Friday, December 26, 2003

Just So You Know . . .

It is not cool or smart to be a Republican.

Republicans are greedy, self-serving war-mongerers. As much as they want to hide their avarice behind remarks about tax-cuts, freedom, and free-markets, it is a lie. Republicans are only interested in helping themselves and their rich friends at the expense of working Americans. They have never lowered your taxes, they have only raised your taxes and given your money to the rich. They have dismantled services meant to help all of America and given those funds to wealthy Americans.

The difference between a powerful nation and a great nation is how it treats its citizenry, ALL its citizenry. It is cool to help others. It is smart. It makes the world, you, and your nation, a better place.

Since the rise of christian conservativism, America has been slowly eliminating social services, public safety and education funding while cutting the taxes of the rich and beefing up corporate subsidies. If you work for a living, your taxes have not gone down, they have gone up. This is not cool. This is not smart.

This agenda put forth by the Republicans has been a failure. It is not cool or interesting or even good. It is bad. Republicans and their primary supporters, the christian conservatives, are bad people and they are destroying your nation.

If you vote Republican, you support the rise of christian fundamentalism.

If you are a Catholic or a Jew or Muslim or a Jehovah's Witness or a Buddhist or a Hindu or an agnostic or an atheist or anything besides a white, born-again christian, and you vote Republican, you are voting to put in power a gang of thugs who want your beliefs to be marginalized and your voice to be silenced.

If you are a person of color, or a woman, or a homosexual, or a non-English-speaking citizen, you do yourself a disservice by voting Republican, because the christian right that has taken-over the party has no interest in anything but your financial support of their agenda, which includes your marginalization.

No matter how bad any of the other parties might be, they are not co-opted by the whackos who have made the United States the world's largest christian fundamentalist nation. No matter what the other parties are doing, they are not attempting to abridge your constitutional rights one insidious little step at a time. What the christian conservatives are doing to America through the Republican party is frightening, and each time you vote for them, you are making the world a much worse place.

The United States used to be a great nation, now it is a powerful nation.

Too bad.

Not cool.

Not smart.

Peace.