September 21, 2004  -  Random political thoughts...

Any of you who know me politically, know that I'm NOT a left-winger.  I'm not quite a Republican/Conservative either... I'd be best described as a libertarian.  My #1 judgement tool is simply common sense based the facts.   Anyhow, here are some thoughts I'm having as we go into the election.  I follow politics A LOT so I think I know what I'm talking about.
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Democrats say that have all the answers to make the economy great, and that the Republicans screw it all up.  Then why do economists and others who know the economy overwhelmingly vote Republican?
If John Kerry is such a war hero, and George W. Bush has 'totally' screwed up every single aspect of the war in Iraq, then why are the soldiers and their families overwhelmingly supporting Bush?  Shouldn't they hate him for what he's done and love Kerry for being a hero?
Is it possible for George W. Bush to ever do anything right in the eyes of the Democrats?  They literally criticize him for everything he does or does not do.  Do they really have a system of beliefs, or will they say anything to help them get power?  The Democrats are SO fanatical in their hatred for President Bush, that they will take any side that opposes him.
People don't agree with President Bush... fine.  But do you really believe that President is more evil than Hitler and every comic book super-villain combined?  Hell, according to the Democrats, Satan is even jealous of how evil and all-around rotten George W. Bush is!  Do you really think that's all true (or even 1/10 true), or are they exaggerating in an extreme way.  If he's so bad, why not just refute him with facts and not resort to ridiculous characterizations?   And if he's so obviously bad, why do so many people support him? Are we really all brainwashed and stupid?
Democrats accuse President Bush of being a extreme right-winger.  Has anybody listened to Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, or any of the prototype right-wingers?  They've ripped Bush for being so soft!  And the truth is, President Bush has (stupidly) gone out of his way to try and work with the Democrats... but they still say he's an 'extremist'.   Bush is a moderate on most issues.
The Democrats (especially Ted Kennedy) are totally ripping Bush on education, but did you know that Bush was dumb enough to let the Democrats write the education bill for him?  In fact, it was Ted Kennedy who wrote it... the same guy who's leading the criticism.
Where are the weapons of mass destruction?  We know for a fact that Iraq had them.  However, we don't know what happened to them.   Saddam said he destroyed them.  Most likely, he hid them or sold them off in the 11/2 years that the nitwit weapons inspectors were parading around doing their silly thing.  I really doubt he destroyed them like he was supposed to.
Democrats are trying to say the war in Iraq was all about weapons of mass destruction (10% true).  President Bush says it was mainly about eliminating a potential terrorist threat (50% true).  There were a lot of reasons for the war, but THE main reason was to establish a base of operations in the Middle East, so all the nuts there will know that we not only can and will kick their ass, but that it'll be easier to do it now that we're established in their backyard.
Anything that's good for America is bad for the Democrats.   Have you noticed that?  No matter who's in power, Democrats get their power when things are bad.  Is that a good position to have?!  Even after 8 years of Clinton & Gore, Gore talked about America like it was the worst place in the world, and that we 'needed' him to save us.
Condolezza Rice for President in 2008!  Forget that she's black and that she's a woman... she's got everything that makes for a great leader.
Democrats claim to be the leaders of civil rights.   However, it was the Republicans that fought against slavery, it was the Republicans that passed the Civil Rights Act in 1963, it's the Republicans who put minorities and women in high positions of power (Rice, Powell, Thomas, etc.), and the only 'former' member of KKK in Congress is a Democrat (Senator Byrd).  But, nobody talks more about it than the Democrats.
The crazy dictator of N. Korea supports John Kerry for President.  The new socialist leader of Spain supports John Kerry.  The extreme anti-Semite leader of Malaysia supports John Kerry.  The people in Germany & France who supported Saddam want want to get rid of President Bush.  Al Queda wants President Bush out.  See a pattern here?  If the terrorists could vote, would they vote for Bush or Kerry?  They'd vote Kerry.  Why, because they know he's the better man who'll be good for America?  I don't think so... I think they think he's a sucker!
John Kerry acts like he's a man of the people... but he's worth about 1 billion dollars, he's got 6 mansions (7 before he sold the one in Italy to George Cluny), a huge yacht, and the most expensive private jet money can buy.  Not even George W. Bush is that filthy rich!  Edwards is worth 'only' a few hundred million, but he's still richer than Bush and Cheney combined!
Left wingers love to tax people, and love to moan about tax cuts.  They say Republicans only cut taxes on the rich.  That's not true, but since the VAST majority of taxes are paid by the rich, they see a bigger return.   Here are some tax statistics... the top 20% of Americans pay 80% of the taxes (the bottom 80% pay 20% of the taxes).  The top 5% pay over 50% of the taxes.  And the top 1% pay about 40% of the taxes!  It's a complicated issue, but when it comes down to it, the rich pay almost all the taxes.  Why do the rich need so much money?   Because they're the ones who invest it in businesses, buildings, and all kinds of other things that fuel our economy.  Take that away like you do in socialism/communism, and the economy starts to die off.
America has a HUGE national debt.  To whom is the debt owed?  Japan?  China?  Europe?  No, it's owed to ourselves.   It's another very complicated issue, but that's one fact people don't know.   Although our debt is higher now than it has ever been, it's actually a lower percentage of our GDP (gross domestic product), and that's a good thing.  America will naturally outgrow its debt over time... so there's nothing to really pay off.
How many people know that America is a republic and not a democracy?  Both are democratic systems, but there's one HUGE difference... a republic guarantees certain rights.  For instance, in our republic you you're not supposed to be able to create a law banning free speech.  Even if 90% of the people wanted it.   Freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms, freedom to religion, etc., protect us from "the tyranny of the masses".  That's the basic explanation, but if you wanna know more, please go do some studying of your own.
More people voted for Al Gore in 2000, but George Bush won the election.  Why?  Because we have an electoral college.  That means that different areas on the US are awarded 'points' for how their people vote, and then that's tallied up to get the final number... the guy with the most wins.  So although Gore had more individual votes, Bush had more votes in the electoral college.  Why that system?  We're a republic.  This system makes it necessary for candidates to get the votes of people outside of the major population areas.  Without this system, all campaigning would be New York, Texas, Florida, California, etc.  Montana, Alaska, and all the out-of-the-way places would be totally ignored.  When you see a map of how much land area was won by the candidates, Bush won by a landslide.
Television and print media have long been accused of having a left-wing bias.  Almost 90% of them vote Democrat, but only about 40% of the US population is registered Democrat.  What a coincidence!  Not only that, but remember that the media is also a business, and they aren't really in if for the 'news'... their job is to make money!
When those idiot soldiers got caught abusing the prisoners in Iraq, everybody was outraged.  However, did you notice that the left-wingers were about 10 times more outraged by that than when the Americans where burnt, cut up, drug through the streets, and hung up for public viewing?  Why?  Because their hatred of Bush blinds them to everything else.  They're always looking for a reason to blame him and America no matter what the consequences are for anybody else... ANY means are justified to them as long as they get their power back.
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Anyhow, that's it.  I tried not to be too biased, because I wanted you to think through this all on your own, but it's pretty hard to avoid the truth, so I know I was biased.  The bottom line is that we can all disagree on what should be done about war, the economy, rights, and all that stuff, but in the end the Democrats have been hijacked by the most extreme and hateful people of the left-wing, and no matter what they say the want to do, how can you trust people like that?  I don't agree with Bush a a lot of things, but even though I think he's wrong, I know he's basically honest... right or wrong.  At least that's somebody I can work with.   Nowadays, I don't see anybody on the left that I can work with.