I try to avoid posting too much about politics on here because I have a lot of friends and family that feel differently, and I don’t want to offend them or cause any awkwardness the next time I see them in person. I mean, I’ve never made a secret of who I support, but I don’t usually post blogs about why I am a liberal or my stances on the issues or anything so specific. But I’ve been offended by a lot of things lately (actually, not just lately, for at a minimum the past eight years, and, let’s be honest, long before that, too) and as an adult, a woman, a citizen, as someone who wants the best for my own future and the future of this country and the REST OF THE WORLD, ALSO, I feel the need to explain myself so that I don’t have to play nice or coy anymore. I can just point to this blog for people to read if they have questions or criticisms, and hopefully we can discuss it from there.
This year I will be voting for Barack Obama. I had reservations about him when he first ran, and I still have some. I voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary, and I was excited (and am still excited) to be alive and of voting age in such an extraordinary election year. I was excited that there was an intelligent, liberal, strong woman who had a decent chance. It didn’t happen, so I turned my attention and research to Obama and McCain.
Eight years ago, I felt truly disappointed that Bush beat McCain in the primaries. I wouldn’t have voted for him in the general election because I was a Gore supporter (and if living in Florida during that election hasn’t disillusioned me, I hope nothing will), but he seemed like one of those rare Republicans, rare politicians really, who didn’t toe the party line because he actually used his heart and his gut and wanted to do what he thought was right. Now he has had to turn his back on almost everything he once stood for in order to win the Republican primary, and that still wasn’t really good enough. He had to go and pluck Sarah Palin out of basically political thin air to cement conservative support.
You guys didn’t like Kerry when he was a “flip-flopper”? Oh, but it’s okay when it’s YOUR Vietnam vet who has done a 180 on a bunch of issues. Bullshit. Also, let’s not forget that McCain is 72 years old. It is not very far out of the realm of possibility that this man could die within the next four years, and then Sarah Palin would be the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Are you freaking kidding me?!
Listen, people. It’s never going to be the 1950s EVER AGAIN. NEVER. Deal with it. There are a lot of very good reasons we don’t live that way anymore. People of color, women, homosexuals, non-Christians, people who weren’t strict adherents to capitalism, but who WERE citizens of this country were not SAFE here in that period. Still aren’t, but we’ve made a lot of strides since then. In case you’ve forgotten we are ALL supposed to be guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not just white Christian men, who have not exactly been the most responsible people in the world with those things, anyway.
Freedom of religion isn’t the right to go hauling the ten commandments around and sticking them up on the wall anywhere you want. Guess what? Christians aren’t the only taxpayers in America. And as long as that’s true, you need to keep your religion in your church and in your home and THAT’S IT. “Well, the founding fathers were Christians blah blah….” Um, No. They weren’t actually. They were Deists. If you don’t know what that is, look it up in something like an Encyclopaedia Britannica, and not in some “book” you got at the Christian bookshop. They also had slaves, and they also were raping them. So, as great as they were, they weren’t perfect people, not even perfect “Christians.” No one is. If you don’t want me to bring up the fact that Sarah Palin’s daughter is pregnant at 17 because no one bothered to teach her about the many forms of birth control she could have been using (not just to prevent pregnancy, but also to prevent DISEASE), then you shouldn’t have hounded Clinton for eight years about him cheating on his wife. If things are PERSONAL, then try to be consistent about it. And don’t try to use the fact that she hasn’t had an abortion as some sort of “right example” to other girls in the same predicament. Teen pregnancy is a big problem in this country, and so is crime, and so is pollution, and so is poverty, and so is OVERPOPULATION. In fact, those are all big problems around the world, especially that last one. You know why? Because abstinence-only education DOES NOT WORK! It doesn’t work here, and it doesn’t work in Africa, and it doesn’t work anywhere else.
What do Republicans propose to do about these issues? Basically, pretend they don’t exist, or that they aren‘t real, or that things are just “theory.” Look, you can’t just throw a Bible at someone and pretend it will solve all their myriad problems. They’ve been trying that same thing with the Koran over in the Middle East, and look how well that has been going! You can believe in whatever you want, I don’t care as long as it doesn’t involve human or animal sacrifice or something, but don’t try to tell ME that because the Bible said God created Adam and Eve and you guys got together and calculated it, that the Earth is only a few thousand years old despite what every LEGITIMATE scientist in the world has taught us about dinosaurs and evolution. Same goes for global warming.
