democrats vs. republicans (politics)
this is from an email “fight” that i got into recently:
i have never seen democrats play to people's fears and baser selves to win elections the way that republicans routinely do. all you have to do is watch fox so-called news ONE evening to see evidence of this, or read ONE republican fund-raising letter - and compare those to a more rational and reliable news program (like npr, for example) and a democratic fund-raising letter. pick one, any one, on either side, and if you are able to look at these things objectively, you would see exactly what i mean.
i'm so sick and tired of white people being so unbelievably ignorant and defensive on issues of race – and i'm white, btw! it is extremely difficult to get real about this issue and it's pervasive impact throughout our society because everybody's so worried about upsetting the white people (yes, i mean white AND black people) and no one wants to be labeled a trouble-maker (yes, i mean white AND black people). why can't the poor, put-upon white people acknowledge what "our" people did historically, and continue doing to this day in a myriad of ways, and the impact of that history on today's society, without getting totally defensive and acting like it's all about "those angry black people"? and in doing so, implying that that anger is somehow unjustified. give me a break! we will never be able to address these issues - and incidentally, get past them - until WHITE PEOPLE learn how to handle talking about these incredibly difficult issues with objectivity and maturity.
what i find ironic about most anti-abortionists is that they call themselves "pro-life" but are usually 100% in favor of the death penalty, are anti-birth control for all women, do nothing to work with unwanted, abused or neglected children, do nothing to assist the foster care system, do not adopt as often as those who are pro-choice, etc, etc, etc. it is all talk and knee-jerk reaction on one aspect of a complex issue. i would be willing to bet you any amount of money that more pro-choice people are involved as foster parents and volunteers in battered women's shelters, working for justice in the legal system to prevent innocent people from being put to death, and so on - i could go on forever listing the ways in which these people are ANTI-LIFE - than these so-called christians (and others) who are rabidly anti-abortion. (btw, my comments should NOT be construed in any way to assume that i am pro-abortion.)
according to people intimately familiar with them, the memos that cheney has claimed justify the torturing of prisoners do not contain the kind of information cheney claims that they contain. never mind that nothing else, released or unreleased, based on all of the reports that have come out (including statements of people other than cheney who were directly involved in the actual torture and virtually every independent analysis, both within the government - even in bush's own administration - and outside of it) supports his statements either. just because cheney says it's so, don't make it so. heaven help us if that were the case!
part of the reason the memos have not been released is due to an executive order that bush issued, saying that such information cannot be released if it may be relevant to a legal proceeding - although obama could make an exception, or rescind the executive order. he is apparently considering exactly that.
bush ran up record deficits, while cutting taxes for the weathiest americans (his friends and family, that is), thereby ensuring that the financial burdens for the current administration, and for future administrations and generations, would worsen tremendously instead of improve. this was after he inherited the first balanced budgets produced by our country in years of both democratic and republican administrations. and what about the unjust and immoral war that he started under false pretenses, and which is probably in the end what is contributing more to our national "bankruptcy" than anything else? second to that might be medicare/medicaid, which wouldn't be such a problem if wealthy senior citizens used their private insurance or paid out-of-pocket instead of sucking off of government welfare that they don't really need. same goes for social security: how about reserving it for people who really need it, instead of people like john mccain, who has been collecting it for years and is wealthier than most of us could ever hope to be?
progressive to me indicates someone who wants to move forward instead of backward, socially, politically, culturally, spiritually, and in all other ways. frankly, what i have seen in my many years on this planet is that so-called conservatives are basically people who are not interested in actual information about the issues and care more about money than people, and liberals are basically people willing to take a look at all the hard and ugly facts and find a workable solution that acknowledges that people are not made from cookie cutters, and are more concerned with people than money.
yes, obama is increasing the deficit in a frankly scary way, but i also hold out hope and continue to believe that when we start doing what we should have been doing all along - for the last few decades, at least - from an economic, financial and business point of view, such as investing in PROGRESSIVE technologies and the markets of the future as obama is ensuring that we will do (i.e., PROGRESSING instead of remaining stagnant and relying on outdated, CONSERVATIVE economic and energy policies), our economy will grow in a way and at a rate that will put a much larger dent in those deficits and will likely do so much more rapidly than anything a republican administration would have done.
we can all find something on youtube that proves our points. the important thing, i think, is to be able to take in all information that comes our way, analyze it critically, be open to other perspectives and to hearing about the lived realities of people different from us, to focus on solutions that work instead of what fits neatly into our preconceived notions and ideologies, and to be willing to change our minds when the data doesn't fit or the solution we pursued seems not to be working. sadly and unfortunately, what i have observed in my many years is that the OVERWHELMING majority of republicans and "conservatives", are not able to look at our society and at these important issues unblinkingly, with objectivity, and without fitting everything neatly into a box that they have already packed and sealed.
