Reversing Progress: A Republican Dream
Watching the recent Republican debates here in the US has been quite insane. Not based on the fact that most of the candidates seem to have the IQ of a corn husk (besides, for the most part, Ron Paul and John Huntsman), but for the fact that their proposed agendas seem to focus on outlandish plans for: War, Isolationism, and Religion. Let’s get into these 3 topics really quick.
Cartoon of the Republican debates. Source: http://www.veteranstoday.com
War: The majority of the candidates are emphatic on waging war with Iran. How they plan on paying for it, how they plan on supporting our troops while there and, when/if they return, how they plan on supporting the Iranian civilians seem to be outside the discussion. The bottom line is, we are Americans and the lives of others don’t matter (i.e. over 1,000,000 civilians killed in Vietnam, over 100,000 civilians killed in Iraq). Based on many of the candidates saying they want to continue building our military and even go back into Iraq, their care for young Americans going to fight seems to be non-existent. This is where I must give Ron Paul his due. His anti-war statements are right on as we should be diverting that “war” money to rebuild and get our own country in order.
Ron Paul. Source: Gage Skidmore on flickr.com
Isolationism: “We are the greatest country in the world and everyone should know that,” is a major theme with these guys. Their arrogant attitude continues to push other countries away from us while we need cohesion now more than ever. We need to understand that we are a part of a larger world which means we are all directly and indirectly dependent on each other in many ways. We don’t want to kill or get killed for no reason!
Religion: I would say that religion is the backbone and main driver for these candidates. I would argue that many of their views are forms of Christian extremism. They need to wake up and remember that we are a multicultural country now and we need to live in 2012 not 1800. They always say, “This nation was founded on Christian principles…” Well, it was also founded on slavery, female discrimination and religious intolerance.
One of the main topics was reversing the right for a woman to get an abortion. Besides denying a woman the right to make her own decision regarding her body and life, this plan has deeper ramifications that I would ask these candidates. If the woman is raped, a drug addict, or underage what happens? The foster care system is already in shambles in this country, where 1 in 4 youths exiting foster care become homeless here in America. Who will support these babies if the mothers can’t and the government can’t? Republicans want to take away any assistance to already existing mothers in this case. They also play abortion off like it is an easy decision and is comparable to going to the mall. The mental and physical effects women face before, during and after the procedure is very difficult and painful.
Republicans still think homosexuality is contagious and by reading Sodom and Gomorrah every night before bed they are steadfast in their beliefs. They think that if kids see a married gay couple on TV, they will decide to be gay. It is quite funny when you have these old men arguing for “maintaining the sanctity of marriage” when as a society, our marriage sanctity went out the door years ago (i.e over 50% divorce rate). We can just look at the men in the American government, who have been caught thus far, and see that they have burned the bridge of marriage sanctity long ago: talking to you Newt.
This is in fact a Civil Rights argument, as we can look back less than 50 years here in America it FINALLY became legal for inter-racial couples to marry. As a 27 year old, it is pathetic and sad to me, on a human level, that our country has such a tainted past. The men in government back then were making the same “sanctity” arguments concerning marriage between a white woman and black man. Oh how quick we forget our history.
Corn Poll. Source: Phil Roeder on flickr.com
I always thought the future of a nation is reliant on the youth. By not hearing anything throughout the electoral process about America’s youth, we can conclude that these gents don’t really have a plan for the future of America. Hopefully in 30 years when these guys are all gone our generation can act like real stewards of America.
The actually homeless rate of youth exiting foster care is higher than I noted…Up to 50% of former foster/probation youth become homeless within the first 18 months of emancipation.
Yes, I spent a large portion of my later life working with children and families including the homeless. The increase of homeless children is a dreadful sign of the decay of humankind (in my opinion). Children are our future and when we cast them aside we are defiling our very beginnings and, or course, our future. Is this increase in the homeless child the warning sign. Do we even see it? Thank you for caring.
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