“But the Bible is God’s word….“ How the fuck do you know?! If there is a God, He or She proably wasn’t doing mundane crap like writing out rules and shit for humans back then. When is the last time God actually talked to you and told you to write something down? Did you tape this exchange? No? Then I don’t buy it. (Actually, even if you did tape it, I probably wouldn’t buy it.) He may or may not have sent Christ to try to wake us up to some of the inconsistent and hypocritical ways people were and still are treating one another. If you consider yourself a Christian, you should try to remember the things CHRIST ACTUALLY SAID. And, guess what? He was a human, too, and he was also imperfect, and he was also inconsistent. Same goes for his disciples, and for all of the other HUMANS who actually wrote the Bible. Inconsistent and imperfect, and at least one or two downright crazy, people wrote things down about their religious experiences that some other human decided was worth sticking together and using as a way of controlling his subjects.
But Christ was one other thing--PROGRESSIVE. He CHANGED the world, tried to move it forward and help it be better. He didn’t come down and say, “You know what? In about 1,950 years there is gonna be this awesome way of life, and we should NEVER EVER EVER CHANGE IT!” Believe me, I have four different Bibles, and I checked them all. I even have a Book of Mormon (don‘t ask how or why), and he didn’t say that to them, either.
The founding fathers? They were pretty progressive, as well. Abraham Lincoln was also convinced that REAL progress was necessary. Not to mention tons of other people who have helped hold this country and its government to account for what we are SUPPOSED to be. We aren’t supposed to be a nation of small towns who all believe the same thing. We are supposed to accept and find a way to live with people who disagree with us about religion or sex (as long as it’s between consenting adults) or whatever.
The world is so complicated, so much more than I ever thought, and there are so many things we don’t even know or fathom that happen to women and children, and yes, men, too, every day. I don’t want to pretend it isn’t true. I don’t want to pretend that if everyone were the same religion, or had the same “values” that all these things would stop, or that the world would be an easier place to live. It will never be easy. That just isn’t the human condition.
This election is supposedly also about change. Republicans have not only been in charge of the White House for the last eight years, but, up until two years ago, they were also in charge of Congress for 12 of the last 14 years. What kind of change is McCain promising to bring? None that I can see, unless you want to continue to change the meaning of this country from something hopeful to an international joke, a bully.
Last week we had an anniversary of a terrible day. I live in New York City, and not that that gives me any sort of additional insight, but what happened seven years ago didn’t make the people here all agree to live to the same morals and standards, and decide to stop being open to new ideas and discussion. It just didn’t. Because that isn’t what New York is about, and it really isn’t what America or LIFE IN GENERAL is about. If anything, it made us value the fact that our society CAN live with so many differences of opinion. We do a lot of things right. Why do we want to go back on that?
Some of the reasons that we even experienced such a horrible day are rooted in things that we have done in other countries to try to force our values on people who don’t want them, people who don’t have the luxury of having a lot of intangible values. Why can’t we live and let live? Why is that so hard? Sometimes war is necessary, of course, and sometimes there is actually a point to the conflict and rarely, it actually makes a difference in the long term. The war in Iraq is not now and never has been in any of those categories. It is a war that was fought for the profit of oil companies who are sucking this country dry.
Republicans have been using religion, and fear, and racism, and sexism and lies to keep us ignorant and divided. It is to their benefit to prevent progress because that is the only way they can continue to get away with all of the crap they pull economically. Did that tax cut in 2001 benefit you for very long? How about the check you got this year? How far did that go? The reason we are not recovering from what would be a regular cyclical downturn in the economy is because of all the trillions of dollars we have spent in Iraq. And who benefits from that? Don’t kid yourself, because unless you suddenly became the CEO of Halliburton, it ain’t you.
The more they remind you of the ways we are different, the more you forget how we are all really the same. Everyone just wants to live their lives to the fullest, to pursue what makes them happiest. Love, education, friends, a career, whatever it takes. Aren’t you doing that? Am I running into your house telling you what positions you can and can’t have sex in? How many kids you should have? Which God to believe in? How to prepare your dinner? No. Because I don’t care. I’m happily over here doing whatever the hell I want, and I don’t care what you’re doing, as long as you are doing it honestly and happily.
Barack Obama represents positive progress to me. Actual change. And I hope he fulfills his promise. And I hope that you and I and the US and the world benefit from it. I want a better system for health care. I want diplomacy to be the first thing we try, not the first thing we toss out! I want children to get better education because one day they will be adults and will be trying to run things, and trying to compete with people from countries who have already realized how important education is! I want young people to stop getting killed so men like Dick Cheney can line their pockets and buy their wives fur coats, when everyone else in the country is trying to budget around how expensive gas is now!
I guess it comes down to something everyone’s “hero” Ronald Reagan once asked. Are you better off today than you were eight or four years ago? Is anyone you know? If the answer is no, then put your money where your mouth is and vote for Obama.
I’m sure I have plenty of inconsistencies in here, and I welcome comments and discussion. I prefer to exchange ideas and disagreements openly. But I won’t approve anything hate-filled!
