Okay, so, I mostly vote Republican. And I like to think of myself as a fiscally conservative Republican sort.
Republicans can be pretty shameless, though. I don’t think a bunch of Republicans lying about their affiliation and holding up Kerry/Edwards signs with big obvious signs about gay adoption and how good abortion is, is a good reflection on the party. I think it says what I’ve been gradually realizing for some time: There’s a lot of Republicans who are, quite simply, genuinely evil. They have abandoned any notion of ethics. They figure any lie that gets you in power is a good lie.
I have been surrounded by these people at ChristianForums, where they appear to be the majority of the active Republican posters.
I don’t know what to do about this. I still like the idea of fiscal responsibility. But I like the idea of ethics, too.
I think the key to this is that these people have mastered the art of absolute and perfect dishonesty. One of the more viciously evil posters at ChristianForums, a man who goes by the name of “Sharp”, doesn’t even try to make sense. He just posts lies about people he doesn’t like. For example, in attacks on “liberals”, he’s been known to accuse them of just taking the Bible at face value without studying it. Now, there are a lot of problems with some liberal belief systems… But that’s not generally one of them.
I’ve seen these people go. They’ll just make stuff up. They’ll take a nasty thing that they’ve seen someone do, and attribute it to the other side. One person explained that the reason for no-bid contracts for Haliburton was that bidding “increased prices”. I guess that’s the entire basis of our capitalist economy, the notion of competition, thrown out the window. IDIOTS!
According to some of the posters, the people doing this are “neocons”. I’ve been unable to get a clear answer as to what exactly neocons are. Different people give different definitions. However, I will say that the posters who associate themselves with this name seem to be pretty brutally nasty people. It’s become a pure power game; I don’t think they have any interest left in what they supposedly stand for.
It was a real shock the first time I saw someone, claiming to be Christian, say that turning the other cheek is “just a bribe to people in power”. But these people are out there, and they have stolen Christianity, and they have stolen the Republican party. And they must be stopped, because what they are pushing is not fiscally responsible, it is not Christian, it is not good in any way; it is anathema to the very notion of a democratic system where we try to govern ourselves, and indeed, it appears that they despise this notion of being answerable to people. They want the annoyance of elections and checks and balances swept away so they can impose the policies they’ve picked.
Please, folks. Just remember that not all Republicans are like that. When we’ve suffered through a while of people like Bush and Cheney, remember that there are Republicans who are in favor of fiscal responsibility, personal freedoms, and an open and fair electoral process. And if we vote against enough of the psychos, we might get some of those other guys back again.
Comments [archived]
From: FromThe Morning
Date: 2004-11-04 12:07:40 -0600
Great post— Just remember, every crowd has its “bad apples”. http://fromthemorning.blogspot.com
From: Goliath
Date: 2004-11-04 12:16:35 -0600
(we’ll see if this actually shows up or not…)
Seebs,
You seem to continually forget that one xian is just as much of a xian as any other xian.
In other words, these “neocons” who are xians are just as much of a xian as you are. Who are you to say that what they do “isn’t xian”?
From: Jj
Date: 2004-11-04 23:42:40 -0600
Dude, I totally waver between statism, anarchism, libertarianism and socialism and I’m with you 100%. Weird that it’ll have to be a durn democrat having to argue for fiscal resposibility. Eh. World’s upside down.
From: Wandering Willow
Date: 2004-11-06 14:29:06 -0600
Hi there,
Found your site through RLP. This is my first visit. I am a Green, personally, but I agree with what you write. I really like the way you think it through so thoroughly and really know what you’re talking about. You do credit to your party, which is taking a beating with the Shrub in office.
From: amanda bouille
Date: 2005-05-07 02:41:18 -0500
Thank you for your post. Amazingly enough, it soothed my anger. Thank you for extending the olive branch.
