I'm Voting Republican

[scandal 951]

Who brings a gun to a pillow fight?

Even the folks at Lego understand the Leia fetish

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

So what if they do lose big or small time? Big deal. My question is, who is going to be better off? What policies are going to shape the next couple of years that will make a positive difference to the USA? Or, is it simply enough to be anti this and anti that without making a positive contribution to anything? If so, that's real easy - sign me up!

Your problem is that you believe that someone can be "better off" based on who wins an election rather than what they can do for themselves. I mean, really, WHO has the most power to affect YOUR life? Your elected politicians or yourself? Who will do it faster, better? WHO makes a positive difference? ME. Alla. And you if you want to. I greatly improved my situation in the last few years myself. Alla improved our income by marketing her translation and interpretation to more clients. Including the government that pays her for interpreting for people that are applying for welfare benefits. Ironic, isn't it? There is NO recession in our house. We just had a very nice 3rd vacation of the year, including two to Europe, this one was "domestic" in nature except for cutting through Canada to save some miles driving.

As for myself and my family, we do not depend on government to improve our income, provide for our healthcare or our retirement. We make money because we have skills people are willing to pay money for. We worked to earn those skills. If we improve the marketing of our skills, we make more money. I do not ask the government for permission or wait for them to overcome a filibuster. So you do not need to be "signed up", you can do it yourself right now. No politicians needed.

I am anti-government where government is not needed, which is most everywhere. They do a pretty good job of taking our trash every Monday and though it is a little more expensive than going to the dump myself, I gladly pay it.

Edited October 25, 2010 by Gary and Alla

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Even the folks at Lego understand the Leia fetish

That's hawt.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Vote for none of the above. Neither party is any good.

[scandal 951]

Vote for none of the above. Neither party is any good.

Vote for Peyton Manning. He's very, very good.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Vote for none of the above. Neither party is any good.

True.

Dems will lose.

[chri'stina 190]

Vote for none of the above. Neither party is any good.

Honestly that's how I feel a lot of the time. I like to think of myself as more centrist, not right wing, yet this video makes me cringe.

It's almost all a load of #######. Yes there are obvious ideological differences between the parties. But many democrats don't even support making gay marriage legal on the federal level, many republicans shop at small shops and support local, organic food and mom and pop shops. So I guess no democrats shop at Walmart, right? These kinds of videos, made by either side, do nothing good for this country or us as a people.

[scandal 951]

Honestly that's how I feel a lot of the time. I like to think of myself as more centrist, not right wing, yet this video makes me cringe.

It's almost all a load of #######. Yes there are obvious ideological differences between the parties. But many democrats don't even support making gay marriage legal on the federal level, many republicans shop at small shops and support local, organic food and mom and pop shops. So I guess no democrats shop at Walmart, right? These kinds of videos, made by either side, do nothing good for this country or us as a people.

Hear hear. The things that unite Americans are so much greater than those that divide us.

Yet to hear the vitriol from those who keep spewing this rabid partisanship, as though the gulf between our political parties is all that defines us, is truly nauseating. Are they really so one dimensionally obtuse, or is it all just an act? Sadly I think the former.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[Peikko 1,575]

Your problem is that you believe that someone can be "better off" based on who wins an election rather than what they can do for themselves. I mean, really, WHO has the most power to affect YOUR life? Your elected politicians or yourself? Who will do it faster, better? WHO makes a positive difference? ME. Alla. And you if you want to. I greatly improved my situation in the last few years myself. Alla improved our income by marketing her translation and interpretation to more clients. Including the government that pays her for interpreting for people that are applying for welfare benefits. Ironic, isn't it? There is NO recession in our house. We just had a very nice 3rd vacation of the year, including two to Europe, this one was "domestic" in nature except for cutting through Canada to save some miles driving.

As for myself and my family, we do not depend on government to improve our income, provide for our healthcare or our retirement. We make money because we have skills people are willing to pay money for. We worked to earn those skills. If we improve the marketing of our skills, we make more money. I do not ask the government for permission or wait for them to overcome a filibuster. So you do not need to be "signed up", you can do it yourself right now. No politicians needed.

I am anti-government where government is not needed, which is most everywhere. They do a pretty good job of taking our trash every Monday and though it is a little more expensive than going to the dump myself, I gladly pay it.

What are you wittering on about now? Are you saying that you have zero interest in the competence and aims of any of the candidates seeking election as government officials on the basis that you personally think the majority of government is unnecessary and so they should not exist? You really have no idea how crazy you sound, do you?

