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Why I Gave Up On The Republican Party…

Why I Gave Up On The Republican Party…

Why I Gave Up On The Republican Party…

I was a republican for most of my adult life.  It took a little over two years into Bush Jr.’s presidency for me to leave the party.  It was a difficult road for me because I had always agreed with the core republican philosophies of smaller government and a big military.  I still believe in those philosophies to a point but not to the extreme. It’s just that I kept seeing the Bush administration tell one lie after another.  I am talking about real lies, not made up things, real provable lies.  I kept having to defend Bush in debate after debate on forums, chat-rooms and Facebook until one day it just hit me, “Why I am defending this guy?  He’s flat out lying to me.”  I made up my mind in the next election I would vote for anyone other than Bush.

So that elections arrives and I was forced to vote Kerry.  Didn’t want to but Bush had fucked things up so bad, there was no other viable, logical alternative.  When Kerry lost, I was dumbfounded!  I had sat back and watched the republican party use the most absurd threats of fear to win that election and enough people fell for the bullshit that an idiot like Bush Jr. won a second term.  We are talking about a guy that literally refused on two different times to capture Osama.  He had two chances that I am aware of and blew both chances. It became obvious that the was never going to capture Osama because “fighting” terrorism became big money for the Bush / Cheney administration.  Being told almost daily that another attack was just a matter of time  was keeping them in office.

It was during this time I really saw the religious right begin to take over the party and there are few that are more un-American than the religious right. I remember how I used to tell my leftists friends, “I know we have the crazy religious right in our party but we don’t actually listen to them.” and then somehow the the religious took over and now those loonies run the asylum and it’s terrifying!  You would think that a group of people claiming to be Christians would be more about helping the poor and caring about their fellow man.  They don’t.  Oh, they say they do but actions speak louder than words and all they do is make excuses as to why they don’t help the poor.  Their lazy, they are  a burden on our system.  They scam the system.  It goes on and on. The only things they actively fight fore are making money, keeping Mexicans out and protecting the unborn, once you’re born, “FUCK YOU!” is their motto.  That is unless you actively promote a Christian God or the 2nd Amendment.

It was when I first heard her speak and I realized that she is stupid, she made Bush Jr. look like Stephen Hawking in comparison.

Now it was coming to the end of Bush Jr.’s second term and it came down to Obama and McCain.  I was almost actually considering McCain.  What concerned me was that he had voted on average about 95% of the time with Bush.  I didn’t want another Bush in the White House.  Bush had refused to go after Obama, the economy was beginning to crash and he simply had become a laughing stock to the entire world and many of our allies actually feared the man.  I have to admit, I did too.  But, it was when McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate that I knew he had lost his my vote for sure.  Well, it wasn’t exactly at that moment.  It was when I first heard her speak and I realized that she is stupid, she made Bush Jr. look like Stephen Hawking in comparison.  There was no way he was getting my vote now.

I continued to see the republican party deteriorate into a racists, bigoted, religious party of absolute heinous fuckery.  I watched as friends of mine were sending me the most offensive racist emails about Obama.  I lost two friends over that bullshit.  One long time family friend was sending me racists shit on almost a daily basis and if it wasn’t racist it was a complete lie or half-truth.  I literally spent months leading up to that first election responding with facts showing him how he was wrong.  But, it was too late, he had turned into one of the those Teabag idiots.  He absolutely refused to believe anything that didn’t come from either Fox News or one of his crazy conservative blogs that he followed.  Seriously, I was fact checking one of his sources and it came from a blog that some crazy religious person was ranting on.  At the bottom of this guys blog were links to some books he had written about how man and dinosaur lived together and how the earth is only several thousand years old.  You can’t argue with that level crazy, you just can’t!

The religious right and the Tea Party have become like a virus to humanity, spreading hate and ignorance throughout the republican party.

The religious right and the Tea Party have become like a virus to humanity, spreading hate and ignorance throughout the republican party.  I have had debates with these people and every single time they leave me realizing that they are all just bat shit crazy.  Well, that’s not really fair, they are just fucking stupid on an epic scale.  They have had lies thrown at them for so long they have become absolutely paranoid about democrats and Obama.  They have been told so many lies, and so many of the same lies repeatedly that the the lies have become the truth and no amount of legitimate evidence is going to convince them otherwise.

Seriously, if you think about all the predictions the republican party made about what would happen if Obama wins you will see how almost none of them have come true.  We were told the wars would rage on.  Obama would bring on the “End of Days”.  He would wreck the economy worse than it already was and he’d kill the stock market.  Gas prices would sky rocket.  He would go easy on the terrorists because he was secretly a Muslim sympathizer and the list goes on and on and not a real American as well.

