I've been thinking about this for over a week now. And my thought is that I would never want to use this blog as a place for a "rant." I want it to be an outlet of thought - whether you agree or not. If not, stop reading my blog. XOXO.
I was very disturbed to hear last week that someone thought that voting for McCain would be best for them because he would lower their taxes - that's it, he'd just lower their taxes. And his stance on everything else involved in the election doesn't matter because it doesn't directly
affect them. Reasons being:
a. The war is
over there, and not in our own backyard.
b. They are not a gay couple trying to get married.
c. And the abortion thing doesn't apply to them.
I have to say: they're wrong. I don't care who you're voting for. You're not thinking if you think this war doesn't have anything to do with us or affect us in every way - for many reasons.
Don't think because the war is being fought across the pond, that it's obsolete to us. And don't think that if we didn't fight it over there, that the war would be here. WRONG. We're fighting and being attacked because we bombed a country and a group that didn't attack us.
Iraq, Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda did not attack us on 9/11 - Osama bin Laden did. And he is still out there, and our president is doing nothing to find him. Don't forget that - and don't forget we're fighting the wrong war. That is why we are now being attacked - over there.
This war costs the country and its citizens:
Per Month - $10.3 billion
Per Week - $2.4 billion
Per Day - $343 million
Per Hour - $14 million
Per Minute - $238,425
Per Second - $3,973
Don't you tell me for a second this doesn't affect you. Every time you fill up on gas, or pay taxes at the grocery store or see more taxes come out of your paycheck - don't tell me it has nothing to do with this war and that the war has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with you. And for eight years we've had a president who has made this war,
his war. We have the power to change that in November. One nonpartisan analysis finds that with Obama's tax proposal - which doesn't call to raise
your taxes - the rich would pay more, and the poor and middle-class (you) would pay less. Under John McCain's plan, the rich would pay much less than they do now, the poor and middle-class would pay a bit less, and the federal deficit would grow even more.
So, yes the war affects you. Greatly. And I support our troops, but I do not support this war, and I have not since March of 2003 when we first invaded Iraq. And according to Sarah Palin, we're about to enter Russia, Iran and God help us on all the other "possibilities" she sees.
As for social issues such as gay rights and abortion: just because you might not be a gay American looking for equal rights or a person interested in seeking an abortion for the many reasons women may do so (because Palin is against them even in the cases or rape and incest), doesn't mean that these issues or
how they're dealt with don't affect you. Please, don't ever think that for one minute! The Republican party will preach about how they want less government involvement but two of their main goals is to overturn Roe v. Wade and to pass a constitutional amendment against gay marriage - bringing the government right on into your living room and bedroom. When you allow these things to happen - or elect those who will oversee it - you're giving government, federal and state, the power to make personal decisions for you. And you're fooling yourself if you think it will stop there. So, what do we have to do, sit back until our government turns into China and restricts the amount of children we can have? Then will you be interested in who our president is and the authority they will give themselves over our lives? It will never just stop with abortion and gay rights. There will always be a "next" topic, which could very much involve your lives directly.
There is no truth to the "shaking up Washington" that McCain and Palin are shouting from the rooftops. There is nothing they can do to shake things up in a land that is identical to what they preach now.
Here's what we don't want: We don't want your bridge to nowhere Sarah Palin, and we
never did. We don't want your extremist religious beliefs pulling books off our library shelves or telling us what we can do with our bodies or whom we can marry. We don't want you "lowering" our taxes while in the meantime steadily increasing our already outrageous deficit. We don't want more unnecessary wars started while you float around the country calling it God's plan you hypocrite! We don't care for your drilling in Alaska while you tell us we need to be more self-reliant on energy! Way to drill the little oil we have, if any, while destroying the wildlife refuge and increasing the country's dependence on oil. Set yourself up with an alternative energy plan and then go back and tell People.com you're an "adapter." Stop saying global warming isn't caused by human activity and don't ever undermine women again. How dare the McCain/Palin camp think that women could be so easily fooled into voting for them just because they placed a skirt next to John McCain.
Try again.
