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18 August 2008
Let's talk about the presidency For reasons I am afraid to examine, I love this guy's video response to the question, "Why are you a republican in 2008?"
heh- yup- that platform doesn't sound half bad. If republicans actually went by it, they wouldn't be half so scary. Limited government? Economic freedom? That was more Bill Clinton than George Bush.
There is an argument that the reason the repubs couldn't mount a good campaign against Bill Clinton is because he'd stolen their platform. (A friend of mine, who is a lot more knowledgeable than me told me that if you look at the basic Bill Clinton platform, it was pretty Reaganesque.)
How can they possibly even try to sell "limited government" after Bush has expanded government in every single way? It's like Denny's trying to say "we're in favor of healthy low-calorie meals".
Notice how he relates personal freedom to economic growth. A lot of republicans don't really believe in personal freedom (abortion) they just say they do.
In fairness, it's possible to believe in personal freedom but not in abortion. For instance, if you were a Christian who believes that personhood begins at conception, then surely personal freedom and a ban on abortion would be compatible. Personally, I'm in favour of personal freedom and reproductive choice, because I don't believe that personhood begins at conception, but I don't think that supporting one requires you to support the other.
Certainly freedom to marry isn't very high on their list of liberties either. Mostly when they say "freedom" they mean "freedom to make money"; civil liberties other than gun rights are ignored.
Yes, I see what you're saying, matthewr and hellbient. I agree.
I'm pro-choice, but conflicted at times about abortion law. Sometimes I think it would be better if abortion laws were determined by individual states (they already are, in regards to parental notification. late term, and such. I'm talking about legal abortion in general).
I dunno about the whole you're-a-person-thing at conception - I think if I were aware enough while in the womb I may have opted out. I mean come on - it's cramped as hell. Hot. You can't see the sun. There is no variety in nutrients whatsoever. You can hear what's going on out there but you can't see it. And you can't move yourself voluntarily closer to whatever you want. And then if I knew that a torturous life of constant confusion and change was out there, I sure wouldn't have allowed myself to be squished almost to death upon entry.
This summer, I read Capitalism and Freedom and got nostalgic for the days when Republicans were just greedy bastards and not greedy busybody bastards.
I also hate the "economic freedom" is code for "pollute the shit out of everything," ignoring the existence of negative externalities which every economics class I've ever taken has mentioned. It's like most Republicans showed up on the first day and drank their way through the rest of the semester they took Econ 101.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
