Sometimes I think I’m a little too hard on them.
- Bailing credulous homebuyers out of their lousy mortgages is not the role of the federal government. The government should ensure that parties abide by their contractual agreements. If you didn’t like the terms, you shouldn’t have signed five times and initialed thirty places in front of a notary. If your bank is violating those terms, then it’s time to get the government involved.
- International trade is, on balance, a good thing. Protectionism generally leads to the kinds of international relations that yield wars. There is a trade imbalance between the United States and several notable nations, but when you purchase something from a store, there is a trade imbalance between you and the merchant. He profits and gets your money. You get a good or service that you felt was worth at least as much as the money you paid for it.
- You’ll pay whatever the oil companies demand for gas. Your gas prices may be affected by market speculation and big-money manipulation, but fundamentally you’re being charged what the market will bear. You’ll know when they’ve crossed the line when you stop buying it. This is not a position that the Republicans are keen to shout from the mountaintops, but that’s just because economic populism sells.
- Competition works. Well, it works when there’s real competition, and there are some markets that simply do not lend themselves well to competition, in which case the government will have to step in and make sure the natural monopolies keep things above-board (the Democrats largely agree with this, but there’s a lot of common ground).
- Beefy Austrians make for interesting governors.
- Guns are cool.
tongue-in-cheek or for real? because all is true.
http://burrowowl.net/shimmie/view.php?image_id=17049
It’s for real. These are political positions held by the Republican party, not held by the Democratic party, that I feel reflect a healthy respect for individual liberty and the general welfare, two things that our government is intended to protect and promote whenever possible. There are a number of shortcomings to their other positions (such as their unnatural concern about what I may or may not be doing with my penis). Many of these good policy positions are also held by the Libertarian party, but to an extreme that I feel is generally counterproductive.
Ehh… yah, but that’s all a very simplified and streamlined way of summing up. Except for your last point. That’s spot on!
The thing that makes me itch is that these are not really Republican tenants that you have written here, but conservative tenants. Big difference these days. I consider my self to be a conservative. I do NOT consider my self to be a republican. My own personal view is that the the republican party has sold its soul and become a flesh eating zombie, just like the democrats. If I was pressed into a corner and made to pick a party, I’d pick Bull Moose.
Everything done today in DC has a special exemption or kick back for whom ever the bill’s passer gets support from. I’m very much pro-trade, pro-competition and pro-working out problems on my own, but it isn’t the reality we live in.
To summarize, I believe, with out a doubt that if selling gun owners down the river would get the republicans the control they want for as long as they wanted… Well, I’d better get out my water wings and snorkel. They don’t care any more than any other Washington leach.
-Turkish Prawn
@TP: The distinction between conservative and Republican is all well and good, but there aren’t people on my ballot with “tax-and-spend liberal that wants your kid to be queer” listed next to their names; it says “Democrat.” And there aren’t any with “nosey moralizing spend-and-spend phoney conservative” either; it says “Republican.” It’s because of this distinction that I’m far more inclined to for capital-L Libertarian than capital-R Republican for any given office, but often end up settling for the Democrat because I dislike him (individually) less than the viable Republican competition (lesser of two evils approach).
Regarding Arnold: don’t blame me, I voted for Gary Coleman.
Well put. I’ve unilaterally decided that they are all lowercase “s” for “stooges”. I’ll give them their capital letters back when they can pass by a toilet with out fear of getting flushed into the sewer with all the other piles of crap.
I’m capital D, for Disgusted.
-tURKISH pRAWN
The only sane choice is the Guns and Dope Party.
@msilver: I’ll tolerate your hobbies if you’ll tolerate mine.
I will second msilver. The guns and dope party is the way to go.
It seems that we have a choice; we can vote for either the party that wants us to run to safety, or the party that wants us to run away from danger.
-pf