(November 21, 2017 at 11:23 pm)wallym Wrote: Plenty of people support Moore, which is disturbing. But there are plenty who will vote for him, and dislike him. If a vote for a candidate endorsed everything about every candidate, we'd all be monsters. We don't get to pick who we want to be in office. We get two of the very few people who run for the office as picked by the majority of both parties to choose from. But in terms of governing, it can be boiled down to one who will vote with the party you like vs. one who won't.
Barack and Hillary both said marriage was between a man and a woman in 2008. Does that make everyone who voted for them bigots? Did voting for them mean you were against gay marriage? That's just how voting works here. You don't get what you want, you pick for the least worst option in trying to get what you want out of your government.
Obama actually supported Same Sex Marriage as far back as 1996. I think for him, it was a matter of strategy to appeal to voters in a country where, sadly, the majority are Christians who are in fact bigoted against same sex couples. Obama and Hillary were both clearly also people who appeared to be able to evolve on the issue--something Republicans have shown they are incapable of doing on any issue. (Gun Control, Taxation, Welfare, The Military Industrial Complex...)
You never, for example, heard Obama or Hillary Clinton say... "The Gay Marriage Ruling is worse than the Dred Scott Decision" or "Homosexual conduct should be illegal".
No candidate is perfect. But supporting a candidate like Roy Moore should, for decent people, be an occasion which causes people to take a good look at themselves in the mirror and question their views long and hard. But you don't see most Republicans ever doing that. They stick to the trickle down reverse robin hood theory of Ronald Reagan. You see most of them cling to the 2nd amendment, as if it's the ONLY amendment, and that any gun regulations (despite having regulations regarding even the 1st amendment) are unreasonable to them.
Looking at more than just what Roy Moore has done -- but why they so badly want that one seat in the Senate. And it's not so they can make sure more Americans are covered by Health Insurance (in fact, they want LESS Americans covered). It's not so they can make sure that there's a safety net for Americans (they want to take away the safety net). It's not so they can uphold Net Neutrality (they want to do away with that, and will be successful shortly--despite an overwhelming majority of Americans opposed to that action.) It's not so they can be fiscally responsible either -- after all they are the party that will gladly cut taxes, and cut welfare, and cut food stamps -- but with the other hand build a wall that is nothing more than a symbol. They will gladly increase Military Spending by outrageous amounts, all the while American citizens are starving or going without healthcare--including our Veterans who've participated in the many wars we've been involved in. And who do they mostly want to cut taxes for? The rich, of course. ANd not just the rich, but the Super Rich. The poor and middle class will get short term relief, but then when the time comes for the bill, the poor and middle class will be screwed once again. Because the Republicans are only beholden to their donors.
When a party elects the likes of Roy Moore -- and indeed Donald Trump (who is nothing more than a con artist, a fraud, a narcissist, a sexual predator, and a liar) they aren't doing it for the good of America. They're doing it to impose their will on others. So they can force the 13 year old rape victim to carry her rapists baby. SO they can force the black athlete to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. So they can deport Dreamers who've known this country as their only home and have paid their dues. So they can give the rich more of the wealth than they already have.
These are the things the Republican Party stands for. And Americans may think otherwise--some may be fooled by the rhetoric of the Politicians in their fancy suits. But you know what they say about being fooled. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. And it's been well long enough to see that the Republicans are frauds who support bigotry, and hatred. Of course it's easy to ignore that hatred and bigotry when so many of them share those beliefs. The hate for the blacks, the gay, the poor, women, men, children, the Muslim, the atheist, anyone who's the least bit different from them.
I simply can't, and won't view people who continue to vote these people into office in a good light. Even if they dislike the Democrats for whatever reasons they may have, there's always another option. And I know there's another option because for a long time I took that option. There's more than just two parties.
Republicans love to tout themselves as the party of values--and then show they truly have none. Nor do they have principles. And apparently Republican voters are okay with that. And that's when I begin to wonder why. Why do they want to take healthcare away from millions of Americans? I mean surely if the Affordable Care Act isn't doing it's job, the Republican Party would come up with a solution. Yet, we've seen time and again that they haven't even bothered. They only want to repeal Obamacare. Apparently in the years we've had it, they have been sitting twiddling their thumbs instead of coming up with a plan. (And of course they chose not to give any input to it, because they wanted to oppose anything Obama did. Including nominating a Supreme Court Justice, and refusing to allow him to fill it. )
We hear them talk constantly about how Obama was a Kenyan Born Muslim (without proof, I might add, which suggests a hint of racism to their actions). Of course, we can't even take them at their word that they truly care about that, because i'm sure if it came out that Donald Trump were born in Russia not a single conservative would care. Just like they cared when Obama played golf, but don't care in the least that Trump has played more Golf than Obama did.
The party is filled with racists, homophobes, and bigots of all sorts. People who will gladly revere the confederacy, all the while proclaiming just how patriotic they are and how unamerican liberals are . People who will ignore facts when they are inconvenient, and shut their ears to all dissent. They'll deny science, and even do their utmost to make sure science loses their voice (because shutting people up is the best strategy they have).
So even if they aren't xenophobes, homophobes, bigots, or racists (and that's being generous, as I feel most Moore supporters fit one of those 4 categories, with Stupid being a 5th option that's not really any better) they support him in order to either:
-A. Give tax cuts to the richest 1% of Americans, while cutting Welfare and raising Military Spending
-B. Build an expensive wall that's nothing more than a symbol
or
C. Take healthcare away from millions of Americans.
How very noble of them. You'll excuse me if I refuse to believe those people are good by any measure. In fact I would find them -- as someone else once put it -- deplorable.
The whole tone of Church teaching in regard to woman is, to the last degree, contemptuous and degrading. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
