Verrry Interesting Article on the Republican Party........

Interesting opinions. And I will tell you right now that I don't agree with all of McCain's or Palin's ideas, either. But, as noted in the essay, some factions in the republican party are against McCain's more centrist position and it has been a long history of his to buck even the republican party if he felt necessary. Same with Palin. She did not make a lot friends in the republican party for what she has accomplished in Alaska. I am comfortable with the fact that they stand their ground, even if I don't always agree with their stance on something.

And believe it or not, I think Obama has shown a lot of huevos to not back down in the face of what criticisms there are of him. As the saying goes, if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. I haven't seen him sweat once, so to speak.

I, too, don't agree with some of the religious right leaning of the republican party. I think there should be separation of church and state. I noticed in the essay that he pointed out that the new credo of the republican party was one he devised, based on his observations.

Anyway, have I confused you enough?

Not an article or a referenced opinion;  just a personal opinion.  In the last eight years:  there were promises made to the Afghan people that were not fulfilled;  a war that is oil motivated happend in Iraq (not saying we should not have gone, just saying we should have finished that first action and fullfilled promises first);  a government toppled because of our influence and we did not stop or control the chaos that followed;  a democratic election occurred and the government does not recognize the outcome;  our standing in the world has fallen universally and people can not really travel safely beyond our borders;  our environment has suffered;  our education system is required to function under more UNFUNDED mandates;  parental rights continue to be paramount over children's rights (believe me that is a bigger problem that most realize);  billions are spent on projects with no scientific research toward their effectiveness when ideas that have strong replicable results behind them are ignored in favor of pork barrel.

As a country and as human beings we all want the cadillac services from our governments, but we dont want to pay for them.  And if you dont think wealth should be redistributed then the CEOs of Wall Street were perfectly right to do what they did.  The current administration is truly responsible in a large part for the current financial credit.  Credit  default swap could have been addressed through legislation, but no.  So businesses with  a set of assets  (say a million) could use those assests  to enter into business deals worth 10 times that.  Only problem was, when the deal was called and those 10 million needed to paid, those organizations didnt have it....and so the story goes.

 As to understanding the common man,  I can not believe that an individual who comes from a military family and who married millions has any clue what it is like in middle America.  I have far more faith in a man who worked his way up through education and worked in a field that required collaboration of parties with conflicting views at this time in our history. 

 And yet people forget that many of these things were backed by a Democratic Congress.

Poor decision making crosses party lines. You can't make the sweeping statement that everything that has gone wrong the in the past eight years has been because "conservative" ideology is "faulty". It is because we had a faulty decision-making in the congress, in the senate, and in the administration by people of all political parties.

 That article was a rather insulting rant in the guise of saying "Hey, no, really, I'm so progressive and open-minded, look at me, look at me, look how clever I am!" He takes something true (the party has strayed from its original goals) and then goes on a conspiracy theory rant about how much of an idiot you are if you agree with ANYTHING the Republican party says.

I noticed he doesn't talk about the stunning array of aggressive, close-minded, religion-hating self-righteous liberals who scream if you even mention anything about having a different viewpoint that them. You aren't voting for Obama? What is WRONG with you? And begin the interrogation and insults. And being a twenty-something female in a college town, I run into them every day. And that's why I don't talk politics in person, because I'm constantly jumped on for being young, female and leaning conservative. Bah.

George Washington had it right. Political parties will be the demise of our government and entire political system.

 As an edit, I apologize that my response took a tangent into a personal beef. I have been taking a lot of heat recently from people trying to force political discussion on me and being quite insulting. It is simply disappointing to me that the "liberal" philosophy is all about acceptance and open-mindedness, yet every young person I have met who identifies themselves as Democratic or liberal has been fully intolerant of dissenting opinion or arguement and immediately deems them to have no merit.....that sure isn't in the party platform either.

 I agree with this statement:

The Bush administration and Republican Congress increased the size of government, increased debt spending, pulled us into an unnecessary war, squandered our reputation internationally, violated our civil rights, reinterpreted the Constitution, attacked a non-threatening sovereign country, tortured prisoners, enabled monopolies and large corporations to crush individual initiatives, gave additional tax cuts only for the rich at the expense of the middle class, and destroyed any remaining trust Americans had in the government.

 The bold section is what I agree with most.

mrv

I can not believe that an individual who comes from a military family and who married millions has any clue what it is like in middle America.  I have far more faith in a man who worked his way up through education and worked in a field that required collaboration of parties with conflicting views at this time in our history. 

Amen. I will go further to say that I don't think most of the folks in Washington have a clue what middle America looks like. That's the very reason that DH and I left Washington. Too many people who like their wealth and power and will do anything to stay where they are or climb higher.