I am a Republican because...

[GloriaInEleusis]

So many people seem to have a interpretation of Republicans that is no to me at all what we stand for. So, I'm copying this here in hopes that it might educate a few people.

I am a Republican Because...

I BELIEVE the strength of our nation lies with the individual and that each person's dignity, freedom, ability and responsibility must be honored.

I BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.

I BELIEVE free enterprise and encouraging individual initiative have brought this nation opportunity, economic growth and prosperity.

I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn.

I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least.

I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

I BELIEVE Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

I BELIEVE Americans value and should preserve our national strength and pride while working to extend peace, freedom and human rights throughout the world.

FINALLY, I believe the Republican Party is the best vehicle for translating these ideals into positive and successful principles of government.

I wasn't trying to be rude by using him in the prsesnt tense. I didn't know he had passed away. I'm sorry.

paula..no problem at all ..of course you wouldn't know..Getting too late for me, but hope all is going well with 'the little one'...

We're both opinionated that's for sure. Ha!

I still remember when my high school AP English teacher gave the class an assignment to write a paper about a controversial topic and I chose abortion..being pro-choice at a young age. Well we got the papers back without a grade, and the teacher said..ok..now the real assignment is to write it again from the opposing point of view. I (sorry to brag) was the only one in the class to get an A on the assignment. BTW, I wrote a paper only a pro-life person would love. This is before politics got all crazy with the abortion thing...I personally am againt abortion for all but the most necessary reasons, but what is necessary for me...a major disability might not be the same for someone else.

Fortunately, I've never needed to consider this dilemma and love DD with all my heart. Went on to become one of my state's greatest debators and won an academic scholarship for it...still can't keep my mouth shut.

...extending the olive branch...good nite

"I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least."

Probably why vast swathes of the population have no healthcare insurance and why it was mainly the poor and mainly African-Americans who suffered the most in Hurrican Katrina. I don't recall floods of aid coming in a hurry to help those poor people. Nope, they had to be shamed into doing something. What a great country.

Average American receives two weeks paid leave a year - yippee - great work/life balance.

The vast majority of the convicts executed are simply poor individuals who cannot afford an expensive lawyer: no wealthy person has ever been executed in the United States, no matter the crime. The death penalty is also partially to blame for the extreme violence of criminals, who know they face death if caught. Instead of deterring crime, the death penalty increase it.

USA is one of the richest nations in the world but it is also one of the meanest - gives away about 0.1% of GDP in foreign aid - I guess charity does begin at home. Check out the league table half way down - USA's position is shameful when you consider how rich it is.

As for its education system - OK if your rich- tough if your poor and if success was down solely to merit rather nepotism, no way would Dubya have got an MBA from Harvard.

The Government does provide medicaid to those who can't afford Health Insurance. Its about the same standard that you get here on the NHS.

If you have the grades there is no reason in the States that you can't go to University. Do you have any idea how many unclaimed scholerships there are out there evry year. Its all there for the taking. All you need is initiative and effort.

Georgie may have been helped by Daddy to get into Yale and Harvard but he is on his own once he gets there. He still had to earn his MBA.

I'm emailing the OP to my Republican family members!

I'm not a Republican, but I know people who are .

Hey! how are you feeling?

I've been better, ppp. But I'll feel a whole lot better when I get in to see the private consultant about getting this done in a more sensitive manner than off a labour ward.

It didn't happen today?

no, ppp, because they demanded i check into the labour ward to have pessaries put in and then lie on a bed for at least 3 hours - possibly longer - to wait to be called to theatre.

no day surgery unit for me because i couldn't get there for 8AM (ferry is on winter schedule and arrives at Gourock, a ways away, for 7.50)

and if you got bumped for emergencies and your procedure happened after 4PM, you are expected to spend the night.

on the labour ward.

and remain there until someone discharged you.

well, that's just BS to make a woman who has miscarried wait on a bed cramping in a labour unit. or spend the night in a labour unit after having an operation to remove her dead baby.

bollocks to that!

Oh, Expat. So sorry.

But good for you for standing up and saying um no, I'm not going through that.

(and I have the right Expat this time!)

Um, I don't think you get into Yale because you Dad went there. My Dad went there, but there is no way they ever would have even considered letting me in.

Well, as you know, Gloria, Americans aren't generally known for being the bashful type .