From: D
Date: 2005-06-30 16:56:35 -0500
I am so ashamed that I wasted my vote for george war bush. What was I thinking? Why did I let my right wing extremist, neo-conservative, neo-evangelical thinking get in the way of exercising sound personal judgment? Growing up, I was led to believe that the republican party was a grass roots party of the people & for the people. In retrospect, it is clear that the last 3 presidents produced by the republican party were nothing more then the rich man’s rich man hiding under the disguise of the overly misused term, “conservative”. The economic dark ages of reagonomics screwed over the middle and lower classes of this county simply to benefit the rich and wealthy. George warmonger bush has quietly shifted this country back to those economic dark ages. Bush inherited a strong economy and screwed that up real quick. And even though 9 -11 did happen, none of bushs reckless screwed up decisions are justified by that day in history. It is clear that he never had any real salient foreign & domestic policies when he became president in 2000. Now we have 4 more years of the same crap and a growing body count overseas. If we ever actually do get out of Iraq, nothing will have changed and nothing will have been gained. The American people have never been given a specific object in Iraq or a clear definition of exactly what victory in Iraq is from the president. Invading Iraq never had anything to do with, WMD, freeing the Iraqi people or making Americans safer and secure. Statements about WMD, Freeing Iraq or Making America Safer are nothing more then a marketing spin used to hide the ugly truth and make the lies palatable to the American public and justifiable to the red necks who voted for him. Bush likes to make statements such as Its worth the price but he never says just what exactly it is. If he really believes that, then he should put his money where his mouth is and send his daughters to go fight in Iraq. The republican party claims to be for smaller less wasteful government but the current administration is responsible for the waste of more money, resources and human lives then any past democrat presidency. I have a hard time sleeping at night knowing that the blood of Americans and innocent civilians is on my hands and the hands of those who voted for george warmonger bush. The real legacy of the bush cabinet is going to be one characterized by lots of wrongful deaths, lots of money and resources wasted, unnecessary tax increases for our children and grandchildren and the unnecessary destruction of various social programs that good decent people count on. Thanks to bush and his power hungry cabinet who all want to control congress, the senate & the supreme court, the USA is now a third world country hiding under the disguise of prosperity. Now that the USA owes all these hundreds of millions of dollars to countries like China, Germany, Russia & Japan, I wonder which language I need to learn for the day when these countries come to collect
From: Dracula
Date: 2006-07-12 14:07:52 -0500
I am so ashamed that I wasted my vote on a piece of crap like george warmonger bush. It is clear that the last three presidents produced by the republican party were nothing more then corrupt puppets who only represented the interests of the rich and elite of this country. There is a very special dark place in hell for these people who have manipulated the stupidity and one dimensional voting habits of the religeous right wing of this nation. The religious right wing of this nation should be ashamed. They will vote for any worthless idiot who claims to be against abortion. You people are anything but conservative and you do not represent the interests of the average typical American voter. Bush pimped the presidency and the the republican party has turned Congress and the Senate into an auction house for sale to the highest bidder in the corporate business community. I’ll never make the mistake of voting republican again. Thanks for the memories GOP.
From: Religious Right Wing Extremist
Date: 2006-08-08 16:13:33 -0500
Why are you ashamed? Our boys Bush and Cheney are simlpy manipulating our one dimensional voting habits. We condone murder while hiding behind the lie of conservative values and jingoistic patriotis. Our transexual girl Ann Coulter is doing a fine job of preaching hate in the name of Christianity.
From: scratch
Date: 2006-09-03 22:40:31 -0500
You should be ashamed if you voted for bush. Anyone with less then half a brain who chooses to see whats going on out there understands that bush is a worthless rich brat who uses Christianity as shield to ward off criticizm everytime people expose his lies. Bush exploited the one dimensional voting habits of the religious right wing to gain a voter base because all republican lawmakers know that most Christians will vote for any human garbage who claims to be against abortion, is pro-life or claims to be moral. There is nothing moral about bush or cheney. When bush ran for president he kept duping people over and over with the promise to restore dignity to the white house. If by that he meant pimping the presidency and turning congress into an auction house for legislation to highest bidder then…I guess he restored dignity to the whitehouse.
I will never make the mistake of voting republican ever again. The republican party is not a party of, by or for the people. Those are more lies just like the lie of being for less government or less taxes. The only thing republican lawmakers are for is concentrating wealth to the richest few families in the country, wasting our national resources, murdering our sons and daughters along with innocent people in other countries in illegal wars while hiding behind the lie of conservative values and jingoistic patriotism. This country prospered under Bill Clinton and now it is on the brink of bankruptcy under Bush. Bush’s cabinet is nothing more then a terrorist generation machine because that is all they know how to do. Thanks to this current generation of republican lawmakers, our children and grand children will be paying the price for the outrageou national debt that never had to happen. Conservative people do not conduct themselves the way this current generation of republican lawmakers have. If Christ Jesus himself were to pay us all a little visit incarnate he would have one thing to say to the president, his cabinet and the religious right wing of this nation…“Be Gone! I never knew any of you.” Instead of Pharisees and San Hedrin to admonish…he would have a whole new group of hypocrits to admonish composed mainly of republicans and the religious right wing of the nation.
From: Ambiguosity
Date: 2007-04-26 13:05:11 -0500
Personally, I think that it would be terribly unfortunate if Bush were to one day trip on a landmine and watch all of his limbs blown right off his torso, or perhaps a bullet clear in his head. This is not to say that we’re necessarily due for a presidential murder or that people should snuff Bush out, because that would be sincerely sad and unchristian, even if it would be entertaining for everyone to watch. So just put that idea out of your mind and pretend that you never ever ever thought of every inch of Bush being ripped apart by a threshing machine and gleefully watching the event with popcorn and a soda. We certainly must not KILL the president and I am certainly not implying that anyone should do it, so I hope that some deranged psychopath doesn’t do it. Please don’t do it. Please, please, please, pretty please… not… perhaps…