So, part 2 finally came out online. I had an excuse to sit around at my desk and make wire dragons while listening to the fascinating debate and taking occasional notes. They started the show with each of the people they were interviewing saying a word about what they thought the republican party was about. Justice. Freedom. Accountability. Principles. Restraint. Integrity. It sounds pretty reasonable. I can agree with all that.
The first 10 minutes or so was criticize the democrats time. While we were watching the democratic convention the newscasters were complaining that the democrats weren't attacking the republicans enough. There were none of those complains at the republican national convention and I don't think anybody listening to this program would complain along those lines either (unless they were a democrat).
Some of the ideas that were stated:
- democrats are too controlling; they tell you what to eat, where to smoke, where to go to school, what to wear
- democrats put race labels on people and hold them back
- less individualism more state-ism
It was made very clear that the people speaking thought the government should stay out of the way. There was lots of talk about how government programs didn't really work and just took up a lot of money. One young man brought up the point that people should be more self reliant. In his opinion people shouldn't depend on the government to help them, they should go out and work hard for themselves. He said something like, if you depend on the government you stay stagnant and don't grow as a person.
Another guy's idea was that it's more compassionate to teach people how to help themselves than to keep them down and just hand them checks. Several people made the connection between the government handing out checks to specific people and slavery. They said it was like keeping people enslaved to certain rules in return for money and such.
One of them pointed out, and I definitely agree with him, that the two parties have very similar goals. They both want a country of rich, happy, smart people who can boast to the rest of the world about how great they are (ok, he only said that they have similar goals but I'm free to inject my own thoughts here right?). However, the democratic approach versus the republican approach to get to that goal, are very different. Very, very different.
I think the common goal is a good one. And some points the republicans make have good common sense behind them. Likewise to some of the points the democrats make. So it's now time to bring out to cosmic mixing machine. Bzzzzztt. Hurray! The perfect politician!
Facts on Both Parties:
- In the early 20th century the political animal was a eagle for the republicans and a rooster for the democrats (in Midwestern states at least)
- the republican party was created in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery into Kansas
- the democratic party evolved from Anti-Federalist factions opposed to Alexander Hamilton in the early 1790s
- apparently the reason the democratic symbol is a donkey is because Andrew Jackson was labeled as a jackass by an opponent during intense mudslinging of the 1828 election
- Abraham Lincoln was the first republican president
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