Politics

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy 'ride'. I'm paraphrasing the incomparable Bette Davis in All About Eve for those of you who aren't movie buffs. I always try to give credit for great lines, I can be witty and creative, but I try not to plagarize. I'm sure that line was written for Ms. Davis by some talented screenwriter, but I'm too lazy this AM to go over to IMdB and look up who it was.

Anyhoo, on with the blog. Let's talk about my political stances and opinions since this blog is, after all, MY creation. I used to be a Liberal Democrat. I came from a family of "Middle-of-the-Road" Democrats and I think part of being a Dem was genetics. I believe being a Liberal, which IMHO isn't a dirty word, came from being a "child" of the '60s and '70s. For my younger readers, it was a time of incredible social change and upheavel! Growing up in those years of the civil rights movement, the beginning of the feminist movement, and the birth of the gay liberation movement; and being a teenager, I hopped on every bandwagon that rolled by. The sense of folks, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or the person to whom they are attracted, deserving to be treated with basic human decency and fairness has not left me.
Having said all that, I now need to make it clear that while I am no longer a Liberal Democrat, I am not a Republican, a conservative, a Libertarian or a member of any organized political party.

I think I enumerated my views, or enough of them clearly enough in the Blog on Barak Obama you get the drift that my opinions are eclectic enough that a totally new party would have to be organized before I would even consider joining. It would have to be Pro 2nd Amendment, because without a strong 2nd Amendment how will we defend our other rights, should it ever come to that?; Pro Choice or at least make it a state issue, rather than a National issue; enforce the illegal immigration laws we currently have and limit the number of immigrants we allow to enter our country. We are a Nation of immigrants, I realize that. But new immigrants need to bring skills and be willing to assimilate. There, I said it. If you want to live here, become an AMERICAN. Speak English, adopt our culture asa your own.
This new party would have to address the Criminal Justice system in new and unique ways. There will no longer be a "War on Drugs". We are going to legalize Marijuana, Cocaine, and Heroin. And tax them just like tobacco and alcohol are taxed now. And all that money is going to be divided into education and Medicare and Law Enforcement.
Drunk Drivers, one conviction and they lose their license for a year and get one of those devices that LawDog was discussing that won't allow the car to start unless they blow into it and show no alcohol. Second conviction, jail for... haven't worked that one out yet.
Third conviction, no car, no license ever again. Period. End of story.
Pedophiles, or child abusers of any stripe, first conviction, no probation, mandatory prison time with mandatory counseling while there. Second conviction, LWOP. We gave them a chance and they blew it. They are predators whom we allow to roam in society at the peril of our children. The children we have a moral obligation to protect. We, not just their parents, but all of us.

And while I'm on the subject of prisons, I like the basic premise of LawDog's blog on this subject. Make inmates pay for their fines and court costs before they are released. No more good time, no more sitting inside a cell watching TeeVee or thinking up ways to escape, or lawsuits to file b/c their rights have been violated, or rec yard lifting weights. An inmate can work, pay for classes to learn a trade so that when they have TRULY paid their debt to their victims and society, THEN and only then will they be released.

This new political party would revamp the welfare system by eliminating benefits for underage mothers. I hear the apoplectic fits starting now. You tell these girls and BOYS, from age 10, that if they have babies, they are on their own. Mama, Grandmama, Daddy, Granddaddy, the Government, ain't NOBODY, gonna help them with that baby. If Mama or somebody else in the family tries to adopt that baby, they are not gonna get any help from the government in the form of AFDC, food stamps or Medicaid either. You make it Crystal freakin' clear to Everyfreakin' body that is the case. You also, at age 10, start an intensive education program aimed at making girls and boys aware of the consequences of sexual activity; from STDs to pregnancy to poverty to lowered self-esteem. Make it graphic. Ugly pictures of fulminating, rotting, infected genitalia. And make contraceptives avalible to them. Because I guarandamtee you kids are STILL gonna have sex. So let's do what we can to prvent STDs and pregnancy.

This party should also be a FreeTrade party. But, it should also have some consumer safe-guards in place. If a shoddy product makes it to market, the consumer should have the ability to seek redress. I know we already have this safeguard, but all the warnings on products, like "Coffee may be hot" is an indicator that the pendulum has swung too far. Let's eliminate the frivolous lawsuits that give rise to the "idiot" warning labels, OK? And as for foreign trade, how about we gear up our Science and Tech folks so that we have products that we can export and equalize the trade imbalance. A foreign country can only import here the $$ amount of goods they allow us to import into their country.

This new party's stance on Affirmative Action should be that it has served it's purpose. A civil rights leader once said that he had a dream that one day his children would be judged by "the content of their character" and not the color of their skin. I think that day has come. It's time for all people to take advantage of the education they are offered from the time they are five years old until they graduate from high school. I went to public school. I went to State Universities. I did it with out the advantage of affirmative action. I could have tried to make a case that I was a minority since I was a woman. I could have tried, when I applied to "Gradual" school, to say that because I was an "older than average" student, I should be given special consideration, but I didn't. I was accepted on my MERITS. People who want to keep affirmative action in place are crippling another generation of minorities that, in fact, are replacing whites in the population numbers. It's time for all "minorities" to strive for higher personal achievment.

I think I've covered all the major issues I wanted to touch on.
I don't want, and in fact, refuse to be pigeon-holed into a single group. I've probably alienated a bunch of y'all, but that's life. Free speech means, you get to express your differing opinion in the comments section.