I see it every day on my Facebook friends feed: a friend's mom posts stupid shit like this:
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| I'm not agreeing, by the way... |
Well, North Korea is an isolationist dictatorship who is on the verge of collapse and is the technological equivalent of 1982; where people who speak out against the government are also given hard labor. Afghanistan is a country with a fairly strict religion-based legal system and if you were to dress how you do here (jeans, sweater, nothing racy, mind you), you could easily be imprisoned. Yet, these are the two choices you offer for options on how to deal with illegal immigration?
This is, of course, ignoring the idea that once someone enters (or stays in) the US illegally, they are handed a packet including their new address, some food stamps, an insurance card and a diploma. It's all so fucking ridiculous, but the constant spreading of this kind of inane garbage detracts from starting any kind of real dialogue because it sets up a false idea of what's actually going on and now instead of "So, how can we deal with the issue of people entering the country illegally," we are now greeted with "How do we stop the illegals from taking my money!"
Then there are my lefty friends, so assured that their intelligence is above everyone else, and so easily amused at their own superiority. There's an industry colleague, one I respect a great deal, who is one of the worst offenders in replacing "idiot" with "Republican" any chance he can, posting things like this:
So, in Political News... Republicans admit to the existence of meteors.I don't know of anyone, Republican or otherwise, that has denied the existence of meteors. Christians, well, any religious members who believe in a single deity, believe that God is behind everything, so that's not news, either. The last line stood out to me because of the innuendo that if your are Republican or Christian, you do not live in the real world. Granted, the bravado of most highly-conservative Republican politicians can be astoundingly ridiculous, that does not mean that nearly 50% of the country is not living in the real world.
In Religious News... Christians believe God is behind those meteors.
In Real Life... People shake their heads.
Now, I am also not religious at all, but I think that ridiculing those who find solace in religion is rude, just as it's rude to utilize a religion to further an agenda or validate some dick move like voting against gay marriage. "Well, Jesus once told Noah that queers ain't allowed to get married because my fifth marriage won't be as sacrosanct." (Looking at you, Rush Limbaugh.)
Allowing gay marriage, I've always thought, should be a Republican attitude, in line with the "smaller government" style the party advocates, though it has been the opposite, with many Republican figures saying that they can't handle the thought of a gay couple getting the same rights as them. So imagine my surprise when I find out that a group of 75 influential Republican political figures sends the Supreme Court a letter saying "You know what, if it helps, we thing gays should get married because it's none of our Goddamned business who gets married." This is significant for several reasons, one: the world didn't explode. Two: it is a letter from Republicans that is solely based on government, separating the church from the state themselves. This was a group of people, including (GASP!) a gay Republican who stood together and said, rightly so, that it's not the government's job to get between two people in love. I am sure that some of them have deep qualms about gay marriage, and wouldn't want one to happen at their church, but that's the freedom of religion for you.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/us/politics/prominent-republicans-sign-brief-in-support-of-gay-marriage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&
How no one is talking about this was beyond me, until I started thinking about it. No one wants to admit that the other side can do a damned thing right. Obama makes the final call about offing Osama Bin Laden, the cause of one of the greatest military actions this country's undertaken, and a lot of conservatives say "Well, Obama didn't do it, it was the Navy Seals." Well, of course the Seals carried out the mission, and good for them. But, an innocent kid is killed in a drone strike and it's "GODDAMMIT, OBAMA," as if Obama himself sat there with his XBox headseat and sweet joystick controller, operating the drone himself like he was playing a videogame.
Well, fuck you, this is one of the coolest things I've seen out of the Republican Party, and I'm glad that the people who signed this letter have done so. They've done this right, and good for them.
I have to say, I am no Republican cheerleader, especially since they lost their way under W and expanded the size of government by record size, threw away the keep the deficit in check, and pay down the national debt ideals, and forgot your business is your business in the bedroom, long as you aren't breaking laws or impinging on someone's civil liberties. 75 of them willing to stand up and say "it is not our business". is a start. We need the center back that the Democrats can negotiate with, and democrats, don't run from the center. Remember Bill Clinton was willing to meet in the center, and some important things got done. I think the majority of this country is fiscally conservative and socially moderate. That's the middle ground that has been lost until now... there is hope.
ReplyDeleteAs a left leaning independent, we are in agreement on most things. Personally, I think government should get out of the marriage business altogether and leave it to the churches (progressive churches have been performing same sex marriages for decades). Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteIf republicans would leave their church out of their politics they would get a lot of converts. I believe in smaller government but I can't get on board with their social issues.
Immigration zealots drive me crazy. Lets be clear here. Brown people scare them It's nothing more than thinly veiled racism. We aren't building a fence to keep out our neighbors to our north. Usually we give them citizenship and then make them rich celebrities. And lets not call the Mexican boarder a security issue. Like a terrorist can't figure out how to fly to Canada and hike across the boarder?
And I hate my friends who do not acknowledge there are some decent republicans. I don't dislike Rubeo -- and he took a drink of water -- SO WHAT? If you've watched any of his other speeches he has to drink water in all them. And Christie needs to seriously be a role model and lose some weight, but I would mind having him around for a while longer.
And to close my comments and circle it back to the beginning of your blog. Last night someone unfriended me on facebook because I was debating him on a political article he posted. I was making valid points he could defend. His answer. End the debate and a friendship - permanently.