Friday, July 23, 2010

Should Libertarians Support the GOP or the Tea Party?

In a word, "No!" The conservative movement has been subverted by the Religious Right. No self-respecting Libertarian should ever embrace the homophobic, anti-choice, and anti-individual liberty positions inherent today in both the Republican and Tea parties. Libertarians should instead make it clear that their position on all of these social issues is "Our bodies, our choices" and that the social moderates in the Republican party need to get up off their backsides and muzzle the “social nanny state” pretenders that are currently running their parties, before we will join with them.

I would rather see Obama win again than to elect someone who thinks that what I put in my body, how I choose to end my life, how my daughter, wife or friend deals with an unwanted pregnancy, or who my friend Jim wants to get married to is any of their goddamned business, or is anywhere near the proper place of government to determine or to interfere with in any way.

Libertarians used to be up in arms about "men with guns" dictating how you live your life, but somewhere along with the discussion about charter schools, we became infected with some of the rhetoric of the Religious Right. I say "Bullshit!"

You can't be pro-prohibition and be Libertarian! You can't be against assisted suicide and be Libertarian! You can't be anti-choice and be a Libertarian! You can't be against same-sex marriage and be Libertarian!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Tea Party Versus Republican Party

Listening to their positions, I have to say that the Tea Party candidates are pretty much the same as the rest of the Republican candidates. They are all cut from the same cloth, woven by the Religious Right ("Your body, my choice,") which fails to understand the sanctity of Individual Rights, and which supports the un-American idea of putting Individual Rights up to a vote of the people.

They are the American Taliban and they deserve to lose their respective races. They will deserve consideration by Liberty-minded Americans only when they understand that their social conservatism is their choice, for themselves and for their families, but when they attempt to force their religious beliefs on others and conspire to abuse the power of government in this way, they are diametrically opposed to the intent of our founding fathers and are guilty of nothing less than Treason.

David Rogers

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Will "Turning Back to God" Save Our Nation?

Some say that “God gave us this nation and we need to turn back to God to save it.” Wrong! If anything, America the land, was "given" to the Indians, not to us.

America the Beautiful, the country and the idea, was given to us by our founding fathers and the founding documents they created, while standing on the intellectual shoulders of men and women who led the way before them. That gift has been preserved since with the blood, sweat, and tears of many, and while some of these men and women drew their inspiration from religion, “praising the Lord” has never directly contributed a damned thing to this earthly creation called the United States of America.

It is, after all, an earthly creation. What is directly responsible for our success as a nation is a collection of ideals and principles, involving equality, freedom, and responsibility, and the resolution to live in accordance with them. It matters not if you live these principles in the name of God, Allah, Christ, the Buddha, Krishna, Humanity, or the FSM. It matters not if you live them in the name and company of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, or gluttony. Living a life resolved to those ideals and principles is a necessary and sufficient condition to work toward saving our nation.

Turning to God is something that might help motivate and focus the efforts of some Americans, but not all – belief is not universal. For this reason alone, it will not save our nation. Insisting that "turning to God" is the answer for all America is parochial and divisive. I hold that this insistence is one of the most un-American forces at play in politics today.

Many living today are too young to remember, but up until the 50's we pledged allegiance to this country without invoking religion. Arguably, the country has gone to crap since the words "under God" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in the 50's. Why is that?

The flag (and “the country for which it stands”) is an earthly creation, not a heavenly one. This creation is based on the reality of our living together and prospering as a nation, rather than on any belief system about creation and eternity. Conflating the two has been the source of much evil, and much of the division today between people of good will is due to those who insist that their religious views should somehow have precedence over the founding documents and guiding principles which created this “Shining city upon a hill.”

All we need to do as a people to save this nation is to live a life in accordance with our founding ideals and principles. We need no reason or justification other than the fact of who we are - we are Americans.