The thing that scares me about the Republican National Convention is, quite frankly, all the “God is on our side!” rhetoric.
I have not learned much in twenty-seven years, perhaps, but I HAVE learned that people who think God backs their politics are generally really bad news. I could cite examples, but y’all can think of ’em all yourself, and this way I won’t be accused of demonizing.
In some ways, I agree with what the Republican party used to be, before the neo-con thing–I don’t like fiscal irresponsibility, and I’m a big fan of state rights. (A really big fan.) But it’ll be a cold place in a nonexistant metaphor widely believed to be pretty toasty before I’d back any group that’s so big on inflicting their religion on me. If Republicans really were about individual rights, as they occasionally try to claim, I’d be voting for ’em in a heartbeat. But trying to give control of my reproductive rights to people other than me is nothing like supporting individual rights. Trying to pass a federal law to override states who want to support the rights of individuals to marry whoever they want–how is that supporting individual rights and state rights and all the rest? It’s great that they support owning guns, but frankly, owning guns is not the be all and end all of individual rights. I’d rather own my body, thank ya verra much.
I quite liked the Republicans in Arizona, who were the old-style, “Leave me the hell alone, don’t try to tell me what to do, and I’ll return the favor,” variety. Sure, they had their flaws–I’d have liked a little more money for the state park system–but that was a Republicanism I could appreciate, and if we could get the hunting and fishing ones to understand that ecology is Their Friend Too, I’d be half-way sold. Pity the actual party isn’t like that. If the Republican party stopped inflicting their god on me, I might actually be a swing voter, but until they ditch their “God is on our side, sinner!” crap, I’ll vote for anybody that’ll keep them the hell out of office.
My ideal party would be ecologically responsible, completely non-religious, and all for individual rights. But more practical than the Greens. Half the time I’m no huge fan of the Democrats, either, but they don’t scare the bloody hell out of me the way God’s Own Party over there does. And at this point, I figure that not voting because you don’t like everything about the Democrats is sort of like refusing to bail because you don’t like the color the boat is painted.
Bein’ all Free Speechy and stuff, I will of course leave this open–I have a more-than-mild contempt for those who make political comments and then refuse to allow comments because they “don’t want a debate”–but I gotta warn you–whenever I do these political commentaries, the comments get really long, and I’m likely to miss a few. It’s not because I don’t love you or can’t argue with you, but there’s sometimes just so MANY.
