Political rant about teachers, [give reasons for your left/rightness] Options

[*CrackedRearView*]

I was told today by one of my professors that my political views "would be changing in about 10 years." Like I'm a malleable, unintelligent, one-track minded teenager...

I realize that over 95% of the United States' youth is wasted on liberals/conservatives without a cause, but I lie in the 5 percent who have reasons, and I'm absolutely sick of my school's teachers.

Over 3/4 of the teachers in this school support Kerry|Edwards, and express their liberal views in their teaching. Hello?

What happened to objective teaching?

And I get looked down on by most of my teachers as a stupid 17 year old conservative shaped by mommy and daddy.

1. My parents strongly advocate the Kerry|Edwards combo.
2. My entire family has voted democrat since as long as I can remember.
3. I have my reasons... which include:

TAXES: Conservatives don't want to abolish the tax system. The income tax is important (although, I've heard the idea of replacing it with a larger sales tax, which would mean that taxes are based on the amount of money you spend and corporate loopholes are eliminated, which is an idea that I think both parties would support. But moving on...). We just don't think taxes should ever climb to the Clintonian levels, which were much too high. Which brings me to--

WELFARE/SOCIAL PROGRAMS: A certain level of welfare and social programs is good. Sometimes people get knocked down and need a little help getting back up. The government should be willing to help teach people how to fish without actually doing the fishing. But there are a heavy number of things that people should be able to do on their own. Providing health care, saving for retirement and the like could all be done individually. If the government takes a smaller portion of your paycheck, and you use the money that they would have taken and put it into health care funds and social-security retirement funds like Bush proposed, you'll have more money and better coverage than you would if you let the government do it. And you make sure that the government doesn't have the option of taking that money and using it for another program and leaving you in the dust.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY: People seem to not want to believe me when I say that fiscal responsibility is a conservative position. Just because Bush racked up a deficit doesn't mean we all like deficits. I would love to see the deficit decrease, as would most other conservatives. This is how an issue flips sides -- liberals attack Bush on the deficit, conservatives defend him, and all of a sudden, fiscal responsibility is a liberal issue. So before that happens, I'll say again, I support fiscal responsibility.

GAY MARRIAGE: This is a tricky subject. A good majority of conservatives like the idea of constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage. Of course, a good number of conservative Democrats support the idea as well. The idea is that marriage is a bond that people enter to support one another and bring about children, and if gay marriage is legalized, then marriage becomes nothing more than an emotional commitment between two people. Then, what stops it from being between three or four or five people? Why even people, anyway? I could marry my dogs if I wanted to. You might think that's ridiculous, but 75 years ago, people thought gay marriage was ridiculous.

Now that I've proven that I understand the conservative logic, I'm going to say that I don't agree with it. If polygamy becomes an issue, we'll tackle it when we get there, and I don't think many people will support marriage between species. I don't have a problem with two men marrying because it doesn't affect me at all. I think its a question that should be left up to the states, but I don't support gay marriage bans.

ABORTION: I'm strongly against abortion. It is the issue that aligned me with the Republican Party several years ago. I'm not going to get into the different angles on why I think abortion is a sick and terrible injustice. I do think the country would benefit if organizations like Planned Parenthood actually supported alternatives to abortion rather than just functioning as an abortion advocate. I think educating people about other options could reduce abortions drastically, but I would support an all-out abortion ban. By "all-out abortion ban" I mean not just partial-birth abortion ban, but banning abortion of all kinds. I support making an exception in the case of the mother's health being jeopordized because I can't imagine letting the doctors sit idly by while childbirth kills my wife/girlfriend, and I don't expect anyone else too, either. Keep in mind, however, that this circumstance constitutes an incredibly small percentage of abortions.

GUN CONTROL: Another issue where I differ somewhat from the conservative positions. I think we need a little gun control here and there. I think background checks are good, waiting periods are good, and the assault-weapons ban is good. I also am a little bit weary of conceal-and-carry laws. I think people who pass background checks should be able to own guns and keep them in their homes for hunting, protection, and whatever else. But I don't like the idea of the guy in the car behind me pulling out a gun because he thinks I cut him off.