[Peikko 1,575]

As an aside, better off in the context I asked the question does not simply mean more dollars in ones pocket; there are all kinds of ways to be better or worse off that are directly dependent on the decisions and actions taken by our elected officials at county, state and federal level; pretending that the only useful function performed by government is garbage disposal (which of course you could do better and cheaper if you could be bothered, what a surprise) is just asinine, but asinine does seem to be what you do best.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

As an aside, better off in the context I asked the question does not simply mean more dollars in ones pocket; there are all kinds of ways to be better or worse off that are directly dependent on the decisions and actions taken by our elected officials at county, state and federal level; pretending that the only useful function performed by government is garbage disposal (which of course you could do better and cheaper if you could be bothered, what a surprise) is just asinine, but asinine does seem to be what you do best.

Dems will lose.

At least this you seem to understand.

And the way that the state races are going it will be Republicans that control the redistricting after this years census.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

As an aside, better off in the context I asked the question does not simply mean more dollars in ones pocket; there are all kinds of ways to be better or worse off that are directly dependent on the decisions and actions taken by our elected officials at county, state and federal level; pretending that the only useful function performed by government is garbage disposal (which of course you could do better and cheaper if you could be bothered, what a surprise) is just asinine, but asinine does seem to be what you do best.

which way(s) for you and your family to be "better off" are better handled by the government and not by you? I feel that myself and my family are better off (in many ways) than we were a couple years ago due to our own actions, things WE did. Maybe I am special. Myabe I am the only one that can do this because of my superior intelligence and karma, because if I am truly asinine, it would seem an un-asinine person could do even better. Silly me.

So fill us in in how I will be better off (or worse off) depending on the outcome of this election?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Wow, it's like liberal humanism never happened. Presumably garys preferred state of being would be as some sort of feudal chieftain, lording it over the peasants and extolling the god given rights of Kings and the ruling class.

Libertarianism as bigoted narcissism = priceless.

[Peikko 1,575]

which way(s) for you and your family to be "better off" are better handled by the government and not by you? I feel that myself and my family are better off (in many ways) than we were a couple years ago due to our own actions, things WE did. Maybe I am special. Myabe I am the only one that can do this because of my superior intelligence and karma, because if I am truly asinine, it would seem an un-asinine person could do even better. Silly me.

So fill us in in how I will be better off (or worse off) depending on the outcome of this election?

Geez Gary, do you have any concept at all of all the areas of daily life that government handles? Whether or not government (and by that I mean the elected people that WE choose to handle state and federal affairs that are many and numerous and most of them entirely necessary) should be in charge of as much as it currently is or private enterprise depends on one's point of view but even if you do view government as intrusive and too big you at least have to acknowledge that there are certain requirements for a country to be competitive in the global marketplace, no?. Perhaps as a libertarian you advocate privatising everything up to and including the armed forces? Sewage collection? Water distribution? Infrastructure planning, development and implementation? Agriculture? The penal system (I know some prisons are run privately and look at the record, positively radiant right) Immigration? The court system? Social services? Education? Postal service? Libraries the list goes on and on.

You may well be superman and can be all things to your family (Dr, lawyer, politician; a virtual if not actual demagogue although frankly I'm a total skeptic judging from past performance) but the average father acknowledges that they are finite and not omnipotent and delegates many tasks to other people. The costs of this is only affordable by some form of collective payment system. In the private sector this generally mean that only the median profitable segment is catered for. If your needs lie outside of these boundaries they will not be met, or you are required to pay a premium (more or less affordable dependent on myriads of factors). What government systems can and often does do (the postal service used to be a fantastic example of this when written communication was vital) is provide the same service at the same rate no matter whether you are in the median quotient or at the periphery.

Now, I understand completely that where there is power, there is often corruption, but the beauty of a democratically elected government system is that the 'people' have a chance to direct the board of directors. In the private sector no such checks and balances exist. Therefore it seems only rational that at least a minimum of services are provided via government (suprise suprise what we have in the US today) and it is EVERY CITIZENS OBLIGATION to take part in the democratic process in a spirit of choosing the best politicians at least at the pragmatic level to ensure that the US government is the best that it can be never mind if you personally would like to see it changed materially in its breadth and scope. Simply laughing on the sidelines is arguably treasonous.

More than that I'm not a candidate, I'm not promising anything post election (unlike you). I asked you what you thought a Republican win in house or senate would provide in terms of general benefits to the average US citizen; and conversely as you are not a proud GOP member (or so you keep on claiming) what will be the downsides in practice as apposed to all this mindless rhetoric the average candidate spews in their relentless and nauseating advertising campaigns?