The Voting Dilemma or Which Nut Do I Vote For?
Mar 10, 2008 Rants
I’m a conservative.
Now, before you go throwing bricks and knives and midgets at me let me say that I’m a staunch (maybe rabid) atheist, I’m pro-choice, pro-drug legalization and crazy opposed to any sort of government censorship, of the internet or *anything*. I’m conservative in the original sense of the term: I believe that the job of the government is to stay the hell out of the way and do as few things as possible.
But I’m also not isolationist or unrealistic. This is a global community and the largest democracy in the world has a job to do in the world as a whole. That includes toppling foreign dictators and shutting down or killing terrorist groups that threaten the world peace. Islam may be the religion of peace but it’s followers are some mighty violent and repressive folks. Not that other religions, specifically Christianity, aren’t equally repressive and have been mighty violent… but I haven’t seen a lot of Baptists flying planes into towers lately. Attack the premise for the war, those pesky WMDs, all you want, there’s room for argument and discussion on any topic, but to deny that militant Islam is a world threat is just plain ignorant.
So, then, the question becomes… who the hell do I vote for in the coming election? As of late the decision has been really tough to make. No matter how much I look at it, I still find that there’s no one person I can support easily (though there are a slew I would quickly vote against) Let’s take a quick look at my options as they currently stand.
Democrats: The violently anti-war stance of the democrats makes me fear they’ll leave us poorly defended and let other more violent entities run unchecked. Do I think that democrats will simply turn the keys of the country over to the next bully on the block? Of course not. Democrats, to me have four fatal flaws that have consistently set me against them in most elections
1. The Nanny State:
The same things that make me pro-choice and pro-drugs and anti-censorship make me opposed to this nanny state mentality. I don’t want or need anyone to tell me what to do *or* look out for me and take care of me (except for the wife!). The left condemns any form of right-wing faith based initiatives on the grounds they are forcing their religion on others. This is a valid concern. However, replacing those religions organizations with federal ones that do the exact same thing (ie tell them how to live, what to eat and what to do) is the 6-of-one-half-dozen-of-the-other bit. In addition, the left practices it’s own severe form of speech censorship, in the form of hate speech legislation. The constitution provides protections for people saying that blacks should vote as much as it does for those saying they shouldn’t. To label one “hate” and make it an Orwellian thought crime is exactly what we don’t want the Christian republicans doing to our internet.
2. The more “Fringe” the better.
No one better than I understands that the government should reflect the will of the majority *with respect* to the minority, however this has somehow become twisted by the left into a strange values system that assigns a belief more weight when fewer people practice it. You know, people that only wear clothes made out of baby gecko skin are probably pretty damn rare, but that doesn’t make them special, it makes them freaks. The left seems so concerned with making sure that these special interest groups get the attention they want that they are willing to trample the will of the majority. The reason people that cut that tongues in half are look on by the majority as freaks is because they are *freaks*. It’s not a misunderstanding and nor do we need sensitivity training. Should they have the right to? Absolutely and without question. Should an employer be able to say “Hey, your resume looks great but you cut yourself and had horns attached to your head. You’re too unbalanced to work here?” You’re dang skippy.
3. Down with whitey/Rose colored glasses
This one really gets me… and not just because I’m whitey. With the exception of the predominant democratic view on straight white society, the left seems to see the rest of the world as a happy place! If it weren’t for us white devils, well, there’d never be any unhappiness. Slavery? Never existed until whitey. Climate changes on the earth? Not until the honky built a fact’ry. Murders and looting in New Orleans? Crazy crackers shouldn’t have made the bad hurricane. Nowhere does the left want to see the realities behind these issues, and a slew of others, unless there is a way to make a white man the cause. And the flip side is that we never blame those responsible. Who was responsible for the animal-like behavior in New Orleans after Katrina? The people that acted like animals, that’s who. Who was engaged in wide spread slavery before “white folk” were even organized into reliable city-states? The Middle East and Africa; not a lot of white folk there.
4. Anti-Business/Pro-gubbment
For some reason democrats have decided to fear the even materialistic goals of business more than anything ever in the history of man. In the same breath they’re all about the state having more power. I know precisely what a business is after: my money. Period. Big Daddy Gov? He wants power. People, little people like you and I, get into business to do what we want and make money for ourselves on our own terms. We don’t want to share our money with some middle manager that just passes down messages from on high. Every business owner on this earth has said “I just don’t want to work under someone else. If I do the work for it, I should get the money for it.” Dictators don’t start businesses, they work regular jobs (like, say, paper-hanger) until one day they decide to run for, say the Reichstag. It’s the run for office that set him on his way to dictatorship. Just think how things would have been better had the ol’ boy decided to use his energy open his own paper hanging shop. The only thing a business can take from you is your money, the government can take your rights, your money, your property and your life.
