Sunday, January 13, 2008 |
Conservativism = Excuse to not think?
I was raised in a family who always had conservative views and, naturally, many of those views I still embrace. Being someone who truly believes in conservative values always embraced the Reupublican party because of their support of things like pro-life and other conservative views. In the past year or two, my views have drastically changed and I now have to say I support the democrat party more than the republican - by a long shot.This doesn't mean that I think we need to stop protecting the unborn but I do certainly believe that we need to be A LOT less militant about it. I'm also sick of the conservative values that the Republican party pushes to be nothing more than a cover-up to some other extremely disgusting things that are happening. The Republican party is becoming the party that produces the "preacher's kid" syndrome in it's followers. While the Democratic party has similar effects (as does ANY organization), there seems to be a huge emphasis on it in the republican party -- almost as if there is a secret agenda (do some research on AT&T conspiring with the NSA and President Bush signing an executive order to stop any investigation - Start Here). There has always been this epidemic in polotics that people just do as their told. People sign on to a party and they just go in and pull the lever for their party rather than actually thinking about what is going on. The problem we have now is that we are all becoming more and more "mentally lazy". We don't want to have to think about something because it's so much easier for someone else to tell us what to do and we let people tell us what to do until it's too late to fight back. We're relinquished many rights just by standing still because we were too lazy to fight (and we're about to see is happen again if people don't start standing up for Net Neutrality). All of us just listen to what our parents, our churches, and our political parties say. We obey. And ultimately, a few key people just changed the course of history by using each one of us as drones. We've become slaves to the afforemention beings. There is a huge need to respect our parents, our churches, our leaders, and even our own political parties but this is NOT an excuse to go brain dead and let all of them brainwash us. We have become so mentally numb in things that we pass around emails that completely damage someone or something with points that are nothing more than fiction. We allow people to be damaged because we pass around a single email that was probably written by a single person. We become just as responsible as the person who wrote that email - responsible for destroying someone's life and career. The most recent example of this is an email circulating that claims Obama is an anti-American muslim. This email even references that snopes.com has confirmed this to be fact and plays on the fact that no one checks the facts before telling others about it. Because we are so brain dead (by choice), we dont even bother to notice contradictions in the email we read (such as a father who left when a child was only 2 can't really be that instrumental in raising a child according to a specific religion) and we become a drone to someone who wrote a fantasy email about the way he or she wants things to play out. Judging by the way the republican party has responded to numerous things, do you really think it's that far fetched that a die-hard conservative sat down and dreamed up these lies to attack someone who might really be a threat to them... yes, to THEM... not neccesarily to our nation. Political parties are not about what is best for our nation but whats best for the wallets of those running the parties. It is true that we live in a country that we have the ability to choose our leaders but because we have all become lazy, we are forfeiting that right. We are allowing people who have self-interest tell us what is best for us. When a company lists us a reason why we should use their product rather than their competitor isn't it a good idea to evaluate both products instead of just listening to the one company? Of course they are going to tell us their product is great and their competitors is bad because they want us to by their product because that is the only way they make money. Maybe we've matured enough to realize the absurdity of political television ads but now we're allowing ourselves to be the medium that lies are spread -- simply because we don't want to spend a tiny bit of time looking into the reality of the situation we're about to take a stance on. I don't know anyone that would take the stage and explain to everyone what the string theory is all about because few of us even know -- but yet we're willing to take the stand for someone who wrote an email whom we've not only met but we don't even know his or her name. People continually tell others that you have no right to complain about the state of our country if you don't vote but if you're also the one spreading lies and doing only what you are told to do, well, you have no right to complain either. When we're stuck in a dictatorship and we're all complaining about it, it's really just going to be on our heads because we sent out false facts in emails damaging someone for being racial muslim when the reality of the situation is that he has many roots in Christianity. Maybe because instead of actually changing the way you handle emails that you forward on you just stop forwarding them to the people that are actually going to check the facts and make you feel bad and forward only to those that will continue the "chain of drones". P.S. - I really am not intending on making anyone feel bad but this is something that I am very serious about and I think others need to be serious about. We're not talking about passing on an email that says the weather is going to be 90F rather than 60F but, instead, we're talking about passing on lies that very well could damage the chances of hope for our country. I'm not saying which canidate is the solution but I am saying that we need to look into things a little bit more before we spread lies that could damage someone that may well be the best thing for our country. Labels: campaign, democrat, lies, obama, politics, republican, society (C)2003-2008, Bob K Mertz - Some Rights Reserved |
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Bob,
This effects both parties, to sit there and think other wise would be "not thinking".
Is the republican party perfect? No, but compared with the democratic it's better at least on the points I care about. And that is in effect the key.
The liberals and the democrats want to allow terrorists to kill us and then apologize to them for it. Like it's our fault?
The liberals and the democrats want to tax us to death. They say they "want to tax the rich", research what they define as rich. I did that just before the 2004 elections and guess what they think I'm rich. Yes, my single income family of 5...oh and that hasn't changed.
With them there is no sanctity of life, they preach to young women it's ok and then if they exercise their right shun and treat them as outcasts. "Family" and "Life" means nothing. It's a if it feels good it can't be all that bad routine.
There is no place for Christians though all other religions should be tolerated. Bashing Islam is intolerant, bashing Jesus is a daily sport.
Another thing, what has the Democratic lead congress done in two years since they initiated a time of "change"? That should be a short research project.
The true lesson is do your homework and don't base it solely on what you see/hear on TV. Check your sources as well.
