Repocrisy

If you're annoyed by political blog posts, especially posts written by solid liberals, then I suggest you stop reading now and do something else.

If you're still interested in my political thinking, I welcome you to keep reading.

The title of my blog directly attacks the Republican party, and those who support it. I admit I didn't know much about the difference between Republicans and Democrats when I was in high school. In fact, I'm embarrassed to admit that when I was in college and W was president, I actually supported him and even enjoyed a few of his speeches, feeling proud to have him lead our country. That was BEFORE I realized not only the level of his stupidity, but also that his party was staunchly against equal rights for gay people...a community I accepted belonging to back in 2001. Coincidentally, today, March 12, 2011, I celebrate my 10-year anniversary of coming out as a proud gay man. Kiss my ass, W! KISS MY ASS!

So, there I was in college thinking W was pretty good, until I learned of Republicans' positions on social issues. That's when I started learning the difference between conservatives and liberals. For someone who's empathetic like me, being socially conservative is not only detrimental to society, but dangerous, too. Being socially conservative places many stigmas and labels on those who are marginalized in society, and it justifies many with prejudices towards any social minority to truly treat them in sub-human manners. And these are the same people who claim to be Christians (i.e., "followers of Christ").

For years, I had it in my head that Democrats were immoral people simply because they were the party that supported the woman's right to choose whether she wanted to keep her unborn baby or not. Growing up in a Catholic household, "pro-choice" is something that stigmatizes you in any Catholic community, which my hometown also is. Now, 10 years later, I see the Republican party for what it really is: evil, ignorant, greedy, careless, and selfish. But they use a façade of being moral people to cover it all up.

Republicans are pro-life: they want to pass laws that make it illegal to abort an unborn baby. This is probably the only part of them I support. Although, my own disclaimer I must include: I'd NEVER encourage a woman to abort her child, but it's not up to me, it's up to her. Many conservatives say, "It's not a choice, it's a child!" I agree with that, but there are many exceptional circumstances. Some women get raped or are victims of incest. Conservatives would argue that even in these circumstances, the baby doesn't deserve to die, which I kind of agree with, but I also see that it's not a life that was created out of love.

Republicans usually support the death penalty. See the irony here? They insist mothers keep their children, but they're okay with capital punishment. If you're pro-life, shouldn't you be COMPLETELY pro-life? What right do you have to tell a woman what to do with her child? It's her baby, not yours. What right do you have in terminating someone's life? Oh, but the guy is a serial killer. So, do we kill people to show that killing people is bad?

Republicans believe in "trickle-down economics" in which they give massive amounts of money (provided by us middle and lower class taxpayers) to the wealthiest people in America who own and run big (sometimes international) corporations. The idea is that with the extra money, they'll use it to build their business and this will create jobs. If you create jobs, the economy improves because people with jobs earn money, and spend it, and it's a big boost for the economy. Seems like the perfect plan, right? WRONG. These CEOs that get extra money for their multi-million or billion dollar corporations usually spend it on things other than their business. They'll give THEMSELVES bonus checks that they need to buy that new house in another part of the world for their annual vacation. And those jobs they could be giving to Americans go overseas to places like China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and others where labor is CHEAP. They do this so they can spend less on labor, and thus maximize their profits for shareholders. This is probably one of the biggest areas of the party I absolutely loathe. They give the wealthiest people in our country hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax cuts, and the people who pay for these tax cuts are the ones who need the money the most. What happens when you do this for over 10 years? America is now in debt several trillion dollars. As in, we owe more than this much: $1,000,000,000,000. That's 12 zeroes. And who gets to pay it back? Our kids. Yep. But...Republicans are moral people! They're Christians! How could they bankrupt our country and give the money to the people who are hoarding it all for themselves? But...they're supposed to create jobs with that extra money. Bullshit. Suffice it to say, Republicans believe profit is more important than people. Solution? Give the money to the lower and middle class who will spend it by buying things they need and want. When there's demand, supply can grow. The more business you have, the more it grows. The more it grows, the more jobs get created. The more jobs get created, the more spending happens. The more spending happens, the more the economy gets a boost. However, Republicans don't like giving middle and lower class Americans any money because to them, that's a "handout" when they need to be pulling their own weight in this economy by getting a job. Well, they'd get a job if there were jobs available! But sorry, all the jobs are going overseas so fortune 500 companies can make even MORE money...after the government already gave them big tax breaks.

This year, in Texas, Republicans are trying to pass a Voter ID bill that makes it very difficult to be registered to vote. The idea is that it enhances voter security to prevent fraud. This bill primarily targets the poor, minorities, marginalized societies, and young people. Typically, these demographics tend to vote Democratic. So, who isn't majorly affected by this bill? The elderly and gun owners - aka - the people who typically vote Republican. So, in a nutshell, Republicans want to pass a bill that gives Democratic voters major hurdles to jump through, and keeps it easy for Republican voters to cast their ballot. I don't know about you, but that sounds corrupt to me. But, Republicans can't be corrupt. They're Christians!

Now, in Texas, one of the biggest issues is teachers' jobs. Our state is facing a massive multi-billion dollar deficit, and the state is choosing to balance the budget by laying off teachers, because, you know, teachers are really expensive with all the money they make. It's not like they matter. They only work 10 months out of the year. So what if Johnny can't read very well? He'll get there. We believe in him. It's not like he needs to know how to read or how to do math to find a stable job in our economy. Really?! How did this shortfall even happen? Well, back in 2006, Republicans passed a law that changed how school districts spent money. They made districts cut about 10% of their spending. So, where did that money go? To corporations. But it was okay - the government was going to pay the difference to balance the budget. Well, that worked...for about 3 years. Economists were even warning that we'd experience a multi-billion dollar deficit in 2011, and the Republicans ignored the warnings and took money from schools and gave it to CEOs. Now who's paying the price for the deficit? Teachers and the students they serve. Our future. And this is the moral political party? I don't think Jesus would have done anything like this.

I've only touched the iceberg of Republican policies. But based on this alone, I have no respect for the party, and little respect for those who support them. All this can change, though. Do your homework and vote. After all, we're not the kind of country that lets corporations run our lives. Oh, wait. We are now, courtesy of your local and state Republicans.