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.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-07 01:07 pm (UTC)It's hard for me to comprehend it being any other way. Texas is the worst of all the places I've lived in that the Republican party here seems to believe it holds a monopoly on "family values" (or "Texas values" -- not sure what those are, but I bet I wouldn't like them). The word "liberal" is a brand put on even moderate political candidates, and candidates actually boast that they're the most conservative in the race. (Seriously, the political signs say things like "Conservative Texas Values". *shudder*)
It's not that I think Democrats are any better than Republicans when it comes to allowing free speech or other things; it's that all of my life experience has been that *I* am the one who is derided, or ignored, or attacked for believing differently than the majority. It's a bit mind-boggling to think that there exist places where people on the left hold that "tyranny of the majority" over people on the right. With the exception of faculty meetings at the university I work at, I've never experienced it any place I've ever lived.
Democrats, by the way, are the ones I usually hear advocating smoking bans, which in my opinion (and I don't even smoke!) is a major blow to what people can and can't do with their bodies.
Opening another can of worms here, I know, but I actually support smoking bans in public places. My grandfather died of lung cancer, and I'd rather not be subjected to anymore secondhand smoke in my lifetime, thanks. I don't like the government telling me what I can do with my body in the privacy of my home, or the privacy of my doctor's office. But if something someone else is doing is harming me, I feel like I shouldn't have to tolerate it.
Whole other issue, though. You're right that there are people on both sides of every issue in every party. I'm always fascinated by people's reasons for choosing one party over another, when in some regards, the parties aren't so very different. That, in a nutshell, was what my post was about in the first place.