Those of weak constitutions may want to turn away

I spent the last two days sleeping at the church house, which was a little surreal. As a shelter, it works pretty great for us, quiet, cool, not too crouded, comfortable, and filled with people i don't mind spending several hours around. It gave me lots of time to read and play risk and do all sorts of fun things. At one point, while playing risk, someone brought up politics and was slamming Obama, not on any relevent issues or attributes or policies (well, they called him a Marxist, but whatever) and it got me thinking. I really don't understand people. Not at all.

A quick aside: I don't talk about politics generally, because I don't feel a need to alienate myself from people who might hold idiotic political beliefs. It doesn't help that i call their beliefs idiotic, so it's generally best for me to avoid stuff like that, however, this is my blog (oh, and a quick shout out to my Uncle Ken, who might be joining the ranks of people vaguely interested in what's up with me), so prepare yourself for:
RANDOM POLITICAL RANT 2008!!!


Anyway, back to the point, i don't get people. I don't see how people don't recognize how terrible the Bush administration have been, and that it isn't just them. It's not like Bush is this crazy rogue republican that has somehow betrayed the party into going somewhere it didn't want to go. It seems as though the Republican party molded him into what they wanted him to be. I don't understand how people don't see through the lies and half truths that are our election process. Factcheck.org should be required reading for anyone wishing to vote.

There was this girl I knew whose family firmly believed that Obama was the antichrist, or at least a antichrist. First of all, how absurdly melodramatic is that? Secondly, as someone who thinks Obama has a good chance of changing our country from the embarrassing, hypocritical joke it has become in international and domestic affairs, the idea that he's conspiring with the armies of evil is a bit far fetched.

But i'm not talking about them really, i'm talking average, decent people who i generally respect but who still firmly believe that voting republican is not only the best thing to do, but the only morally correct thing to do. A party whose two basic principles are legislating morality and helping the rich to become richer at the expense of the poor. A party who has lied without blushing in order to start a unjustifiable war. A party who has somehow managed to claim my religion as theirs. I really just don't get it.

I should say now, that i don't think voting republican is somehow morally wrong, and i don't think all republican politicans are bad people, i'm sure most of them are great people. I just don't see how the idea that those born into poverty deserve it, and those given a free ride should be helped along, became synonymous with conservative moral values. It bugs me, especially, that Mormons vote so unanimously Republican.

This seems a good a place as any to tackle morality (heh, attacking morality, i must be a democrat). I share a lot of beliefs with the conservative demographic. I'm generally opposed to drinking, smoking, pre-marital sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, homosexuality, all manner of lasciviousness, and most types of fun. That said, i strongly support personal choice and accountability. I don't think that our government ought to be in the business of creating laws to enforce my, or anyone else's religious beliefs. I think morality and religion have to come from somewhere other than the government.

By the way: Whats the deal with capital punishment? A book i read had a long discussion of the obvious contradiction in supporting the death penalty and opposing abortion. I don't think we, as a country, should be killing people generally. And trying to make a distinctions to say when it's ok to kill people and when it's not is pretty slippery, as far as slopes go. Whatever happened to loving our enemy, turning the other cheek, and judging not. Preventing crime is important, but the death penalty has always seemed a little too much like revenge to me.

These are the types of things i would say if i didn't care about offending people, or if i had a few political vertebra. Most of this came out of reading a some political discussions on my family's website, and an overabundance of free time over the past couple days. Maybe later i'll make a more autobiographical post, but i think i've vented enough uninformed teenage angst for one post.

~Ovaltine <- (this isn't actually completely random, gold star to anyone who understands why)

P.S. - I found out today that the republican vice-president lady has an unmarried teenager who is pregnant. Now i'm not saying that that will have any major effect on her merits as vice-president. i do think her own 4 month child will. A lot of people are talking about how great she is because she knows what it's like to raise children, especially one with disabilities. But if she's planning on moving across the country to take on one of the most important offices in the world, all i see her knowing how to do is being prepared to leave her a child in the care of someone else for her own career. hm, that's pretty cold. I almost took it back, but then i found out she doesn't believe global warming is man made, and supports aerial hunting of wolves (so that there will be more mooses for hunting, duh). I don't think all this prying into candidates personal lives is necessary or healthy, but i think a lot of people do. I also think she was a terrible choice for McCain and seems to be almost construed to undercut his message in every way possible. If he needed a woman to pander to whiny Clinton die-hards, it seems like he could have chosen someone who was qualified for the job, and who had a little less baggage. Bonus points would have been awarded for picking a woman who wasn't the ideological opposite of Clinton, but why should that make any difference? Silly people.