I will agree people just take things on face value. Like the Obama letter there are numerous things that people just believe.
Is Bush perfect? No but I'll agree with him on many things. The press won't tell you about the good things that are happening. They won't tell you about the progress soldiers make every day. They won't tell you about the truth unless it serves the Democratic party's needs.
-Stephen
This effects both parties, to sit there and think other wise would be "not thinking".
Is the republican party perfect? No, but compared with the democratic it's better at least on the points I care about. And that is in effect the key.
The liberals and the democrats want to allow terrorists to kill us and then apologize to them for it. Like it's our fault?
The liberals and the democrats want to tax us to death. They say they "want to tax the rich", research what they define as rich. I did that just before the 2004 elections and guess what they think I'm rich. Yes, my single income family of 5...oh and that hasn't changed.
With them there is no sanctity of life, they preach to young women it's ok and then if they exercise their right shun and treat them as outcasts. "Family" and "Life" means nothing. It's a if it feels good it can't be all that bad routine.
There is no place for Christians though all other religions should be tolerated. Bashing Islam is intolerant, bashing Jesus is a daily sport.
Another thing, what has the Democratic lead congress done in two years since they initiated a time of "change"? That should be a short research project.
The true lesson is do your homework and don't base it solely on what you see/hear on TV. Check your sources as well.
I will agree people just take things on face value. Like the Obama letter there are numerous things that people just believe.
Is Bush perfect? No but I'll agree with him on many things. The press won't tell you about the good things that are happening. They won't tell you about the progress soldiers make every day. They won't tell you about the truth unless it serves the Democratic party's needs.
-Stephen
Hi Bob,
As you probably know, in my view, Hillary Clinton is a bit to the right of center on the political spectrum. There's been, since end of WWII at least, a concerted effort to brand and label the left as evil, to the point that there IS no viable leftist politics in this country.
Healthy politics requires the whole political spectrum to be represented. The opposites serve to temper the excesses of the other. When the right wing is in power too long, you get a religious and corporate dictatorship. When the left wing is in power too long, you get a bureaucratic dictatorship.
Unfortunately, we lack any real left anymore, and the centrist candidates (like Obama and Clinton) are now labeled as screaming liberals (if they were in any other country, they, particularly Clinton, would be in the conservative party). The last liberal president we had was Jimmy Carter (who was an evangelical, incidentally). In today's politics, Barry Goldwater would have been labeled a liberal.
What we're seeing in the Bush administration now, and in Republican politics in general, is a push to impose certain ideologies. I'm not talking about Family Values and so on. That's a smoke screen. The push is to eliminate environmental protection, to eliminate health and safety regulations, consumer protections, and privacy rights. The push is to eliminate worker's rights and to secure corporate power. And it's a push to make America the permanent rulers of the world. They use the Family Values stuff as a way to secure the votes of single issue voters, and then use that power to get what they want.
The important thing, in my opinion, is to remember that this country was built on the concept of freedom of conscience. The right to believe as you will. To worship God as you see fit. To hold the values you see as important. And that means that the government has NO role in determining one set of religious values as more important than another, or to impose the religious will of a majority onto even the smallest minority.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
In other words, it is for me to decide what kind of life, what kind of values, are right for me, and it is for you to decide what kind of life and values are right for you. And we should never use the power of government to tread on the other. If we can do that, then we can start focusing on the issues that we really need to - the economy, the ecology, our relationship with the world, decent standards of living everywhere, healthcare, getting control of lobbyist and corporate influence in politics, breaking the power of companies like Haliburton, etc.
Bernie
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As you probably know, in my view, Hillary Clinton is a bit to the right of center on the political spectrum. There's been, since end of WWII at least, a concerted effort to brand and label the left as evil, to the point that there IS no viable leftist politics in this country.
Healthy politics requires the whole political spectrum to be represented. The opposites serve to temper the excesses of the other. When the right wing is in power too long, you get a religious and corporate dictatorship. When the left wing is in power too long, you get a bureaucratic dictatorship.
Unfortunately, we lack any real left anymore, and the centrist candidates (like Obama and Clinton) are now labeled as screaming liberals (if they were in any other country, they, particularly Clinton, would be in the conservative party). The last liberal president we had was Jimmy Carter (who was an evangelical, incidentally). In today's politics, Barry Goldwater would have been labeled a liberal.
What we're seeing in the Bush administration now, and in Republican politics in general, is a push to impose certain ideologies. I'm not talking about Family Values and so on. That's a smoke screen. The push is to eliminate environmental protection, to eliminate health and safety regulations, consumer protections, and privacy rights. The push is to eliminate worker's rights and to secure corporate power. And it's a push to make America the permanent rulers of the world. They use the Family Values stuff as a way to secure the votes of single issue voters, and then use that power to get what they want.
The important thing, in my opinion, is to remember that this country was built on the concept of freedom of conscience. The right to believe as you will. To worship God as you see fit. To hold the values you see as important. And that means that the government has NO role in determining one set of religious values as more important than another, or to impose the religious will of a majority onto even the smallest minority.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
In other words, it is for me to decide what kind of life, what kind of values, are right for me, and it is for you to decide what kind of life and values are right for you. And we should never use the power of government to tread on the other. If we can do that, then we can start focusing on the issues that we really need to - the economy, the ecology, our relationship with the world, decent standards of living everywhere, healthcare, getting control of lobbyist and corporate influence in politics, breaking the power of companies like Haliburton, etc.
Bernie
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