GOP Debate

I’ve made a pretty solid effort to minimize how much attention I pay to politics this year, for a variety of reasons. Presidential politics, much like professional sports, has the ability to control your emotions but you have no real control over the outcome. It is just a mathematical reality that your vote for President means basically nothing. There might be a weak argument that putting in work during the primaries can pay off, but this cycle that doesn’t seem to be the case. But, a group of us got together with a bunch of booze and a drinking game sheet so we decided to watch the shitshow.

To be honest, that debate terrified me. The whole stage (sans Rand) was filled with people who are willing to murder innocent civilians and implement draconian policies to restrict our rights. It was an interesting situation where in an attempt to be strong they preached paranoia and cowardice. It is a cowards move to take away freedom because you are scared.

Besides, much of what they said would be impossible to implement and likely unconstitutional. But the GOP candidates don’t really care about that. They see themselves as a benevolent paternalistic dictator who could keep us safe if only we would obey their orders and let them chain us inside our homes. Over and over again they said keeping Americans safe is their first duty… as if that type of control over a population is possible or even desirable.

In order to guarantee 100% safety from “terrorism” (whatever that even means at this point) they would have to put in place a North Korean level police state. Borders would need to be closed, communication monitored and restricted, economic bans on certain items put in place… it would require complete control over the lives of every person in the country. The reality is, you can’t guarantee safety. There are always going to be incidents and uncertainty in the world. It is ironic that conservatives will point to the rapid decline in violence in the country when the gun debate rolls around, but then they will turn to the state to protect them from terrorism as if that is some sort of imminent danger in our day-to-day lives.

It is this kind of crazy shit that makes me want to leave the United States. There are other countries that are more free, have lower taxes, and safer from internal fascism. Many of the candidates kept saying that America is the greatest nation (or that we need to return to some magical time when America was great), but that simply isn’t true. There is no objective measure in which America is the greatest, or probably even in the top 15 at this point. You can’t say we are “free” when we have the largest prison population in the world. You can’t say we are “strong” when we are terrified of every shadow on the wall, will sacrifice our freedom for security, and act like a insecure schoolyard bully.

The world is safer now than it has ever been. Yes, there is an incredibly small chance that a terrorist act could happen, but that chance is so small that it should have no effect on how we live our lives. And we certainly shouldn’t sacrifice our principles, rights, and basic humanity in order to minimize it. I don’t know how anyone on that stage can call themselves Christian and support the policies they talked about. No true follower of Christ would support killing innocent people, engaging in racial profiling, or locking the hungry out of the country. There is just now way around it, if you are supporting any of these GOP candidates and call yourself a Christian then you have sold out your faith in exchange for politics.

The Future of the Grand Old Party

 

There has been much debate within the conservative movement about what to do moving forward. I believe that if the Republican Party is to be viable at all it must make some serious policy positions changes that would actually realign themselves with the small government, Constitutional federalism that they claim to support. Now, I want this to happen because I am a libertarian who does not think the 2-party system will ever allow a third party voice. They control the media, the funding, and the debates. The rules will always change to prevent the Libertarian Party, Green Party, Constitution Party, or any of the other parties that have valid thoughts on the proper position of government. In order for a third party to gain any control the entire Constitution would have to be modified to allow proportional representation.

Anyway, that’s off subject. In order for the GOP to be viable they need to actually do what they say and change policies to reflect their philosophy. These few things I think would help:

• End the federal war on drugs. Any conservative can easily say “I think drugs are bad, I wouldn’t want drugs legal in my state, but it is not a federal issue. If those hippies in Colorado want to smoke pot the federal government shouldn’t take money from my state to stop them. Let each state deal with the consequences.”
• Introduce real immigration reform. Free markets means free movement of goods, services, and labor. Work to end the ridiculous process for citizenship and simplify the whole process to allow those who want to work to work within the system
• Stop talking about marriage. Social issue does NOT equal government issue. The “sanctity of marriage” is not being damaged by it, if you think your love for your spouse is being damaged by someone else’s love then you have personal issues to deal with. Also, if you somehow think that gay marriage will equal pedophilia, beastiality, or whatever you need to really think things through, there is a huge difference between consenting adults entering into an arrangement and an adult trying to marry a non-consenting child, animal, or object.
• Disobey the 11th commandment. Reagan’s 11th Commandment (Thou shall not speak ill of another Republican) is stupid. If someone says something batshit crazy the GOP should pull funding and call them out for it. Stop circling the wagons in the name of party unity.
• Actually be small government. That means military cuts and ending crony capitalism. Stop bailing out favored industries, stop subsidizing, stop building bases across the globe, and start actually practicing what you preach.

I think the first four would go a long way to actually helping the GOP be a viable party again that might somewhat reflect libertarian principles, and that’s all I can really hope for. These moves would actually attract younger voters, female voters, and immigrant voters. The era of the old white man running the government is coming to an end, the GOP needs to stop being neo-con corporatism light. If people want big government they will go with the Democratic Party, if they want small government right now they will stay home because the Republicans don’t actually offer a real difference. You can support social conservatives and still not ask for government interference in the bedroom, you can support business without subsidizing it, and you can support a strong national defense without invading every nation which creates more enemies.