Why I am no longer a Republican
It has beeh a strange week in the USA. Okay, it has beeh a strange year, if I am being truthful. American politics has gone crazy. I am not talking about your Crazy Uncle Lou kinda crazy. I am talking guy-on-the-roof-with-an-AK47, call-out-the-national-guard, and-get-the-men-with-the-white-coats-and-a-straight jacket-crazy!!!
What happened to all the centrists? What happened to people reaching out and meeting the other side half-way? Where did all the reasonable people on capitol hill go? I have my suspicions........
Before I go one keystroke further, let me state for the record that I consider myself a moderate-centrist. I have, in the past, leaned Republican. I am still in love with Ronald Reagan, and the era of tough American Nationalism. I miss the days when I believed we were the greatest country on Earth, because I no longer believe it. Why?
I think the lead character, Will McAvoy, from the HBO series "The NEWSROOM" actually sums up all my thoughts in one tidy speech. Here it is:
"There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports.
"We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies.
"We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people.
"We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men.
"We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy.
"And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."
There is a line in that speech that says "we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons". That line just does something to me. Why? because all of a sudden, people on the far right are hijacking morality. The far right-and Tea Party in particular-are shoving their brand of "morality" through the Halls of Justice, where once educated men and women passed laws.
There is a strong belief in the FAR RIGHT that if you are not a homophobic, contraception banning, take-American-liberties-back 100 years, right wing nut job (who secretively hates all non-whites, but is too bat-shit hypocritical to come out and say it), that you are somehow a GODLESS Heretic. The far right is not interested in what is actually morally correct. They are only interested in forcefully promoting their agenda of keeping women barefoot and pregnant, keeping the black (brown, and barely tan) man down, and gutting out what was once a noble political party.
The Tea Party is no better than the Taliban. There, I said it! Religious intolerance in no more noble coming from so-called 'christians' the it is coming from so-called 'muslims'. How insecure are these so-called 'moral-highgrounders' that they have to actively seek banning contraception (a war that was fought, won, and laid to rest before I was even born), draft Constitutional amendments banning gay Marriage, and force their religious views on all of us?!? Guess what, folks, abortion, cotraception, and gay marriage are all topics of political liberty, and personal privacy. They should not be up for debate in the American Halls of Justice based on religious preferences!!!!
Was the united States of America not founded upon separation of church and state? Yes, yes it was: The term is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state", as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Babtist Association in 1802. The original text reads: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." Jefferson reflected his frequent speaking theme that the government is not to interfere with religion. The phrase was quoted by the US Supreme Court first in 1878, and then in a series of cases starting in 1947. The phrase "separation of church and state" itself does not appear in the US Constitution. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Supreme Court did not consider the question of how this applied to the states until 1947; when they did, in "Everson v. Board of Education"-the court determined that the first amendment applied to the states and that a law enabling reimbursement for busing to all schools (including parochial schools) was constitutional.
Prior to 1947, however, these provisions were not considered to apply at the state level; indeed in the 1870s and 1890s unsuccessful attempts were made to amend the constitution to accomplish this, but it was accomplished by judicial decision in 1947.
The concept of separating church and state is often credited to the writings of English philosopher John Locke(1632–1704). According to his principle of the social contract: Locke argued that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control. For Locke, this created a natural right in the liberty of conscience, which he argued must therefore remain protected from any government authority. These views on religious tolerance and the importance of individual conscience, along with his social contract, became particularly influential in the American colonies and the drafting of the United States Constitution.
The concept was implicit in the flight from religious oppression in the Mass bay Colony to found the Colony of Rhode Island on the principle of state neutrality in matters of faith.
I guess what I am trying to say to the Far Right wing of the Republican Party is this: YOU ARE A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. PLEASE REMOVE YOUR FALSE SHEEP'S SKIN OF RELIGIOUS PIETY, AND PLEASE SHOW US YOUR TRUE SKIN OF BIGOTRY AND INTOLLERACE THAT YOU ARE POORLY HIDING BEHIND A THIN VIEL OF ARROGANCE.
What happened to all the centrists? What happened to people reaching out and meeting the other side half-way? Where did all the reasonable people on capitol hill go? I have my suspicions........
Before I go one keystroke further, let me state for the record that I consider myself a moderate-centrist. I have, in the past, leaned Republican. I am still in love with Ronald Reagan, and the era of tough American Nationalism. I miss the days when I believed we were the greatest country on Earth, because I no longer believe it. Why?
I think the lead character, Will McAvoy, from the HBO series "The NEWSROOM" actually sums up all my thoughts in one tidy speech. Here it is:
"There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports.
"We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies.
"We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people.
"We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men.
"We aspired to intelligence; we didn't belittle it; it didn't make us feel inferior. We didn't identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn't scare so easy.
"And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one—America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."
There is a line in that speech that says "we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons". That line just does something to me. Why? because all of a sudden, people on the far right are hijacking morality. The far right-and Tea Party in particular-are shoving their brand of "morality" through the Halls of Justice, where once educated men and women passed laws.
There is a strong belief in the FAR RIGHT that if you are not a homophobic, contraception banning, take-American-liberties-back 100 years, right wing nut job (who secretively hates all non-whites, but is too bat-shit hypocritical to come out and say it), that you are somehow a GODLESS Heretic. The far right is not interested in what is actually morally correct. They are only interested in forcefully promoting their agenda of keeping women barefoot and pregnant, keeping the black (brown, and barely tan) man down, and gutting out what was once a noble political party.
The Tea Party is no better than the Taliban. There, I said it! Religious intolerance in no more noble coming from so-called 'christians' the it is coming from so-called 'muslims'. How insecure are these so-called 'moral-highgrounders' that they have to actively seek banning contraception (a war that was fought, won, and laid to rest before I was even born), draft Constitutional amendments banning gay Marriage, and force their religious views on all of us?!? Guess what, folks, abortion, cotraception, and gay marriage are all topics of political liberty, and personal privacy. They should not be up for debate in the American Halls of Justice based on religious preferences!!!!
Was the united States of America not founded upon separation of church and state? Yes, yes it was: The term is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state", as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Babtist Association in 1802. The original text reads: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." Jefferson reflected his frequent speaking theme that the government is not to interfere with religion. The phrase was quoted by the US Supreme Court first in 1878, and then in a series of cases starting in 1947. The phrase "separation of church and state" itself does not appear in the US Constitution. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Supreme Court did not consider the question of how this applied to the states until 1947; when they did, in "Everson v. Board of Education"-the court determined that the first amendment applied to the states and that a law enabling reimbursement for busing to all schools (including parochial schools) was constitutional.
Prior to 1947, however, these provisions were not considered to apply at the state level; indeed in the 1870s and 1890s unsuccessful attempts were made to amend the constitution to accomplish this, but it was accomplished by judicial decision in 1947.
Thomas Jefferson
The concept was implicit in the flight from religious oppression in the Mass bay Colony to found the Colony of Rhode Island on the principle of state neutrality in matters of faith.
I guess what I am trying to say to the Far Right wing of the Republican Party is this: YOU ARE A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING. PLEASE REMOVE YOUR FALSE SHEEP'S SKIN OF RELIGIOUS PIETY, AND PLEASE SHOW US YOUR TRUE SKIN OF BIGOTRY AND INTOLLERACE THAT YOU ARE POORLY HIDING BEHIND A THIN VIEL OF ARROGANCE.
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