickled down on.) And as long as children don't go without free lunches or after-school programs as a result, or firefighters don't lose their health care, or senior citizens don't lose their access to medication. I'm more than willing to pay my share of taxes to help people who need it. I don't like my money going to support an invasion of a country based on a lie, so I totally understand where they're coming from. I just think they're wrong! ;-)
So I'm not a Republican for all of those reasons, and I hate W for others I won't bother detailing here. Mostly, I'm tired of being ashamed of the actions of my country. I really want to fly the flag outside my house again without feeling like I'm a hypocrite.
So that was more than you wanted to know, I'm sure! I do wonder about slashers who are Republicans, though. I mean, this president just tried to amend the Constitution to discriminate against gay people! How do you reconcile the anti-gay and anti-"porn" rhetoric of the party with participating in an internet community that embraces gay rights, women's rights, and free speech?
I really want to know, so please comment here. I'd love to have a thoughtful and reasonable discussion of this topic.
I know there are people on my f-list who are Republicans, and who support Bush. If you like, you can skip the stuff behind the cut. ;-)
I was raised as a Republican. I was also raised as a Southern Baptist, and I think part of my issue with the Republican party is its alignment with the religious right.
I'm an atheist, but I'm pretty quiet about it. In general, I don't like it when anyone pushes their religion in my face, and most people don't, to be fair. One of my best friends is a minister, so I don't have a problem with people being religious. I think my big problem with the religious right is their assumption that it's perfectly fine for an entire country's laws to be based on their religion's holy book. I'm tired of being forced to pray at public functions (including the state Democratic convention, where I was a delegate), and I'm sick of the continued attempts to oppress people who are gay, bisexual, or transgendered. I'm pro-choice, I support gay rights, and am deeply offended that anyone would use the Bible to justify discrimination against any group of people in the form of controlling their bodies. (I know many Christians who agree with that sentiment, of course.)
I also have major issues with the war in Iraq, and Bush's horrid ignorance of the world outside our borders. It makes me sick to my stomach that my government has kept hundreds of people locked up in an internment camp in Cuba for two years, without charging them for any crimes or allowing them any defense. Geneva Convention? What Geneva Convention? It doesn't apply to us, you know. (And I don't count this latest attempt to satisfy a Supreme Court ruling, thank you very much. That's a farce, IMO.) It's un-American, and if any other country in the world did that, we'd probably invade them. We're holding these people based on what, our intelligence? The same intelligence that told us there were WMDs in Iraq? Yeah, I trust them.
Another part of my reluctance to support Republicans comes from my up-bringing, again. I grew up in the south, and many of my family members are Republicans because they see the Democratic party as belonging to African Americans and other minority groups they view with suspicion. In my family, being a Republican is definitely associated with being racist. I realize that represents a small minority of Republicans, but I can't separate my family's small-mindedness and racism from the issues they talk about. For example, they're against welfare and other public aid because of the stereotype of an unemployed black woman with eight children getting a monthly check. Telling them that welfare accounts for a miniscule portion of the budget in comparison to social security doesn't seem to make a difference. None of them have ever been on welfare. Those people are just lazy, they say. This is America, after all. The land of opportunity! You just have to work hard enough!
Of course, my own stories about working with battered women and teaching in gang-infested urban schools don't garner any sympathy for people who don't have the same opportunities as middle class folks. My family doesn't have any concept of the playing field not being level, because they won't even drive on that side of town for fear of being mugged. They just believe the stereotypes, and don't bother thinking for themselves.
