A Conservative's Survival Guide for the Next Four Years
Yesterday's defeat of Mitt Romney has left quite a few of my very dear friends devastated1. Despite the fact that it appears that the Republicans held on to control of the House of Representatives, the conservative agenda seems to be dead in the water for at least the next two years, if not the next four
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Re: zoning -- what are you talking about? What are these zoning restrictions and what's the rationale behind them?
Re: gun ownership -- would you agree that there are some kinds of weaponry which no "responsible" citizen needs to own? And that most of the weapons we see used in these mass killings fall under that category. It's not just the nutjobs who shoot, it's the nutjobs who think everyone should have access to every type of weapon.
Re: abortion -- I would add encourage not only comprehensive sex education but serious science education, focusing on critical thinking, evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions based on data. Kids who know what a "fact" is have a better sense of what it means to be "armed with the facts," and can then actually use the facts for the purpose of decision-making.
In my view the single greatest downfall of the Republican Party is its association with those who promote decision-making based on pure emotion and "faith" at the expense of critical thinking. When you have decided that "facts" are whatever you want to hear and "evidence" is whatever you feel inside, all the rest doesn't matter -- not just on abortion and education, but also on gay rights, global climate change, foreign policy, health care, you name it.
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Please note that this is not titled "A Republican's Survival Guide for the Next Four Years." I tend to agree that the Republican Party is probably a lost cause. I hope not, of course, but since they didn't get the memo in 2008, I'm not hopeful. Nowadays most true conservatives are identifying non-partisan.
Re: zoning -- what are you talking about? What are these zoning restrictions and what's the rationale behind them?
Said with the caveat that rationale of zoning laws is not my field of expertise and I'm therefore relying heavily on hearsay to answer that question, I think the reason for the laws is some notion that the practice of medicine is like heavy industry in that it's hazardous to the health of anyone who lives or works too close by. A lot of older cities have hospitals that are grandfathered in, of course, but opening new facilities is, from what I've been told, next to impossible.
Re: gun ownership -- would you agree that there are some kinds of weaponry which no "responsible" citizen needs to own? And that most of the weapons we see used in these mass killings fall under that category. It's not just the nutjobs who shoot, it's the nutjobs who think everyone should have access to every type of weapon.
I suspect that most Second Amendment advocates feel that the average citizen does not need, for example, a tactical nuclear warhead, so I don't think you need to worry about the rights of individuals to own weapons for self-defense being taken to silly extremes, even if there were to be a true libertarian resurgence in this country.
Remember also that responsibility includes a lot more than just not murdering people. Personally, I would extend the definition of irresponsible gun owners to include those whose weapons accidentally discharge and those who loan their weapons to others, but now we're getting into specifics of policy that really ought to be decided by responsible lawmakers discussing the issues and the possible ramifications, not dictated by one person.
I'm also personally O.K. with a training and licensing requirement on the state level (the "well regulated" part of the Second Amendment), but, again, the specifics of the policy can't come from one person.
Re: abortion -- I would add encourage not only comprehensive sex education but serious science education, focusing on critical thinking, evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions based on data. Kids who know what a "fact" is have a better sense of what it means to be "armed with the facts," and can then actually use the facts for the purpose of decision-making.
I concur. Well stated.
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