Politics as usual....
Nov. 4th, 2004 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prowler1971I'm hoping this will be my last political post as it relates to the election.
I've been reading a lot of on-line articles regarding the election, mostly slanted towards the left. I've read some opinions from friends and the like, again, mostly slanted towards the left. Not surprisingly, most of my friends are very liberal, left wing sorts. Most of them tend to favor the smaller parties, like the Liberitarisna and the Green Party, and some support the Democrats.
A little about my leanings. I'm a moderate. I like everything in moderation. I like my moderation in moderation. Too much of anything is not a good thing. I am a registered independent as I refuse to align myself with a political party. In the last four presidential elections, I have voted for the candidate put up by the Democrats. In my first election, I voted for Ross Perot. I tend to lean more towards the Democrats as I believe liberal minded people are more excepting of conservative people than conservative people are of liberal people. In fact, that may be the only thing liberal minded people don't like about the conservatives.
Now, I'm hearing a lot of references to the "idiots" and "morons" who voted for Bush. Keep in mind they're thinking the same thing about anyone who voted for Kerry. Imagine how different the feel in the midwest and south is than in the north east and on the west coast. They got who they wanted. We didn't.
The fact Bush, a religious zealot of the caliber of Osama Bin Laden, is president for another four years frightens me more than it angers me. People have the right to choose and choose they did.
The problem is there is no balance. As some have said, Bush is able to do everything he'd like to do without worrying restriction, as he has little to fear from congress and the supreme court since these are also controlled by the right. We need a balance to keep things in order. However, as I see it, the republicans are more likely to stonewall something that is put forth by democrats simply because it's a idea put forth by a democrat than vice versa. (I could be wrong.) I feel more "Good" can be done by the democrats, fewer freedoms taken away. A republican president with a democrat controlled congress might not be as bad as republicans across the board.
But how about a democrat as president and a democrat controlled congress? Democrats in congress had no problem speaking out against some of the things Bill Clinton did. So that doesn't scare me either.
Anyway, this wasn't about that, it's about opinions. Threatening to run away to Canada or New Zealand or Ireland, to me, is running away from the problem. We don't need liberal minded people fleeing the country, we need them to be more active to let the government know that we don't like what they're doing. We don't like having freedoms taken away under the guise of security. There is a balance between these two notions and I prefer to tip the scales in favor of freedom. Freedom of choice. Freedom of religion. Freedom to walk down the street. Freedom to marry the people we want to marry. Freedom to raise a family. Freedom to buy the basic necessities of life.
But with freedom of choice comes the freedom to make bad choices, or what others percieve as bad choices. Bush may be the right choice for someone in the midwest. I focus on the bad parts of the man, they may focus on the good. Different views of the same person. We need to see other people's side of things, something a religious zealot, a conservative, does not do.
Perhaps this will spur me on to be more politically active going forward. Perhaps it won't. I don't know. I'm not even sure what I was getting at anymore.
EDIT: Liberitarians are not liberals.
I've been reading a lot of on-line articles regarding the election, mostly slanted towards the left. I've read some opinions from friends and the like, again, mostly slanted towards the left. Not surprisingly, most of my friends are very liberal, left wing sorts. Most of them tend to favor the smaller parties, like the Liberitarisna and the Green Party, and some support the Democrats.
A little about my leanings. I'm a moderate. I like everything in moderation. I like my moderation in moderation. Too much of anything is not a good thing. I am a registered independent as I refuse to align myself with a political party. In the last four presidential elections, I have voted for the candidate put up by the Democrats. In my first election, I voted for Ross Perot. I tend to lean more towards the Democrats as I believe liberal minded people are more excepting of conservative people than conservative people are of liberal people. In fact, that may be the only thing liberal minded people don't like about the conservatives.
Now, I'm hearing a lot of references to the "idiots" and "morons" who voted for Bush. Keep in mind they're thinking the same thing about anyone who voted for Kerry. Imagine how different the feel in the midwest and south is than in the north east and on the west coast. They got who they wanted. We didn't.
The fact Bush, a religious zealot of the caliber of Osama Bin Laden, is president for another four years frightens me more than it angers me. People have the right to choose and choose they did.
The problem is there is no balance. As some have said, Bush is able to do everything he'd like to do without worrying restriction, as he has little to fear from congress and the supreme court since these are also controlled by the right. We need a balance to keep things in order. However, as I see it, the republicans are more likely to stonewall something that is put forth by democrats simply because it's a idea put forth by a democrat than vice versa. (I could be wrong.) I feel more "Good" can be done by the democrats, fewer freedoms taken away. A republican president with a democrat controlled congress might not be as bad as republicans across the board.
But how about a democrat as president and a democrat controlled congress? Democrats in congress had no problem speaking out against some of the things Bill Clinton did. So that doesn't scare me either.
Anyway, this wasn't about that, it's about opinions. Threatening to run away to Canada or New Zealand or Ireland, to me, is running away from the problem. We don't need liberal minded people fleeing the country, we need them to be more active to let the government know that we don't like what they're doing. We don't like having freedoms taken away under the guise of security. There is a balance between these two notions and I prefer to tip the scales in favor of freedom. Freedom of choice. Freedom of religion. Freedom to walk down the street. Freedom to marry the people we want to marry. Freedom to raise a family. Freedom to buy the basic necessities of life.
But with freedom of choice comes the freedom to make bad choices, or what others percieve as bad choices. Bush may be the right choice for someone in the midwest. I focus on the bad parts of the man, they may focus on the good. Different views of the same person. We need to see other people's side of things, something a religious zealot, a conservative, does not do.
Perhaps this will spur me on to be more politically active going forward. Perhaps it won't. I don't know. I'm not even sure what I was getting at anymore.
EDIT: Liberitarians are not liberals.