I laughed and laughed last night at this show called Bailiffs and Traffic Cops on BBC1. The bailiffs had clamped a French woman's car in London and she was trying to pay them. She quipped, 'You can't even breathe in this country without being charged for it.'

Gloria - If your Yale-alumni dad gave them a couple of million $$$s for a new wing to the library or something, chances are you would be admitted there. And I say this with knowledge of one such admission.

Expat I am so sorry, how can they be so insensitive!!!! I eho what Eleusis sai, well done for taking up for yourself. To be honest I would have been too shy. I hope this resolves soon. I'm thinking about you.

OK, lets address the "I BELIEVE government must practice fiscal responsibility and allow individuals to keep more of the money they earn." assertion.

Explainthis graph as an example of fiscal responsibility. To me, it looks like every recent Republican president has been completely irresponsible with the US Budget, running up massive national debt. Y'know, I always knew that Clinton gave the US a massive surplus for the first time in decades, but I never realised just how much debt he recovered from and how much of a surplus he delivered. Truly impressive. Shame your "fiscally responsible" Dubya spent it all and then some.

This graph also ties into this assertion "
I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations and that the best government is that which governs least." When these shopaholic presidents were running wild with the US chequebook they were spending it on the government, right? Y'see that doesn't sound like a government with its heart behind the whole governing less principle. Why would a government committed to lessening its influence be spending significant sums of money on itself, even running up debts to spend more on itself?

I'm agog to hear your deluded defences of these points.

am enjoying this thread no end!

I think you will find many Republicans who agree that George Bush failed to uphold fiscal responsibility.

However, you are giving CLinton self proclaimes and undue credit. Pardon the pun. The reson for his apparent success with the budget is largely due to the S & L bailout costing less than originally forecast. and also due to riding on a high economy through the dot com boom (much like Gordon Brown's success as Chancellor).

I do believe that fiscal responsibility is important, but that does not mean that no Republican has ever or could ever violate that belief. You are totally right that Bush spent too much money.

I ma hoping for a fiscally conservative and socially liberal president to follow Bush. Sadly, the vote looks to be heading towars socially bigotted and financially irresponsible fascists who have labelled themselves as Republican -- which in itself is enough to piss me off.

If we vote in a far right republican to challenge the Democrat, we best be prepared to say President Clinton ---- AARGGGHHHH!!!!!

I always said if Hillary ever became president I was going to leave the country. But, that's a bit of useless threat now that I already have.

Ok lets put this surplus myth to rest. You should recall that the Republicans dominated both the house and the Senate during most of Clinton's presidency. For the most part federal budgets and taxation policies reflected the agenda of a Republican Congress. Clinton was a figurehead, signing appropraiations and tax bills approved by the other party, claiming them as his when it all went well.

Sorry to be rude but what a ridiculous post.

Way to tell if the statement you are making is meaningless: see if putting a "not" in it makes any sense.

Try these two:

I DO NOT BELIEVE in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.

I DO NOT BELIEVE Americans must retain the principles that have made us strong while developing new and innovative ideas to meet the challenges of changing times.

You've posted a series of truisms and use that as proof that it makes sense to be a republican. You'd hardly find a mainstream political party in the Western World who wouldn't broadly agree with most of those statements.

The myth that he managed the ecomomy on a surplus comes from the government keeping two books.The audited accrual accounting conducted during his administation showed there was never a surplus. NEVER! In reality the annual budget deficits typically ran into the hundreds of billions. As with presidents who came before him the audited figures are disseminated to the public devoid of future social security and other obligations.

That this will also be the case with Bush makes me shudder abit actually

Generally speaking when someone starts a post with "sorry to be rude..." they aren't sorry at all or they would stop there and delete rather than proceeding to hit the "Post Message" button.

I think it is so stupid that anyone really thinks the delay in help for those people was because they were poor or black. There is a reason the evacuate people, besides for their own safety after an event like that it is hard to get back into the area. Now evacuation proceeders should have started earler, granted, but that is usually done at a State and local level. Not at a federal level.eWhat I would like to know is what happened to all the money given to the local governmentt, mostly democrat by the way, to shore up the levies years before.

Donosaur, you ccan find far worse typos than that in my posts surely. Especially embarrasing is when I type me in plce of my.

Now, had I typed in pedants corner, that might have been a relevant point.