I eat politics and I sleep politics, but I never drink politics
Also, let�s celebrate Paula�s good news by leaving her a comment or note.
I think it is important to remember when we examine politics and examine them in these forums that we remember a very important point about politics and political affiliation.
Your political affiliation is tied to your value system. Your values shape your attitudes towards everything in life, this is especially true of your political leanings. Your politics, even if you don�t have any, are a reflection of who you are and what you value.
Then you look at statements that talk about how conservatives are trying to force their morality on the country, their views and their values. This is a valid statement but it is only half of the coin and part of the truth.
When our government makes, interprets or enforces a law it is saying what is moral or immoral at least at the civic level. The government is dominated by conservative leaning leaders: elected by the people or appointed and then approved by elected officials. You can�t say �Bush isn�t my President,� that�s high ignorance � Gore�s refusal to have Florida recounted as a whole was a lot more shady than anything Bush could have blundered in Florida and that�s mute at this point as Gore conceded and Bush was sworn in and the popular vote isn�t what counts and never has been. My point is, you may not like our leaders but they were chosen by time tested democratic methods that are the fairest in the world.
When you say, �Because I don't understand why conservatives seem to want to control every aspect of America's private life. I don't see why they feel the need to be the moral policemen for the nation.�
The government is the moral police of the nation, as the people who tell us what is moral at a civic level and what isn�t. This is a common complaint after the Jackson/Timberlake brouhaha with a common misunderstanding: beyond the FCC�s mandate to monitor the airwaves and the content, it isn�t about personal morality. Your rights don�t get to infringe upon mine. You have the freedoms of press, assembly, religion, press and to bear arms � you don�t have the right to infringe upon other people�s rights. The point is: boobies don�t belong on the public airwaves and you may not have a problem with it, but is respecting the fact that I don�t want my kids to see it so hard? We should be more appalled that the show was boring in content than sexual.
The �want to control every aspect of America�s private life� wasn�t the issue there nor is it the conservative agenda. If you honestly wanted to understand conservatism or why their politics are the way they are you�d first have to respect people with contrary opinions.
Just think how far we could get in the abortion debate if liberals understood that conservatives were working from a stance of protecting what they consider lives as opposed to this sinister and arbitrary desire to prevent women from making decisions on their own and conservatives bothered to care that people who are �pro-choice� are working not from a desire to rip babies out of uteri and make them into sandwich salads but from a stance of wanting to protect women�s freedom, in general, to chart their own medical destiny? This is one clear example of this but there are many. I hate George W. Bush or I hate William J. Clinton seems to have eclipsed people�s ability to reason.
I was well trained as a debater by one of the finest liberal minds who is also one of the best debate coaches there are. I know to look for other people�s points of view and to respect them. Some days I think only the students of Dr. Renea do this.
I�ve read in a lot of diaries lately about how conservatives are this or that, as a conservative I�m offended not only by the comments but by the ignorance behind that. I know that helderheid is shut down but there are a lot of other diaries that thrive off of posting half-truths and innuendos, I�ll also admit that another entry about this is pointless and will go unread.
The funniest part of this? Our most conservative conservatives and most liberal liberals are really just extreme moderates compared to other countries politicians