Let’s look at where we are now.  He ended the war in Iraq.  He ended the war in Afghanistan.  He has had more terrorists killed than George Bush Jr.  He had Osama killed.  He has brought back the economy.  Gas is has reached record lows.  The stock market has set record highs.  And, he passed a new healthcare system that isn’t great, but is a working and is vast improvement over what we had.  I can attest to that as I have insurance now that I was unable to afford for well over a decade.  In fact even those idiot fucking gun nuts are complaining and yet, he’s actually expanded the rights of gun owners.  I am not saying it’s been perfect under Obama but let’s be honest, he’s done some things that I haven’t liked.  But, any serious account he done more for this countries well being than any other president in recent history.

If you confront the average republican about all of this, they are in complete denial about it.  I have been told that Obama made a mistake in how he had Osama killed.  That the recovery of the economy is because of the republicans in congress who have done almost nothing and have voted against almost every single thing the president has tried to pass.  The have been the most useless congress in as far back as I can remember and still the economy is better.  Just about everything is vastly better than it was 7 years ago.  But, try to tell that to a republican and they will make up shit about how it’s all smoke and mirrors.  How the economy isn’t really doing well, how the debt rising even though by every account he’s spent less than all the dire republican predictions claimed.  Every single thing Obama has done these people have attacked on him it and manipulated the truth and continued to spread fear to keep their followers faithful to the republican party.

As I grew more and more discouraged with the republican party I began to see that the party was never what I thought it was to begin with.  It’s ideals are a myth.  Their reality has become simply disturbing.  I recall I was finally old enough to vote.  This was for the vote between Bush Sr. and Clinton.   I had voted for Bush Sr.  I really liked Bill Clinton though and the only reason I didn’t vote for him was because my party, the republican party was telling me lies about about Clinton through innuendos.  One huge lie was that he was a secret Communist!  They showed photos of him looking like a hippie’ish with friends in Russia.  What they didn’t say is that he was very smart and a Rhodes Scholar.   They had me terrified to vote for him even though I agreed with everything Clinton was saying while he was running for president.  Or at least most of it.  I found the man to be inspiring.  But, no way was this self-respecting republican going to vote for that hippie communist.

Of course, it’s been more than 20 years since then and what Clinton turned out to be was one of best presidents and humanitarians.  But, what did the republican party try to do with him?  They fought him at every turn, and even tried to impeach the man because he lied about getting a hummer from intern.  That was their big thing and they failed miserably at it as usual.  Looking back I realized the republican party didn’t fight fare.  They constantly tell the most insane lies over and over until people believe them.  It’s been their strategy since at least the days of Reagan.

I have not become a democrat, though I gave up on the republican party and now am a registered Independent.  I don’t agree with everything the democratic party stands for and they too have some bat shit crazy folks on their side but at least no one is really acting upon what they are saying.  We just kind of nod our heads to placate them, then we go about the business of trying to get things done.  It hasn’t been easy when it seems that every single republican has become a compete coward due to their unwillingness to stand up to the religious right.

What these republican cowards keep forgetting is that they don’t need the religious right to win an election.  They just need to stand up to them and be honest. They will sway almost all of the independents and a good chunk of the democrats as well.  Because, one of the things I like about the democratic party is that they tend to vote for the best man, regardless of his party.  Whereas the republicans have always treated voting against the party as a betrayal.

So in a sad nutshell, I gave up on the republican party more than a decade ago because I got tired of justifying their constant lying, their fear mongering, and the complete take over of the party by the ultra conservative religious right.  They have become so insanely ignorant and anti-science.  They praise ignorance now.  They are backing anyone no matter who they are or what they have done as long as they support the 2nd Amendment to the extreme or they are religious fanatic.  I simply had no choice but to leave a party that supports this kind of outright fuckery.

…but doesn’t deny doing everything he could to avoid “Getting his Michigan ass shot off in Vietnam.”

Just in case anyone thinks I’m exaggerating the claims about the republican party, here’s a couple examples.   First up, Josh Duggar just admitted to raping underage teens and having incestuous relations with his sisters.  Republicans are standing behind him and supporting him for his bravery in coming out about it.  Why do they accept him?  Simple, Josh Duggar and his crazy bigoted family are ring wing Christian conservatives.  Want another example?  I have many but let’s look at Ted Nugent. He admitted to shitting his pants and doing drugs to make sure he was able to avoid being drafted into the military.  He has since denied that he shit his pants but doesn’t deny doing everything he could to avoid “Getting his Michigan ass shot off in Vietnam.” so either Ted was either lying back then or lying now.  Either way he is no American hero and not someone the republicans should be proud to have as supporter of their politics.

