Just Think

When Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." he meant vigilance over our own government, not foreign governments.

No foreign government can remove your freedoms as an American citizen, only your own government can do that.

George W. Bush would have you believe that terrorists want to attack our freedom. The truth is that terrorists cannot harm our freedom, but our current Republican controlled government can, and has.

The fourth and sixth amendments are no longer worth the ink used to print them. If you do not recall, those amendments guaranteed your rights against unreasonable search and seizure as well as your right to be informed of any charges brought against you. You no longer have those rights.

This government has proposed, in the Republican party platform, to basically repeal the fourteenth amendment... the one that grants equal protection under the law. One of the two new amendments have been proposed in the 2004 Republican party platform, directly contradicts the 14th amendment.

The republican party is making 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the centerpiece of its convention in New York. I find it interesting that they believe a sound national defense can exist hand-in-hand with a failing national budget. A bankrupt country cannot field a fighting force and this administration, with their spend and spend economic policy, seem intent on bankrupting our government.

It is interesting that in this spend and spend more mode of the GOP that Bush has vowed to veto any proposed legislation that would actually pay for our troops, opting instead to borrow without a plan of repayment. Putting our country in so much debt that we cannot purchase necessary equipment or pay the medical expenses of our fighting men is not a good way to make our country safer into the future.

The GOP apologists will argue that our debt is a very small portion of the gross national product, what they don't seem to understand is that the GNP is not the government's income. The government can dip into the GNP "pool" of funds but the only means to do so is taxation. Like it or not taxes are the government's income, not the GNP.

At the rate that the national debt has increased in the last four years, it is disturbing to think how much taxation would be necessary to correct another four years of this spend, spend, and spend more administration.

I was a Republican from the time that I was 18 all the way through the 2000 election cycle. I don’t recall exactly when, but some time between December 2000 and March 2001 I re-registered as independent. Now I am registered democrat, here is why…

Parties can, and do, change over time. Let's look back to the Lincoln era; the GOP was the "abolitionist" party. Now... well, they aren't generally too well liked by the minority community. Conversely, the Democratic Party was the "pro-slavery" party at the time and is now the minority’s voice in government.

At the time of WWII the Democratic Party wanted to get involved in world affairs while the Republican Party wanted to remain isolated. Now the opposite is true, the GOP wants our troops in other countries, they give tax cuts to industries that outsource jobs overseas, and they encourage importation of goods/services (not that I think they are "all wrong" on any of that, there is certainly a balance that must be struck). The current Democratic Party wants less troop intervention overseas, tax incentives to NOT send jobs overseas, and encouragement of domestic goods/services.

The parties change. It is due to the changes in the parties that I have changed my affiliation.

• I believe in the right of citizens to vote and have their vote counted. The GOP no longer believes in that. The recount in Florida was mandatory by law and the GOP went to court to stop it from happening. That is what woke me up to the major shift in the party. It is irrelevant to me who would have won if the recount had been done. What is relevant to me is that the GOP went to court to stop the process that was laid out in the election law. The GOP was the one that didn't want to play by the rules of that election.

• I believe in sound economic policy with a balanced budget. The GOP no longer believes in that. This change is new in this administration. Spend, spend, and spend more is the Bush economic policy, combined with removing government revenue by cutting taxes.

• I believe smaller government is better. The GOP no longer believes in that. The government payroll headcount has grown under Bush by aproximately 15% according to the Brookings Institute and discretionary spending has increased by over 25%. For reference, under Clinton the headcount decreased and discretionary spending only increased by 10% in 8 years which is less than the rate of inflation.

• I believe in less government intervention in our personal lives. The GOP no longer believes in that. While in control of all three branches of government, the GOP has passed and enforced some of the most draconian measures in U.S. history. This administration approves of incarceration without charges, torture, and even wants to know what I'm checking out of the library. Under the leadership of the GOP, the FBI is now able to issue its own search warrents and people (even American citizens) can be held indefinitely with no charges, no access to counsel

• I believe in freedom of religion. The GOP no longer believes in that. The only religion that the GOP wishes to allow at this point in time is evangelical Christian. It is in the National GOP platform that they will use my tax dollars to fund religious charities. The Texas State GOP platform states, “The Republican Party of Texas affirms the United States of America is a Christian Nation". The National GOP has not questioned this statement.

I may still agree with most of what the GOP writes as their platform, but they've controlled all three branches of government for the last two years and have shown that they aren't going to stand on that platform. The budget is not balanced, the government is growing faster than ever before, the government is more into our personal lives than ever before, and the government is using my tax dollars to fund religious charities. The fact that this is happening with GOP control of the house, senate, presidency, and the supreme court tells me that this is systemic and not the fault of one or two individuals within the party.

So, basically, I am voting democrat because I believe in the republican values that existed prior to the 2000 election cycle. I believe in the right to have your vote counted, a sound economy, smaller government, less government intervention in our personal lives, and freedom of religion. You cannot get a change in party philosophy by continuing to blindly vote along party lines, you have to vote against the current philosophy in order to get it changed back to what it once was.

Perhaps someday, should the republican party return to its former core values, I will return to the party. I've learned what neo-conservative (new conservative) means... it means they are not conservatives at all, just extremists with an R by their name and I can't abide it.