cause of concern
if McCain/Palin win the White House, I may not be coming home.
McCain picking Palin was a desperate, albeit bold, move. And in doing do he had energized the socially conservative voting base. He knew he needed them to win.
And this is what bothers me most of all. Because it brings abortion and gun control issues to foreground of the political debate at the expense of the economy, the environment, foreign policy, the poor, the prison system, and corporate and political corruption. It suppresses real debate.
There was a person on LJ who, in the face of 2004 election results said something approximating what follows: I didn't like Bush's policy of the war, environment, economy, or education. But I voted for him because he's pro-life.
This is crazy-talk. This is insanity. Quite literally, this person is not in a healthy state of mind.
Abortion is an extremely important issue. So is gun control (though only in the US it seems.) But to weigh either of these issues above the rest of the list above is lunacy.
These issues and the causes behind them are of excessive concern. Ultimately they are not debate-able or resolvable (at least at this time.) And my concern is that they will once again be used as wedges to split this country in two, mar the national discourse, and render impossible actual debate. Is the Republican Party once again going to be hijacked by this irrational ideology? One that is actually anti-big government, at least in the case of abortion? Are people of the Christian faith continue to promote and be defined by the values of hate, when their faith is equally or more rich with the language of compassion and love?
I'm sick of this mess.
McCain picking Palin was a desperate, albeit bold, move. And in doing do he had energized the socially conservative voting base. He knew he needed them to win.
And this is what bothers me most of all. Because it brings abortion and gun control issues to foreground of the political debate at the expense of the economy, the environment, foreign policy, the poor, the prison system, and corporate and political corruption. It suppresses real debate.
There was a person on LJ who, in the face of 2004 election results said something approximating what follows: I didn't like Bush's policy of the war, environment, economy, or education. But I voted for him because he's pro-life.
This is crazy-talk. This is insanity. Quite literally, this person is not in a healthy state of mind.
Abortion is an extremely important issue. So is gun control (though only in the US it seems.) But to weigh either of these issues above the rest of the list above is lunacy.
These issues and the causes behind them are of excessive concern. Ultimately they are not debate-able or resolvable (at least at this time.) And my concern is that they will once again be used as wedges to split this country in two, mar the national discourse, and render impossible actual debate. Is the Republican Party once again going to be hijacked by this irrational ideology? One that is actually anti-big government, at least in the case of abortion? Are people of the Christian faith continue to promote and be defined by the values of hate, when their faith is equally or more rich with the language of compassion and love?
I'm sick of this mess.