The man threatened to kill the president for god’s sake!  What did the republicans do? They invited him to one of Obama’s the State of Union speeches.  Why did they do they do this?  He is right wing gun night.  That’s it.  Doesn’t matter that he’s a coward and rapist.  Oh, yes, he’s a rapist too.  Let’s not forget he openly admits to having plenty of sex with underage teens.  But, the republicans give him a pass on that as well.

How anyone can admit to supporting this party any more is simply disturbing on so many levels.  Seriously, these supporters have got to be, in general, evil, crazy or in complete denial about what their party has become.  Whatever, the reason, I am proud to no longer be any part of that sick, demented party.

It Wasn’t a Miracle and Violence Breeds Violence.

It Wasn’t a Miracle and Violence Breeds Violence.

It Wasn’t a Miracle and Violence Breeds Violence.

Before I begin this rant, let me start by saying that things I am going to say are opinions.  I may present some facts that support my opinions here but these are just opinions.  Thoughts that are open to debate.  Points that I may have overlooked.  It’s just rant, it isn’t law and my opinion is always subject to change based on any real factual data or evidence to the contrary.

This rant has been rolling around my head since yesterday.  At first it was my thoughts on the mom who was beating her kid to kid get him away from the riots in Baltimore. I have work to do and no time to write this rant but while taking a break and catching up on Twitter a few moments ago I see an amazing story about a baby that has been found alive and rescued from the rubble caused by the Nepal earthquake. Someone had re-tweeted the story and I re-tweeted their re-tweet.  Then, they Favorited my re-tweet, re-tweeted that and said, “It’s a miracle.” And that was it, I had to rant!

First up, I need to rant about this crap about calling everything a miracle that isn’t a miracle at all.  Things that are so far from miracles that it lessons what I imagine a real miracle would be. I am not talking those using the phrase “it’s a miracle” as a figure of speech.  I’m talking about those using it as a fact. About a year ago there was a woman in Hawaii that was being attacked by a shark.  Another person that thought it would be a good idea to swim in the ocean in the morning.  Always a bad idea because mornings and early evenings are shark feeding times. Either unaware or defiant this woman went for a swim and was attacked by a shark.  But, I digress.

It just so happened that some guy, a minister from California was on the beach and with incredible bravery swam out to the women in an attempt to save her.  I come across this story on my Facebook feed and I think it’s a wonderful story or heroics and bravery.  I want to share it but then I see a ton of people in the comment section praising it as a “miracle.”  I comment that it wasn’t a miracle in great depth and of course I get attacked, so much so that the news anchor reporting the story, starts to attack me.  She eventually sends me a private message and we actually end up talking on the phone and to some small extent become friends.

Nepal Earthquake Baby RescuedAnyways, once again I am being confronted with this non-sense of something being called a miracle that isn’t a miracle.  Here’s why it’s a not a miracle.  Nothing miraculous really happened.  Something very unlikely happened.  Something close to amazing happened.  But, a miracle?  Not even close.  If you just take a step back and think about it rationally for a moment.  I know that’s a lot to ask for some people but they really should give it a try every now and then Just take that step back and you will see how this is so not a miracle.

First, there are hundreds or people on this search and rescue mission.  Think about that for a few seconds.  It’s a search and a rescue mission.  This means that these people are actively looking for survivors of this tragic event. Their whole mission is to look for survivors and every time they find one it’s called a miracle?  Are you kidding me?  It’s not a miracle.  Jesus walking on water, I can seeNepal Earthquake Baby Rescued 2 being called a miracle.  Raising the dead, I could see as a miracle.  Well trained search and rescue personal finding a survivor, not a miracle.  Now, had the rocks and debris magically moved away from the covered baby and then the baby floated out of the debris and into the arms of a rescuer, I could see calling it a miracle.  But, when you have hard working, trained professionals succeed at their job, it’s not a miracle.  It says everything about the bravery and intestinal fortitude of those involved in the rescue and nothing of any kind that makes this a supernatural event.

We can debate all day whether or not some god led these rescuers to the baby or that some god kept the child alive but that would pretty much conflict with the whole concept of free will.  Also, if you’re going to call this a miracle then what you’re saying is that your god intentionally allowed thousands to die horribly while choosing to save only a handful.  It’s pretty shitty no matter how you look at it.  So let’s not go there. Calling it a miracle is offensive and it diminishes what we are supposed to believe were real miracles from the past. Walking on water, raising the dead and so on.

Now let’s move on to the mother who somehow recognized her son on TV while he was wearing a mask and a hoodie and dropped what she was doing to run out and find him.  She managed to bring him in before he continued on with his blatant stupidity and poor judgment. I honestly applaud her for what she did.  I truly wish more parents would have taken that kind of initiative.

