Quote from: kariann330 on July 04, 2015, 05:02:35 AM
Face it however you shake a stick at it republicans are better for this country than democrats ever will be.
I've spent quite a while holding my nose and voting Republican because their deal-breakers are less odious than the Democrats' deal-breakers. I'm not entirely sure that's true anymore.
The U.S. is currently experiencing what has frequently been labeled "the weakest economic recovery since WW2." This is the polite way of saying, "the weakest economic recovery since FDR bungled his way through the Great Depression." The common thread there is the Democratic Party. Labor force participation is abysmal, and looking at the U-3 and U-6 numbers makes it clear the only reason the reported unemployment rate is going down is due to people giving up even looking for work. Black unemployment hasn't been this bad since the 1930s, which doesn't help race relations any more than Obama saying stupid stuff like, "The police acted stupidly" or, "If I had a son..." Democrats love to foist racism off on Republicans, but it was Woodrow Wilson who fell in love with Birth of a Nation in between his party supporting the Confederacy and watching the Republicans do the heavy lifting for the Civil Rights Act. Obamacare remains a bad hybrid the Democrats went dumpster-diving for and then spent years complaining about how the Republicans(!) don't have any ideas. As Obama himself said, should we institute a housing mandate to end homelessness? Putting it charitably, this administration hasn't done much to improve the party's generally poor reputation on foreign policy. This is a party that openly boasts about wasteful spending--as Tip O'Neill proved. Gun control is actually a prime example of why the Democrats have no idea what the rule of law means. The U.S. needed a Constitutional Amendment to ban alcohol--alcohol, for crying out loud--and then a second one to make it legal again. Even if you accept that gun control would be a positive thing (which is its own discussion), how does a reasonable human being conclude that in a legal environment which requires a Constitutional Amendment to ban alcohol, we
don't need a Constitutional Amendment to ban firearms--which are explicitly protected by the U.S. Constitution. It's a classic example of how--even if you accept the premise that the Democrats are correct on an issue--they don't respect the rule of law. This total package is a very solid reason to never vote for the Democrat.
This is not to say that the Republicans are much better. Their track record on LGBT issues is a complete train wreck I don't need to explain to this forum. Their history says the only time they think about Austrian economics is when campaigning, and they spend the rest of their time trying to produce pork. It's possible to talk about secure borders without being a racist, yet somehow they have trouble doing so. This obsession they have with abortion forty years after the issue is over is just bizarre. While it's true they haven't produced the corrupt machines like Tammany Hall, they've produced a Randy Cunningham for every Huey Long and some of the most sensational examples of corruption (Teapot Dome, really Grant's entire cabinet) in American history have Republican fingerprints on them. Personally, I just watched my Republican Congressman bail out my boss after some illegal activities, which was pretty disappointing. As the Democrat idol Roosevelt has some gaping flaws, it's worth mentioning that the "Party of Lincoln" lionizes a guy who had the army round up the state legislature of Maryland and then spent two years (1863-65) running Indiana as a virtual dictatorship funneling money directly to the governor so the state legislature didn't need to be called into session. If it's true--and it is--that the Democrats are reduced to running absurdly unqualified novelty candidates, I can't think of a Republican candidate who can open his mouth for more than 15 seconds without disqualifying himself from getting my vote. As disastrous as Obama's foreign policy is, I can't pretend that Bush's "With us or against us" was worth repeating either. Say what you want about Democrats wasting money, the last Republican President I'd trust with my wallet was Coolidge, and the last candidate was Goldwater. While the Democrats keep trying to do the wrong thing the wrong way on gun control, the Republicans try to do the wrong thing the right way with an amendment against gay marriage. There's an argument that actually makes them more dangerous. Honestly, if they could tell the difference between politics and religion I'd say about 70% of their deal-breakers would disappear, but I'm not betting on that happening anytime soon. Add it all up and voting for the Republican is pretty indefensible, too.
Actual strengths of either party? Not much. Even after Clinton signed DOMA, the Democrats win the LGBT question pretty much by default and the Republicans win economic policy and 2nd Amendment pretty much by default. The Republicans are too involved with the evangelicals to make a serious move on the LGBT issue and the Democrats don't understand that the business of America really is business. It's a realistic position to say one is important to you and the other benefits society as a whole more, but I can't pretend both parties aren't in the pocket of special interests. Republican rank-and-file rightly complain openly about the "donor class" buying candidates. Democrats do seem to have a blind spot that the reason tort reform didn't find its way into the ACA was trial lawyer donations, but watch them go nuclear at the words "Wall Street" if you doubt they understand the problem American politics has with money.
Honestly, it's the ogre's choice (the polite way of saying it's a Hitler-Stalin question) and I understand why people get emotionally involved with defending their choice. I think we do have to understand neither party really ranks as "good" in the final analysis. I've about abandoned voting if I lay all my cards on the table. This is why we get annoyed with one party's failures after a while and bring in the other one until we figure out they're not really any better. Right now the Republicans have a majority of governors' offices, state legislatures, House, and Senate seats. That does make them relevant. They've got a good shot at the White House in 2016, especially given the Democrats refusal to field a legitimate candidate yet again. They will lose all/most of these things due to their own incompetence and venality, wander the wilderness for a bit while the Democrats demonstrate their own incompetence and venality as they have the last few years, and then come back without having learned a %*$@ thing. It's the American way.