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: There was a time when affirmative action was needed. That time has passed. I support the right of businesses to practice affirmative action if they choose, because diversity is important in some businesses and in some parts of the nation. But I think affirmative action in college admissions and in scholarship awarding needs to go. I would like to see it replaced with a program of socio-economic affirmative action, where poor people of every race benefit from affirmative action to get themselves out of poverty, and more well-to-do people don't get unfair advantages. That way, poor whites and blacks can go to college, and more affluent minorities aren't given handouts that they don't need.

WAR ON TERROR: National security is the most important issue today. If we aren't a secure nation, all those other issues listed above become moot. Within reason, the government should never vote down a weapons program. Call it counterintuitive if you will, but having some stealth bombers and cruise missles in your arsenal, along with a couple nuclear missles, goes a long in keeping little terrorist states from going at you too hard. I wouldn't support the use of a nuclear bomb under any reasonable circumstance, but I think we should have them. For proof, look no further than the arms race at the end of the Cold War. Reagan kept building, and the USSR couldn't keep up, their economy collapsed, and the Soviet Union fell apart.

I think we should respect the UN up to a point. I think we should try to convince them to help us, as the administration did before the Iraq war. But if we perceive a real threat, we can't wait for the UN to give us permission before defending ourself. Our safety is more important than Europe's view of us.

I think the tragedy in Russia should remind us how real the threat of terror is and how an unprepared nation can face such tragedy. The Bush adminstration has prepared this country in a way no other country has ever been prepared to fight terrorism, and the evidence can be seen in the fact that we haven't been attacked in three years, despite the hatred and determination of foreign terrorists.

I have a pretty good grasp on the stances of most of the people in this forum...I'd just like your reasons why. I'll be interested to see which of you can provide them.

[*Libertie*]

I think what Justin means is that in order to get a Democrat in office in 2008, we need a moderate Democrat - a Libertarian, more or less. There's too much backing for conservatives right now, so a Liberal or a way-left Democrat wouldn't get far. I don't really fit into the Libertarian category, I'm much too liberal. And although I would be delighted to see someone like Hilary give it a shot, I just don't see it going very far. We can always keep our fingers crossed.

I think it's very ignorant (this is late, I know) for someone to tell you that you'll change your views in a few years.. The way I interpret that is "You don't know what you're talking about right now, so when you do you'll change your mind."

I classify myself as Liberal, the term Democrat is too broad right now. And no, it's not because I've been placed to the far left on the grid from several different political ideology tests. I guess it would be childish to say that I'm opposed to everything Bush has done during his administration, but sometimes that's how I feel. However, after hearing his address last night there were a couple of things that gave me a little bit of hope. If he means what he said about being less dependent on foreign countries for oil and putting in money for ethanol research, then amen. I'm all for that. I'm an environmentalist (although I do think that global warming is somewhat of a hoax, to an extent), and I am pro-choice on, well.. a lot.

Abortion/Gay Marriage: (yes, I combined them) I'm tired of hearing about this, seriously, but I don't think the issue(s) will be settled for a long time. =\ On gay marriage - just because a person is doing something that makes a few people uncomfortable doesn't mean they can't just suck it up and "treat everyone equally". And on abortion, if a woman is too young or too sick to go through a pregnancy, it's absolutely insane to make her. In both cases, completely pro-choice.

Gun Control: Okay, this is one thing that I feel needs to be regulated. I hear all the time about a guy being shot outside the mall, armed robberies taking place, someone accidentally firing a shot. How can someone be willing to sacrifice freedom to support the Patriot Act while at the same time complaining that gun control violates their liberties?

Other stuff.. I think Affirmative Action is somewhat of a cop-out. We don't see racism nearly as prominently today, and workplaces are plenty diverse. I think hiring (or accepting, in the case of colleges) should be based on most qualified, and in that way the diversity will come on its own without having to be forced. I gave my take on a lot of the stuff you mentioned, but there is so much more.. I'm a strong supporter of separation of church and state. I was against the war from the start, but I'm not saying we should back out now.. I'm just not happy with the on-the-fly decision made to go over there.

Okay, I have ten minutes to get to class now, but I may add more later. This is long though. =\