Today is the day we go to vote in the 2010 midterm elections. The results of this election will reverberate far beyond our localities; they will affect the entire country and indeed, the entire world. We are half-way through the term of a Democratic administration that if it is not as far left as some would wish, is still what this country needs to free itself from the lawlessness and mal-administration of the previous Republican administration. It is important to remember when you vote what you are casting your vote for (and against). If you vote Republican, these are the things you are voting against:
Women – It’s strange when you think about it: the party that claims to be against government interference in our lives wanting to give the government control and authority over women’s bodies. But that’s what they want. They want government out of THEIR business – quite liberally, out of corporations business – but they want government in YOURS. They want the government to regulate morality AS THEY SEE IT. Government interference is just fine and dandy if it’s the kind they approve of. Meanwhile, corporations can pollute all they want, treat works as shabbily as they want, offer you no benefits of any kind, including health insurance and retirement, and pay no taxes while reaping huge profits and benefit packages for the CEOs and Boards of Directors who are robbing you blind.
Free Speech – this is another one Republicans pay lipservice to but which they’re not really interested in. Their operative definition of free speech is their right to say anything they want. The other side has absolutely no right to be heard in response, either to question or to challenge, or to make their opinion known. President Bush liked to stack the deck by speaking only to friendly audiences; he refused to answer questions. John McCain and Sarah Palin upped the ante by refusing to allow questions to even be asked. Joe Miller and Rand Paul have questioners beat up or arrested. Most Republican candidates decline to appear on networks that will actually ask them questions and some refuse even to engage in debate with their opponents.
Education – Republicans hate education and the Department of Education has become a focus of that hate. During the Bush administration, the Republicans declared war on science and on environmental science specifically. Republicans want everyone to be educated either via a church-sponsored Faith-Based program or at home via a Christian homeschooling program. They do not want you educated; they want you indoctrinated. They do not like science and a modern country that cuts science out of the equation is sentencing itself to third-world status and increased fatality levels from pollution.
Environment – Republicans hate the environment. Those who do not hate it on the grounds that it threatens corporate profits oppose it on religious grounds, in the bizarre and mistaken belief that God will fix the environment, or that the Parousia (End Time) is arriving, making the environment irrelevant. The recent Gulf Oil spill is an example of what will happen if we continue to have a largely unregulated oil industry. The Bush era EPA even claimed it did not have the right to protect the environment, which, of course, is its mandate. How far we’ve come since the days of Nixon, who established the EPA.
Law & Order – The Republicans don’t like the Constitution and they don’t seem to like any law. We have seen how a Republican administration tramples rights and tortures and deprives people of their supposedly inalienable rights under the Bush administration. It won’t get any better, only worse, if they start calling the shots again. The Republicans plundered our government and they plundered the American people to line their pockets, and when anyone speaks up, they get their head stomped on or they get handcuffed by Party thugs right out of the 30s.
Workers Rights – The GOP – what MoveOn.org calls Republicorp – doesn’t want workers to have any rights. The only rights belong to America’s corporate masters. The average citizen will have to subsist on the scraps tossed their way. Workers are not entitled to a living wage let alone benefits of any kind. FOX News calls this “The War on Business” – that is, anything to do with making corporations pay taxes, obey regulations which protect the environment and not only the consumer but international economic stability, provide benefits and a fair working wage.
Democracy – Republicans aren’t interested in democracy. They are interested in privileging one particular ideology – their own – and outlawing all others. Remember how when they lost in 2008 they claimed to be a “government in exile” and claimed that the lawfully elected Democratic administration was an illegal usurper government. Republicans favor corporate owned government, and even foreign owned government; in short, any government that can be bought and owned and which is not answerable to the public.
Social Security and Medicare – The Republican party wants to do away with these things, eliminating any realistic chance that workers will be able to retire and survive while rich corporations and their wealthy Robber Baron CEOs live in the lap of luxury with Golden Parachutes waiting for them, and Republican office holders raise their salaries and enjoy socialized medicine.
Freedom of Religion – The Republican Party has become the party of one narrow-minded sect of conservative Christians and they want everyone to have to believe as they believe and live by their laws – their religious laws. A Republican government believes that the First Amendment says the opposite of what it actually says, and that the Founding Fathers somehow intended to establish the United States as a Christian theocracy.
The Constitution – We’ve mentioned Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion above, but we might as well throw in the rest of the Constitution as well. Republicans hate the Constitution. The only parts they show any liking for are the Second (right to bear arms) and Tenth (states’ rights) amendments, and some of them have suggested doing away with ALL the amendments. They claim to be fighting for it but they offer no evidence at all. Nearly everything they want out of this election is in some way unconstitutional. None of this is surprising when it is considered how little Republicans know about the Constitution.
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