I'm a big supporter of many causes the Democratic party traditionally champions, even though I disagree on free trade. (I think globalization is inevitable, and we'd best find a way to deal with it.) I'm all for tax cuts, as long as they go to the middle classes, where the people are actually likely to spend the money and contribute to the economy. (I'm a little tired watching people get trickled down on.) And as long as children don't go without free lunches or after-school programs as a result, or firefighters don't lose their health care, or senior citizens don't lose their access to medication. I'm more than willing to pay my share of taxes to help people who need it. I don't like my money going to support an invasion of a country based on a lie, so I totally understand where they're coming from. I just think they're wrong! ;-)
So I'm not a Republican for all of those reasons, and I hate W for others I won't bother detailing here. Mostly, I'm tired of being ashamed of the actions of my country. I really want to fly the flag outside my house again without feeling like I'm a hypocrite.
So that was more than you wanted to know, I'm sure! I do wonder about slashers who are Republicans, though. I mean, this president just tried to amend the Constitution to discriminate against gay people! How do you reconcile the anti-gay and anti-"porn" rhetoric of the party with participating in an internet community that embraces gay rights, women's rights, and free speech?
I really want to know, so please comment here. I'd love to have a thoughtful and reasonable discussion of this topic.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-08-06 12:47 pm (UTC)A pleasure! You set the tone unagressively and with a willingness to listen to different points of view. That’s pretty rare!
So here's the thing: I don't feel free to express my views in public
Well, here’s the thing for me: part of my family lived under Communism (and my parents remembered Nazism quite well; I was a late birth.) I interviewed many Soviet dissidents when I started as a cub reporter. And this has nothing, but absolutely nothing to do with what happens to you under a regime that does not respect freedom of speech. Our world (not to mention LJ! I don’t know how I built my flist, love ‘em all, but they’re 90% pro-Kerry!) is full of people expressing different opinions. Yes, they are sometimes brutally contradicted, but that’s the thing about freedom of speech…
There's also a feeling among Republicans that opposing Bush = not supporting the troops. That one makes me crazy, because it doesn't make any sense. You can support people and hoep for the best for them, and at the same time dislike what they're being forced to do.
I agree with you on this (not being anti-war, but being both anti-war and supporting the troops; yes of course that’s possible. IMHO misguided, but definitely possible.)
I think the current political situation is much more complex than "us vs. them", though. Most of the people who oppose the US and its actions and policies are not out to conquer the western world.
Well – I don’t suppose Germany and Russia and my own country want to conquer the world; but their UN votes have supported the side of people who do want that. Radical Islam does want to conquer the world. Here is another absolutely terrific New Yorker piece, on the new generation of Al-Qaeda, which gives a bit of a notion of the mentality of the people attacking the Western world, to avenge medieval slights. (Seriously! It turns out, for instance, that the Madrid bombings were planned at least one year before the war in Iraq, and had more to do with Bin Laden’s much-echoed claim to Andalusia, Moorish Spain, “lost” in 1492.)
And always remember that 9/11 was planned under Clinton, whose foreign policy (or absence thereof) had always been of appeasement and divestiture when it came to radical terrorism.
Oh, yes! Absolutely! I seethed for years that the Clinton administration did little about the Taliban, and that the Bush administration initially reversed the economic sanctions the Clinton administration applied.
Now this I never saw anywhere. Could you point me to some documentation about it?
And don't get me started on Saudi Arabia, or Iran. Wonder why we don't invade those countries, if the whole point (in retrospect, when no WMDs surfaced) was to liberate the people? If the US decided to make it a policy to go around the world and free oppressed people, I'd be all for it, because that is something I could believe in. What sickens me is the fact that we were lied to about why we invaded Iraq, and when the lie was revealed, the reason for going just... changed.
There are so many things in answer to this…
1. Agree totally with you on the utter unloveliness of Saudi Arabia and Iran. That being said, Iraq was in violation of 17 UN resolutions, & shot at US and British planes every day. Saudi Arabia is nominally an ally (although they finance the terror networks, and I for one favor breaking diplomatic relations with them and buying oil form Angola and Russia. Iran, say all analysts, will actually blow up of its own: it has a population that’s 75% under age 25, who’ve known nothing else than the Mullahcracy they suffer under, and they’re organizing as we speak (go read Iranian blogs! There are many in English.)
(to be continued)