Time for a Change
May 14, 2008 Rants
As I’ve posted here before, I’ve been a conservative for a very very long time. Without going into too much fine detail my primary reasons center around less intrusive government and lower taxes. Basically, I’m the kind of conservative that doesn’t care whether you screw 6 hookers high on shrooms as long as you keep my taxes low and don’t expect me to pay for your health care.
Until recently I have considered the quest to keep government out of our lives more important than other considerations and have sided with the party most likely to do this. Each party or liberal/conservative leaning has it’s drawbacks. Conservatives are just fine as frog’s hair when it comes to proselytizing from the bench as long as fetuses are involved. Liberals would preach from the white house on pretty much every issue except drugs and abortion. I took the lesser of two evils and stayed with the party that at least pretended to be interested in keeping government small and out of my face.
Well, I believe the time has come to re-evaluate how and for whom I vote. Over the past few years I’ve watched more and more press and blogs talking about atheist rights and watched the greater community react. During my observations I’ve noted that the frequency and intensity of the attacks on atheists increasing. Members of our government are simply allowed to tell us we don’t matter… or worse, are dangerous… without fear of reprisal or even a slap on the wrist from the greater community. Our rights can openly be questioned and no one even seems to notice.
There is not a single atheist running for president that I’ve been able to find. Even the “Best-we-can-do-party,” the Libertarians, are nominating the openly religious Barr. Hell the guy even tried to ban witchcraft! And not because it’s silly, but because it’s “satanic” and his imaginary friend doesn’t like that. It has been established that the majority of Americans would rather vote for a gay scientologist than an atheist regardless of what the person’s stances were. How insane is this? And how is it that I don’t get a benefit or some sort of special parking space?
Well, for what it’s worth, I think it’s time for a change. As Atheists we cannot simply keep supporting people that actually believe in mythology just because they agree with something else we like or support. How can you support a man or woman that wants to teach our children Intelligent design just to keep your taxes low? How selfish is it to ignore the fact that a man says he’s going “to do God’s work,” just because we like the healthcare package he’s pushing? How can we hold ourselves out to be better than the militant Islamists when we ignore the fact that most of our country actually believes Jonah was swallowed by a whale and that Noah fit two (or more) of all the animals in the world in a boat? Is getting 72 virgins for blowing yourself up really so crazy an idea in comparison?
So, beginning with this election, I have decided I cannot and will not support any believer of any religion regardless of their stances. The bare minimum a thinking person can ask of their candidate is that they don’t believe in some imagined grand-father or -mother in the sky. As with all such decisions, they are pretty meaningless if only followed through by one individual. However, estimates of the Atheist population of the US are somewhere around 7%-10%, making us a potentially powerful voting bloc, especially in this age of races decided by less than 2%. The more of us that use the power of the vote to encourage more rational leaders rather than the ID crowd the better off we’ll all be.
This November, I’ll be writing in my vote.
Tags: atheism, atheist, conservative, election, liberal, politics, presidential, religion, religious, vote
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?
Tags: 2008, conservative, democrats, huckabee, kucinich, liberal, mccain, nader, paul, politics, president, republicans, vote
