Not a Republican
When I get annoyed at the Democrats, which I do frequently, I’m often directed by smiling friends to the Republican party. Obviously you’ve seen the light. We’re the party of freedom.
In case you’re wondering why I don’t buy it, consider the working of the Texas Board of Education. (This is only one small point out of many.) You can get some idea from the live blogging by the Texas Freedom Network. I’m looking for some more complete transcripts, but all I can find are bits and pieces. I’ve read/viewed quite a few of those, but don’t have a single complete link.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Don’t Mess With Textbooks | ||||
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I’m not interested in liberal or conservative education. Liberals and conservatives both seem to be trying to mold the curriculum to slant things their particular way. (Yes, this is an example of conservatives doing so, but there are some pretty lousy results from more liberal curriculum planning groups as well.)
But the party that harbors and even celebrates people like this won’t be getting my support. That’s why I remain independent as a voter. I can think of nothing better for American politics than that both our current parties collapse.
So….
How do people like you and people like me get on the same page? When I talk to my conservative friends, and listen to my favorite conservatite commentators, nothing like the clip above is ever advocated. When we become aware of it, it is disavowed. Yet, we’re held to these events as reason why otherwise reasonable people such as yourself won’t join our cause. We try and vote for intelligent conservatives. Really. But these idiots get through the process, and then we’re told that’s wrong with conservatism… well it may be a mar on the process, the fringe, and to some degree our leadership, but not the people at large or our philosophy.
By the same token, my circle of conservative friends and commentators agree with liberals and democrats that health care needs to be made better. We put out ideas like interstate buying, tort reform, and other ideas that increase competition between existing companies while decreasing the needless risk and beaurocracy that’s raising costs at an even faster rate than technology. Then, a health care bill is shoved through the process that will do no such thing, and we’re then vilified for not caring about people, and not being bi-partisan.
Of course, when we had power, we really didn’t, or we didn’t use it, or we used wrong. Instead, we got sucked into the vortex of old-time Republicans who still believe in lots of spending. They let the younger republicans get all the press, but then the old-timers who are still in charge shove their own pork spending bills through the process… and people like me are stuck defending “conservatism” that frankly isn’t conservatism. And then we wonder why we lose the presidency, and cannot convince people such as you to join us.
At this point, all I can do is work, volunteer, give to charity, raise my boys to be loving and strong, vote against most tax increases, and pretend that those anti-conservative conservatives (like the Texas Teacher’s board member in the video you posted) didn’t exist… because I have a huge tax bill to earn money to pay.
I sympathize more than you may think, but that clip, and its brethren from the leftist fringe (same style, different message) explain why I’m an independent rather than a member of either party. I have some ideological ties to libertarians, some to conservatives, and some to liberals. That’s why I call myself a passionate moderate.
What I object to most is the institutionalized two-party system. That wouldn’t get rid of the lunatics, but it would prevent moderates such as myself from being effectively left out of the loop. I liked the Washington state open primary system. Everybody got on the ballot for a reasonable fee, then the Republicans had the top Republican for their candidate and the Democrats had the top Democrat. Any independent candidate who met a certain threshold (I forget, but 5% rings a bell) would be on the November ballot.
I know plenty of reasonable conservatives, but I find much in either party’s platform that I simply can’t stomach. I have to be a little happier with an organization to become a member.