The Turning of the Tide

So, we have a new president-elect.

He is a man of color, and he has some questionable ties to Islamic organizations. He has made statements in favor of the implementation of some kind of state-funded healthcare program, and he apparently hates guns.

This is not nearly reason enough to hate him.


I did not vote for Mr. Obama. I voted for Ron Paul of the Constitutional Party. However, I told myself before I cast my vote (after standing in line for 3.5 hours in order to re-register, because my original registration application was never processed...) that I would be happy so long as McCain/Palin did not make it to office.

This brings me to my point: I am tired of everybody who voted for McCain bitching and moaning, talking about how Obama is "not their president" or how they're going to move to Mexico. Seriously? STFU. Now you know how the other half of the country felt after the 2004 elections.

Your party fucked up. You may take this criticism seriously, because as libertarian-leaning individual, I normally expect to be attracted to the Republican party more often then not.

(For those of you who are not from the United States, the Republican and Democratic parties basically have a duopoly on our political system. Third parties rarely make it to any meaningful position.)

It is significant, then, that I feel entirely disenchanted withe the GOP. I can attribute this to four primary failings of the Republican party:

They pander to the religious right. Religious people by definition are at least a little out of touch with reality, and deciding policy because of this is not a good idea. Two specific areas come to mind:

• Gay Marriage: If people pay taxes, they have the right to get married. The only possible objection to allowing homosexuals to marry comes from a religious standpoint.


• Abortion: abortion is basically a property-rights issue once you remove religious influence. A property rights issue, that is, with a very clear-cut moral and ethical understanding.

They hate freedom. The Republican party is all about freedom, unless it's freedom of speech, freedom from unlawful search, and freedom from unlawful seizure. Terrorists are the new Communists.

They hate intellectuals. The nomination of Sarah Palin as the GOP's choice for Vice Presidential candidate was basically a slap in the face to anybody who has thoughts. If there are processes of higher cognition going on within your brainpan, Mrs. Palin does not represent you. She is a superstitious talking head, with no interest in discussing issues or resolving problems. She is, in short, the embodiment of everything thas is wrong with America today.

They don't care about the environment. I do not consider myself an environmentalist by the most popular definition of the word. I do, however, consider myself a "practical environmentalist"- I live by a simple credo, one that was passed down to me through my forebears and which has as much relevance now as it ever has, or ever will: Do Not Shit Where You Eat. Republicans would rather continue burning fossil fuels- purchased from the very people who hate us- than invest in new forms of energy and transport. This probably has something to do with their rabid anti-intellectualism (which in turn is almost definitely a product of their superstitious pandering), because only Evil Atheistic Scientists™ would accept the idea of global climate change or an impending energy crisis. Because these people have educations and are capable of logical thought, they are clearly not to be trusted.

The Republicans did this to themselves. If they hadn't fucked up so much, they might could have had the vote of the people they were counting on. It is unfortunate that there are people who believe that Mr. Obama is unfit for the presidency simply because of his skin color, religious affiliation (or lack thereof), or political ideals. These people remind me of cavemen.

Obama is not going to ruin the country- he can't fuck up more than President Bush already has. He already has his work cut out for him thanks to the economy and the war; he does not need the incessant, empty criticism of people who are bitter because their head-in-the-sand mentality was not catered to with another idiot of a president.