However, I cringed while watching this mother slap the shit out of her son.  And, to be honest on some animalistic level it felt good watching her attacking him.  The kid was being an idiot and she was just beating some sense him into him! I get the national attention this video got.  I get that people are cheering this woman on.  But, it in some ways it saddens me deeply because I wonder how many times in his past he has been slapped by her.  Does his father slap him around and call it discipline as well?  I am just so against slapping kids.  I am not saying you can’t spank them.  However, I truly believe it’s not an effective tool for disciplining your child but I am not going to go as far as to say that you should never spank them.  A little slap on the ass on to get their attention I can understand.  But, slapping the shit out of your kid I just can’t condone on any level.

Here’s why, violence has been prove to breed violence.  Parents that use violence to discipline their children usually have children that grow up and do the same.  There are more effective ways to discipline your child.  And, these riots might just be an example of why we really need to stop using violence as a tool to modify behavior.  Violence is often used by those that have never learned how to resolve issues without it.

Take for example these riots.  I completely empathize with the outrage that has led some of these people to act out with violence.  When you were never taught how to do deal with your anger and then are faced with what must be a daily slap in the face by the media, law enforcement and local government, I get it.  I get the anger and frustrations.  But, the violence doesn’t solve anything.

To prove this, look on almost any conservative website and read the comments.  The protestors as well as those taking part in the riots are being called animals, racial slurs and so on.  In the eyes of these horribly shallow people they only see race and it further fuels their belief that most black people are just looking for a reason to act up, riot and more. They are devastating their own community and only hurting themselves and the ones they love.  The people involved in the riot are damaging all the work the peaceful protesters have been doing by taking the spotlight away from the protests.  I actually read a comment where some idiot said, “And, this is why the police beat them.”

One of the reasons people still speak of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. to this day is because their very non-violent ways of protesting.  For Martin Luther King, Jr. racists had considered black people to be more like animals than people.  His infinite patience and understand in the face of great injustice changed the hearts of millions upon millions.  The more violent the police became, the more violent the racists became the more Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed true to what he preached and the world saw it was in many cases the cops resorting to violence and in every case it was the racist resorting to violence and name calling.  The world saw the true spirit of the Civil Rights Movement.  It was about human beings being denied the most basic of human rights. I understand there were rights back then too.  But, by far the vast majority of rallies and protests were peaceful and non-violent, even when law enforcement and racists became violent.  It almost always law enforcement and the racists that started the violence.

Now, once again, there are riots and once again, nothing good will come from it.  But, all of this makes me wonder if it all starts in the home.  I can only imagine if I found my son taking part in an activity like that.  If I were in that mothers shoes, how I would react?  I would have done a lot of things she did but I wouldn’t have beat him.  I wouldn’t have had to.  I would have told him to get his ass home and he would have. No matter how pissed off I would have been, I just wouldn’t have resorted to violence when it wasn’t needed.  I am guessing, that mother didn’t know how to channel her anger.  I am guessing she was pissed off and embarrassed and slapping the shit out of the kid was only way she knew how to express her emotions in that moment aside from also verbally berating him.

I parents supporting others for beating their child all the time.  You can call it disciplining all you want, but slapping a child or beating them with a stick isn’t disciplining them, it’s abuse and we really need to except this because until we do, when we get pushed to our breaking points, violence will always be our primary response and its just got to stop.  This isn’t a black or white issue. It’s a human nature issue.  People from all races beat their kids and almost every one of those kids learns violence as a response to situations that make them angry.  We’ve got to stop it.

There are just too many people outraged by what appears to be an epidemic of out of control and racists cops and they are understandingly so outraged that it continual leads to violence for them.  They try to protest peacefully but one things leads to another and their emotions get the better of them.  It just takes a few and then mob mentality takes over and that few becomes the many.  We are all subject to it and it’s hard to not fall victim to it.  But, I truly believe if we teach everyone the tools needed to control our anger we can literally save the lives of a great many people and prevent countless injuries, acts of vandalism and so on.

Violence should only be acceptable when their is no other option available.  Self-defense comes to mind.  But, nowhere in that video of the mom beating her kid did I see her needing to defend herself.  I didn’t see that kid raise a hand to her.  I didn’t see him even refusing to listen to her.  What I saw was her anger and frustration get the best of her and she reacted to it in probably the only way she knew how and that was with violence.  And, if you take that to the next level, her son was doing the very same thing before she arrived.  His anger and frustration had gotten the best of him and he reacted in manor that was more than likely learned from his parents.

Just maybe if we can learn to respond to hate, anger and fear with more effective tools we could end violence altogether?  But, I doubt that will happen anytime soon.  I am pretty sure that if a lot of people actually read this rant, I would be attacked by many who feel they need to respond with name calling and violence.  And, in a fun kind of way, they would prove my point for me.