(01/31/04)
Today someone asked me "Are you a Republican?" I stared at him, unable to speak, because I felt that it was a loaded question. You see, I would have voted for Bush back in 2000 had I been of voting age, but I look at his unsatisfactory performance and wonder what is going to happen with this country. I don't know who I'm going to vote for in November, but I'll be watching this race closely for until election day. Anyway, I don't know what to call myself. I'm not a conservative, and I'm not a liberal. Moderate implies that I stand in the middle on all the issues, which isn't true either. Here is where I stand:
- The war in Iraq was justified for humanitarian reasons other than what the administration tells us.
- The freedom to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Just let me soup up my rifle; I won't kill anyone unless they try to break into my home.
- Either stop the crazy spending or raise taxes back up. Preferably the spending, because I expect to be in the top 1% of Americans.
- Bush is not to blame for the bad job economy. The stock market jitters were caused by lunacy by the masses and deception by the executives DURING CLINTON'S WATCH. It wasn't his fault either. Politicians have less control over the economy than you think.
- Go ahead and let gay people marry - I don't care at all what they do; I don't feel threatened.
- Affirmative action is terrible and I hope to see an end to it in my lifetime, BUT NOT YET. If you think it's unfair that a black person gets accepted and you don't, consider how much more unfair it is that you can get a job interview over him because his name is Tyrone and yours is Chad.
- You have GOT to help us afford higher education. It's not fair that someone with a 3.5 GPA in high school and a 1440 on his SAT has to go to community college a few miles from his parents' house while the rich kid with the 3.0 and 1200 gets to go to a 4 year university. Meanwhile, the poor kid has to work a 40 hour week and doesn't get his bachelor's until he's 24, while the rich kid doesn't get his degree until he's 24 because he was too busy partying with his frat to graduate in less than 6 years.
- Help small businessmen and entrepreneurs, but stop the corporate welfare.
- Don't listen to the hippies about the environment, they're just crazy.
- Don't listen to the hippies about globalization and free trade either. They really are crazy.
- Give us back our constitutional rights that Congress signed away on September 12th. I wouldn't mind a sunset in 2005, if that's what it has to come to.
- Bush is a freaking moron, but I'm not exactly greeting the Democrats as liberators either.
- I don't trust presidential candidates from New England.
- I can't believe that our government still supports Israel in tearing down homes and humiliating Palestinians. I have yet to hear a credible argument that what Israel is doing is right but what South Africa did with apartheid was wrong.
So to sum up, I stand with the liberals on issues like race relations, higher education, legal rights in the war on terror, and gay marriage, but I stand with the conservatives on issues like War in Iraq, economic policy, the environment, and free trade*. I do think that we would probably benefit from changing presidents and making amends and pretending that we're trying to clean up the mess while secretly not regretting the war with Iraq because it WILL lead to greater stability in the region and better cooperation from countries like Libya, Syria, North Korea, and Iran. I'm probably going to write an article about each of the topics I talked about above, so there's really no need to elaborate further. I just want to know which party I'm supposed to support. Someone please help me.
