Monday, April 5, 2010

Conservatism

I was never very interested in politics until...well, really until Bush Jr. got into office. I always figured that things sort of evened themselves out over time. Also, I wasn't a US citizen, so I couldn't really do anything about it anyway. I got my US citizenship in 2000 - just in time to vote in that election. Lotta good that did. I've slowly gotten more and more active - enough that I actually went in and volunteered to work on Charlie Brown's campaign for Congress against that lying, carpetbagging, scumbag Tom McClintock (did I just say that out loud?) because I felt so strongly about it (McClintock won - barely).

My son seems to have grown up with a highly developed sense of fairness. Being raised by me and two dads, he's been a gay rights activist from a fairly young age. He also refused to join a fraternity because they required a declaration that there might be some sort of higher being, and he felt that that discriminated against me (I think the "frat" part of that would probably have excluded me, anyway).

He's taking a Problems in American Politics class this semester. I keep getting calls immediately after he gets out of class that go something like this:

Me: Hi William. How much money do you need?

William: CONSERVATIVES ARE SO %@#$ing STUPID!

Me: Uh...yes, but...

William: ALL THEY %@#%ing WANT IS TO MAKE THE RICH RICHER AND THE POOR POORER!!!

Me: Um...Yeah, I think that's pretty much a given. Some of them don't feel....

William: My professor is trying to give a balanced viewpoint and let us draw our own conclusions.

Me: And your conclusion is...

William: Conservatives are MORONS!!

Me: *hysterical laughter*

William: We're learning about the healthcare debate this week. Oh, and I need to use PhotoShop for a class. Could I please have $60 dollars for 2 gigs of RAM so I can run it on my computer?

Me: *sigh* Try asking your dads first.

I was telling my mother about this conversation, and she completely agreed with William. I got almost the same response from her, without quite so many vulgarities. At least I didn't end up sending her money.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

"that lying, carpetbagging, scumbag Tom McClintock"

Huh??! Hey, I don't agree with every one of his political views, but he's always struck me as being one of the only honest and decent politicians around. Do you have some actual concrete reason to attack his character?

Anonymous said...

I don't know about lying but his political stances are bad. For one thing he wants to make the "bush tax cuts" permanent. So basically cuts for the rich increases for the poor. He wants to put more money into building that national fence that does absolutely nothing but making a border hop 10 seconds instead of 5. Seriously it takes a day to build ten feet of that incomplete fence and 5 minuets for them to dismantle it the next day. There is just no point in spending tax dollars on keeping people out. We should be focusing on making it easier for them to be legal, whether citizens or otherwise, and thus paying our taxes at least in some fashion. Addressing the lying, read his Issues section of his web site critically. Everything he is proposing makes sense in a broad way however when you think about the wording, he is really just dancing around the issues not truly proposing anything just pointing out a problem and saying he will fix it, I guess magically. I would love to know what exactly his "common sense proposal" is because I cant find any information about it other than what he is touting on his website (which just says that it exists and that it will fix our fiscal problems). If you can find out what exactly it is proposing and why it really will work I am on board. Overall I see why people might beleive he is a good candidate. He is fiscally conservative which there is something to be said for touting the ideas of individual freedom at least fiscally and who doesn't like paying less taxes. However the irony of him touting personal freedom is his anti homosexual beliefs.


"Lincoln asked, 'If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? The answer is four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one,'" McClintock said in a statement. "And calling a homosexual partnership a marriage doesn’t make it one."


Fiscal conservatism might make sense but social conservatism is just control.

Laurie said...

Hmm. Lets see.
Lying - In his nasty smear campaign ads, McClintock tried to paint a decorated Air Force Lt. Colonel who served in every armed conflict from Vietnam to the Gulf War, whose wife is also an Air Force Veteran, and whose son was and is currently serving in Iraq, as unpatriotic.
Carpetbagging - McClintock could not vote for himself in the election because his legal residence was not in the district in which he was running.
Scumbag - Just my personal opinion.

Anonymous said...

One thing I've come to appretiate as I've grown up is how the humanists stand firm in their beliefs that mankind should be helped out of the horrible conditions we find ourselves in. Especially when the church fails to do their job, humanist are right in their still fighting for the betterment of society as a whole. Thanks!

Holytape said...

I think the Hitch Hiker's guide to the galaxy had the best explanation about politics:

The major problem — one of the major problems, for there are several — one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

Noah and the Dinosaurs

Brother Phil said...

Where are all these new people coming from? Oh, and why does Anonymous seem to have a split personality?
Hmmmm.
Well you know what the Chinese say.
我的猫被命名一顿小快餐。

Brother Phil said...

The Chinese also say 我喜欢吃美国饭可是我放屁.

Laurie said...

Phil - I don't think all Chinese name their cats Pretzel.
And luckily Chinese food doesn't do that to me...

One of the Anonymous is actually related to you. I'm pretty sure the other isn't.

Brother Phil said...

Hey, what the heck happened to my post?

Brother Phil said...

You don't like my Chinese wisdom?

Brother Phil said...

Well huh. I was just looking at some of your poster's profiles and was wondering why one has cancer, then I noticed that a couple suffer from libra, one has capricorns, and another has some disease called "sagittarius." I can only imagine what that does to your sagital region or your itarius region or whatever it is.

Brother Phil said...

Oh, and Laurie, please don't post my sign. It gives people more information than they need.

Laurie said...

Sooo Phil, how much have you had to drink? Isn't it past your bedtime?

By the way, his sign is NEON!

Brother Phil said...

Email I wrote to a less experienced cow-orker:

You must learn patience young Hart.

Patience and self-discipline.

And organizational skills. Definitely organizational skills. Organizational skills will help you travel through life as if on a boat traveling down a smooth river.

Patience will let you rest while others pace. Self-discipline will let you enjoy the simple things such as the subtle flavors of a cup of rice wine when others drink so fast they cannot taste. Organizational skills – the boat thingy on a smooth river.

You must learn patience to let you rest while others pace, self-discipline to let you enjoy the simple things, and organizational skills to help you travel smoothly through life, and harmony with your fellow man. And women. Harmony with your fellow man and woman. Not saying you need to take singing lessons. That would be silly. Just try to get along with everyone is what I'm saying.

So.

Where was I.

Ah yes, patience, self-discipline, organizational skills, and harmony with your fellow man (and woman). And inner piece. Inner peace. Did I say piece? I meant peace. Without inner peace, you cannot be at outer peace with the world. You can only appear to be at outer peace while inside you fantasize about stabbing someone in the eye with a sharpened bamboo stick. Stabbing and twisting and ... um... Inner peace. Maybe some deep breathing techniques.

Patience, self blah blah blah some other stuff and inner peace.

Only then will you achieve your goal of enlightenment.

Anonymous said...

Great speech by Tom McClintock in the House, by the way. I think Calderon was way over the line. Tom is the only one who had the guts to stand up and call him on it.

Brother Phil said...

Wait! I completely missed the point of this posting. William sure is sneaky. He managed to slip a request for money into your blog posting.