By in large these issues are the staunchly held beliefs of most major democratic players. So that’s why I keep finding myself being a conservative. Both Obama and Hillary fall with the larger leftist movement on each of these issues. Each of them would increase the size of government, continue the “victim” mentality, and continue to lay the bill for all of their pet projects on the business community as “punishment for success.” Neither one of these primary contenders varies enough from one another that they are even marginally different, other than Hillary’s storied past. Obama is one hell of a speaker and he brings something that a lot of the other candidates do to the party: a real sense of hope and change. However, this could all be window dressing, based on his history in Illinois.
Democrats, in other words, are pretty dreary looking for me. Not that this should come as a surprise. As I said, I’m a conservative. However, I’m also a free-thinker and an atheist. Conservatism has been hijacked by religious wackos and no candidate can make the party cut unless he appeases these people.
While this may be a single flaw, compared to the many issues I have listed for the democrats and the left above, this is, for me a monstrously huge problem. I can forgive and ignore a man’s privately held beliefs if he keeps them to himself. Quietly believing in whatever you want is a right I gladly and happily support. However, trying to teach the children on this country that in any imagined universe evolution and intelligent design are on the same playing field is not just idiotic, but down right abusive. The problem is that the right is so beholden to these psychotic mythologists that they actually had a fucking Baptist minister run and do quite well in the early primaries.
That any group of people can truly think that carefully thought out and researched scientific theories with scads of evidence behind them is “pretty much the same” as a whimsical fantasy dreamed up by animal-sacrificing men 5,000 years ago is so insane that I’m actually finding it difficult to find words that accurately express my anger. And a great many of the political leaders in the Republican Party would gladly state that intelligent design should be offered in any classroom.
Oh, some might run the old party line that this is a state right (think McCain), and on most issues I’d agree, but we don’t have different mathematics being taught, and there’s no reason to teach different science. These things are facts and you can’t just pretend their not just because you don’t know what “theory” means. Let’s also acknowledge while some might say that this is a state issue, ask them what they would want taught in their state, if they could have it their way and you’d get a pretty consistent… and retarded… answer.
This is a huge issue for me, and I find myself willing to entertain more leftist alternatives if my choices are between spend-a-holics democrats who want everyone to be special or crazed bible thumping republicans who think we should learn about the scientific “theory” of imaginary friends. Think Huckabee here. This guy s a great candidate: he lowers taxes, he is pro military and business, he seems like a regular guy and he hates big government… oh and he believes in this bullshit so much he used to indoctrinate people with it for a living.
So, who the hell do I vote for?
On the left we have Hillary or Obama. Leftist and each with other flaws like Hillary’s apparent inability to do business legally and Obama’s lack of experience. Father left we have Kucinich and Nader, lunatics on the fringe of reality, much less society.
On the mainstream right we have McCain and Huckabee (and those like him). McCain is 4 million years old and about as hopeful as a cold glass of prune juice. Huckabee is a FUCKING EX-PREACHER!!!!!!111!!!one one. Ahem. Ron Paul seems to think it’s 1805. Frighteningly enough there are people to the right of Huckabee. Strangely enough it’s not permissible to jail them or hunt them.
Help? Does anyone know of anyone sane running?
I removed your cut, because I think it’s well worth the read. :p
I’m a mathematician with libertarian leanings, but the only ideology I subscribe to is logic. I like Obama.
If you pick up his book (which, FWIW, was completed without any ghostwriters), you’ll see that he seems to understand the need to support the majority position without trampling the minority. His keynote, which addressed religion, made this clear: “Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. It requires that their proposals be subject to argument, and amenable to reason.” [http://www.wayofthemind.org/2008/02/21/obama-on-religion/]
His history in IL includes death penalty reform and lots of work on government transparency, which he continues in the US Senate. His legislative record is strong in comparison with his colleagues. [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/20/201332/807/36/458633]
I’m most impressed, though, with his dedication to law and his ability to cut through bullshit with reason. While a state senator, he taught classes in constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and there is an editorial today in the Tribune about his attention to detail and respect for the law by a professor he worked with there. [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0314obamamar14,1,4564701.story]
Anyway, if you read The Audacity of Hope, you may be surprised. He calls out the hypocrisy of being angry about rap lyrics and turning a blind eye to greed; he scolds the Democrats for spending wastefully instead of problem-solving properly; he is keenly aware that many of society’s problems cannot be legislated away, and does not intend to try. He’s been to Iraq (and sponsored nuclear non-proliferation legislation with Lugar) and writes about a strong need for involvement in the middle east.
He’s not a loony, surprisingly.
Excellent commentary, V. I tend to be pretty libertarian myself, though more on the conservative side and I’ve been thinking about him seriously. this is quite the stepseeing as I’ve never voted for a democrat on the national level. I’ve begun to think that it’s more important to vote against those that overtly push their religious than to vote for other issues.
It’s good insight, V and I’ll take it to heart. Excellent links, BTW.