I'm a Conservative Har Har!

And, a big "Yeah, right" to boot.


Where do you fall on the liberal - conservative political spectrum? (United States)
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(Via, The Poor Man)

Pfffft!

Look, my political views are all over the road. The only thing that comes remotely close to labeling my views is "Libertarian Democrat," with all the contradictions that implies. True or pure Libertarianism is unworkable for a society such as ours. If the world were made of many tiny peaceful nations, all say only 200 miles wide by 200 miles high, and no one was insane or evil, and if it weren't stacked against having children so much, then libertarianism would have a chance. I'm a Democrat for the most part, but the loony left makes that embarrassing sometimes. Simply put, I believe in public education, universally available health care (whether it's private or govt., I don't care, just let everyone in), support of the infrastructure, a strong military, a balance between monopolies and overreaching unions (meaning we should have neither), and a government that's committed to individual rights and privacy. Our biggest shames right now are the Patriot Act, civil asset forfeiture, and the drug war.

The quiz didn't even ask about education. I think public education should be available, for free (through taxes, of course), up through the graduate/vocational degree level, meaning a bachelor's degree or a certification in some field. After that, yer on yer own. Gradual school will be paid for by those who so choose.

And vouchers. Gad. Feh. What a horrible, horrible idea. Let's hope that the fact that it's been voted down every single time it's been offered via the vote (as it should be) will limit or stop the spread of this wing-nut cancer. If "deregulation" of big business, particularly energy and radio, has been a good thing, I've yet to meet one person outside of the owner of a corporation who thinks so. Vouchers are just a tax scam, plain and simple. Very rich people* want their school taxes back to subsidize keeping their kids away from the riff-raff, knowing full well no one else will gain admittance to their private schools and the taxes removed from the public education coffers will make things worse. I do not want my tax dollars going to a private school, particularly a religious one. (Keep in mind I'm a Christian.) You just watch, if vouchers actually get implemented universally, the next phase will be, "I don't have kids, I should get my taxes back." And if you believe in vouchers, don't come whining to me what that last step happens. Hard-core, righty wingnuts simply do not believe in public education. They want folks kept stupid and impressionable. Lack of education helps in that effort.

(* I have nothing against the rich like some liberals do. They throw great parties, for one. I'm happy folks have achieved wealth, and hope I will someday, too; even though I am very wealthy judging by international standards. However, public education is a public contract as far as I'm concerned; and anyone, particularly anyone with money, who wants to pay for less than their share of the roads, schools, and other public institutions is a moldy little schmuck who deserves to be trapped on a long, substance-free road trip with Ralph Nader in a Geo Metro (since Corvairs are all but extinct), through the mountains, with nothing but, "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch," playing incessantly on the stereo.)

About the most right-wing thought I have is that someone needs to go through the ranks of the NEA and expunge the Marxists and the Identity Politics goons. We need that agency, but it's got to be about educating kids in the basics, not getting them on-board early with the loony left's politics.

I'm increasingly of the opinion that our American government at this moment is about as far from "the will of the people" as it can get. I don't share the loony-left's idea that we are on the verge of fascism, or the wing-nut that it's all the liberal's fault and if we would just let them privatize everything and let them run things, we'd be OK. It's been an especially scary decade after the wing-nuts got away with using millions of our tax dollars attempting to hound a competent, popular president out of office via trumped-up scandals (and finally succeeding with a perjury trap), and then having the supreme court install their party's candidate during a tainted election. Scary stuff. Our media downplayed that hell out of that, but it gave the rest of the world (and quite of few of us here in the states) a big case of the willies. If America can have an election manipulated to that extent, where one party cares more about winning than letting the voters decide, then it points to how fragile things really are. It's like finding out dad is really Tony Soprano, to an extent. (That's just an example folks; Bush is not a crook, k? Cheney is, though.)

I think the world's current view and negative reaction to our war in Iraq has more to do with our current situation regarding our "leaders" than it does with the war and the intentions behind it itself. They (portions of the international media) are wrong whey they try to compare Saddam, a truly evil man, and Bush as two sides of the same coin; that's just misguided propaganda. Bush is not evil, and I think the administration's reasons for getting into this war are genuine and honorable (meaning they really do want to stop Saddam before he can nuke someone, like us). But the boys running America right now have been waiting for this kind of chance since the Nixon administration, and it's disconcerting to see what they are doing now that they've gotten the chance. We will have a lot to answer for once all the abuses Ashcroft has committed come to the surface; he'll probably end up indicted over something.

I sometimes wonder how long it's going to take to get America back once they're out of office. It seems to take about 7 years to recover from a bad president and administration.

And, of course, the world will not care that we managed to prevent Saddam from nuking someone, which he surely would have. There will be another resounding lack of thanks, but we're used to that, aren't we?