The First Rule about Politics...

Is "DO NOT TALK ABOUT POLITICS."

If you and I have either agreed to disagree about politics or have never talked politics before and you don’t want to start now, there is another post up that you will love.

Nothing to see here. Move along.








You know what would be fun? To have an election where you like all the people and the only thing that makes you vote one way or the other are the issues. I would still vote the same as I’m going to, but it would be nice to say, “The other guy is great, too, though, and I really like him.” Which I actually do. But it’s his VP choice that gives me heebee jeebees. Majorly.

As said by a comedian that I heard on the radio (I can’t remember his name), “Who knew that evil came in a Lenscrafter ad?”

Besides disagreeing with Ms. Palin on virtually every issue (abortion, gay marriage, capital punishment, gun control, censorship, stem cell research, national healthcare, global warming, environmental issues, foreign policy and I’m sure there are more), I really don’t like how she says one thing about her self, but her actions point in the dead opposite direction. I would feel better about her if they were just honest. “We picked her because she’s intelligent, new to politics, might give us a fresh look at the way things are done, and because she will bring some Hilary voters over to ‘our side.’ Oh, and she happens to pretty much agree with everything we want her to agree on. And she’s purty.” That would be okay. I honestly have to believe she’s all those things (especially pretty).

But the John McCain site states, “…she has successfully fought the special interests, the lobbyists, the Big Oil companies…” No she hasn’t. Alaska has requested over $700 million in special federal funding, which is the largest per-capita amount in the nation. She also is infamous for the Bridge to Nowhere fiasco. She asked for money for the bridge, fought for the bridge, got ridiculed for the bridge, and then said, “Thanks but no thanks” but still kept the money.

As for lobbyists, she in fact hired one while mayor and got $27 million for her town. Big oil? She sleeps with it; her husband works for BP (which actually has nothing to do with anything- I just wanted to say that she’s “in bed with big oil” and crack myself up). However, (seriously) she does want to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Alaskan coast rather than pursue alternative sources of oil. It’s Oil and Big Business before Science with Ms. Palin, with her wolf helicopter hunting, global warming denial, and lawsuits over endangered species that she says are not.

She did sign a big tax increase for oil companies, which is great and I won’t even add a but.

She also claims to be responsible for a $40 billion natural gas pipeline, and it only exists on paper and may never be built, possibly wasting all the money she got in taxes from big oil. So there is the “but”.

Ms. Palin charged Alaska 312 days of lodging for days that she spent at her own home. How is this “fiscally conservative”? How is it “fiscally conservative” to leave your town in $20 million of debt- taking it from zero before you were mayor? How? I don’t see that. I do see that the debt she left it with was partially due to social programs she put in place that are valid and not special interest (some were, however, special interest), but that is NOT fiscally conservative.

Speaking of social issues, ethics is a major source of talk about Ms. Palin. How she faught for ethical conduct on so many levels. But how is it ethical to use your position in government to get vendettas taken care of against people who ran against you and people who divorce your sister? I just don’t see where ethics come into play on this one. Same with rape victims and their insurance companies being charged for the materials that are used to examine them and take evidence. A lot has gone around on this one where she says that she didn’t even know it was happening and then banned it, etc, but Palin, as mayor, fired the police chief (see above ethics comment) and replaced him with Charlie Fannon. Mr. Fannon is the one who implemented this rape kid program and the city budget documents show that she read and signed off on the new budget. A year later, Alaska banned this practice and he put up a big stink. If she is saying that she didn’t read the budget and just signed it, that’s actually even scarier to me.

So to sum up how I feel, she’s icky and I don’t like her as a vice president. I wish McCain had chosen more wisely so that I could continue respecting him as I did before and continue hoping for an election based on the issues alone, rather than all this Carl Rove-ism. And, just so you know, I’m not thrilled with Obama’s choice, either, but he hasn’t been hailed the next coming of the almighty Mary, mom to Jesus, like Palin has.

And as long as we are talking politics, I’m also struggling with my understanding of republican vs. democrat. I always thought that a republican was for less government and democrats were for more. But now it seems to be the opposite, which confuses me. I’ve always been a democrat and pro major social programs, but I always respected the repulican point of view and understood where they were coming from. So unless the definition of repulican/democrat has changed, I just don’t get it any more.

Is an ideal republican a social, fiscal conservative with the call for government to interact completely in my life everyday by legislating my body (abortion, marriage, stem cell research), my home (warrantless domestic spy programs), my school (censorship, “no child left behind”), and my world (oil drilling, environmental)? And is an ideal democrat a weirdo hippy with conspiracy theories galore and hatred for all things government?

If so, that’s fine, we just need to change the definitions here:
http://www.gop.com/

And here:
http://www.democrats.org/

And maybe find new playground to play in where I don’t have to hem-ha my way through hiding the disgusting factor from my children when I explain how the American politics works. Maybe there is a third party, call it the “Happy Voting Party”, where people are not gross spinners of fact and fiction, but just normal people who disagree about some crap. I can totally play in that playground.