So I was poking around on Prairie Flounder‘s site, and ran into a comment by the Progressive Conservative. Being somewhat libertarian-minded and socially progressive, as well as loving a good oxymoron, this piqued my interest. I followed him back to The Big Stick, a blog espousing a back-to-Teddy-Roosevelt variety of Republicanism that seems to be enjoying a renaissance of sorts these days.
Did you know that to be a proper conservative these days you’re expected to hold four separate, contradictory opinions on the value of human life? You are to be pro life in the womb, pro death penalty, anti assisted-suicide, and pro war. The precise opposite holds true for progressives. You are expected to be pro abortion (pro choice is a euphemism, let’s face it) , anti death penalty, pro assisted-suicide, and anti-war. This is why when Bill Bennett brings up the abortion issue as something that needs to be talked about in the Obama vs. McCain choice coming up in November, I cannot help but chuckle. It’s a wedge issue, something career politicians dust off every couple of years to drag the rubes into the polls. The Republicans won’t get rid of Roe vs. Wade. It’s against their interest, because the existence of that precedent keeps a lot of people punching that “R” on their ballots.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Democrats would have you think they’re against global warming, particularly with their former front-man and recent Nobel laureate Al Gore leading the charge. Do you know who was in charge of nixing every new nuclear power plant for eight years while vice president? Same guy. Thank him for all the brand-spanking-new coal-burning power plants belching greenhouse gasses into the sky. I think we are currently living in a golden age of political absurdity, where the environmental conservationists rape the land and those religiously convinced that every life has an immeasurable sacred value promote slaughter. Maybe we just need more progressive conservatives. Or maybe some conservative progressives.
This is truly an age in which beliefs should be replaced by ideas. As Kevin Smith put forth, an idea is easy to change. Just as every issue that presents itself in this country cannot be described as black and white, neither should our own opinions about those issues be so bilateral. Wouldn’t it be grand if every decision in government could be made by logical reasoning, in contrast to stubborn beliefs and self-interest?
Democrats always seem like a bigger hypocrites to me not sure why, maybe they like more drama, i.e. wreck a summit or something. Republicans are scumbags too but in a more civilized manner, when they are not blowing up abortion clinics.
that is a huge cock!
@Jase: the semantic difference between belief and idea is being stretched pretty far by Mr. Smith in that context, but there certainly is a lot of wiggle room between the stark black and white strawmen we construct for ourselves.
@Meesha: Oh, there’s plenty of hypocrisy to go around. Whatever budgetary or market situations we find ourselves in, our politicians stay at least hip-deep in B.S. The Republicans want to keep the bulk of their base scared and the Democrats want to keep the bulk of their base poor. If you can’t be part of the solution, there’s good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
@Chunkbot: Does your love of cock know no bounds?
There are definite set boundaries. As for the post… I agree, and so all I had left was to comment on that guy’s gigantic cock.