OK - I did make it into a letter to the editor.
Letter to the Editor
There seems to be two Republican parties - the republican party that is in power - and the pretty face that they are trotting out at the convention. They are bringing out the liberal Republicans like John McCaim and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Giuliani who have no power and hiding the people who are really in charge.
The real Republicans are hidden away. We don't see John Ashcroft speaking on Civil Liberties. Where is Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Allen Keyes, the Reverend Sun Mung Moon, and Pat Buchanan? Where are the people behind the Republican energy policy like Kenneth Lay or Prince Vandar? Where is Donald Rumsfield and Paul Wolfowitz to talk about why we should torture prisoners? Where are the noecons like Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich? These are the people who wrote the Republican platform and shape Republican policy.
It looks to me like the Republicans are trying to put lipstick on a pig, showing people what they think they want to see rather than the way they really are. Republicans don't think you'd vote for them if they showed who was really in charge - and on that point I agree with them.
Marc:
I think we can agree that come convention time, the Republicans lock up the religious right--just like the Democrats try to put a leash on the far left wing at their convention. (You noticed that both Barack Obama as well as John Kerry himself struck a very moderate note. We didn't hear any of the usual class warfare nonsense.)
I think I know how you feel about the Republicans, but what about the Libertarian Party? On many of the issues you feel strongly about (ex: crimes involving personal freedoms) both the Democrats and the Republicans are more or less in the same boat--albeit for different reasons.
For example: it has been said that Republicans want prostitution to be illegal because it involves sex, while Democrats want it to be illegal because it involves money. But they both want to legislate their own interpretation of public morality.
Neither of the major parties seems to be standing up concerning the decriminalization of personal freedoms. The Libertarians are the only ones making definitive statements in this area.
(The Libertarians also stand up for economic freedom, while the Dems think your income should be automatically earmarked for government distribution.)
Pat Bucannon is really in a league on his own. He hates the GOP, the war in Iraq, and American Imperialism thats going on right now.
Posted by: Chris at August 30, 2004 07:23 PMAnd I love Libertarians. I just dont think we should get rid of every department of goverment, education, health care, and basic security should really be run by the goverment. But either way, its about control. Dems and Reps to an extent want goverment to control you, while Libs and Reps also want businesses to control you.
Posted by: Chris at August 30, 2004 07:26 PMYour so far to the left, Marc, that you'd make Lenin blush.
-Wilks
I say keep it up Marc! You're are so far left....I don't think so. I think most of the people who post on this site are only out for a chatty argument. There is no decision from where I stand. Either you are for totalitarianism i.e Bush et al or are you want a choice. Kerry at least offers some sanity.
Posted by: mary at August 30, 2004 08:11 PMYea...bring on Tom Delay! Jackass that he is. Let's see him at the podium. How about cutthroat Karl Rove. Let's see him give a speech.
Posted by: mary at August 30, 2004 09:14 PMYeah you're, John McCain (one of the most influential senators in the country) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (the governor of the most populous state in the union) have no power at all. Nor does Rudy, the former mayor of the biggest city in the coutry.
Rudy...mayor..so what. Schwarzenegger...terminator...gropenator? The actor? oh yeah...real impressive. So the voters in CA are concentrated in the area of no thinking...SoCal. They recongnized a name on the ballot. Big deal.
Jerry Falwall and Robertson little power in the Repub party? Where do you live? The president speaks to jesus and god and Pat and Jerry don't have any power??? Right!
Delay is just a crook...fits right in with any Neocon looking for power.
Posted by: mary at August 30, 2004 09:19 PMah wilks, to be young and naive. if you have so much faith in the american people, why all the reality shows? tv reflex the minds of people. guess what? the majority of people don't care about politics. they depend on the government, the media or their religion to make up their minds. "bush may not be a smart guy, but he's a good christian cuz he says so." "FOX news says that kerry is a traitor. Why would the media lie?" "The US PATRIOT ACT is for your own protection. There's an unsubstatiated terrorist attack. We don't know where, how, when, but we do know that you should be scared, but prepared. We're doing a great job." Does that sound like intelligence? The majority of people I know fall into on of those categories. It's quite sad, really.
Posted by: charlie chingas at August 31, 2004 10:27 AMspeaking of guiliani, i found something interesting about him:
http://www.alternet.org/election04/19673/
by the way, i bet there are some folk in the appalachians who love lipstick on pigs...
Posted by: charlie chingas at September 1, 2004 11:36 AMI would know, I live an hour away from west virgina
Posted by: Joshua Gillogly at September 2, 2004 01:44 PM