Okay, I got some interesting mail today. And no, I'm not talking about the new "Adam & Eve" catalog, although that did arrive in the mail today and is very interesting. They have got toys for everything and everyone!! But that's a blog for another day. The mail I'm speaking of was from a group called the "National Republican Senatorial Committee". It was a "Scotland County Area Assessment" which basically is politico-speak for "answer these survey questions so we can pretend that we give a damn what you say while we ask you for money!". Yeppers, a pretentious fund-raising letter from a political action committee. Don't you love these things?
It's not really surprising that I would get politically themed mail because I do love politics (as anyone who reads my blog would know. If it's not wrestling or surveys, it's politics) and I do subscribe to several different politically orientated websites (both right and left winged) so I can follow the news from all angles and keep up on things. But this one kind of grated under my skin a little bit. Let's talk about it.
The first few questions were pretty simple asking for gender, age, how I identify myself politically (moderate / independent) and how I get my political news (newspapers, MSNBC, Fox news, Magazines, Internet Sites and Facebook). And then it started getting a little whacky when it asked how long I've identified myself as a Republican.
Excuse me? I said, "Excuse me!". I'm not registered as a Republican. I'm registered as a Democrat. While it is true that I generally tend to lean towards the Republicans in most elections and on most issues (especially economic and foreign affairs - most high-ranking Republicans tend to be pinheads when it comes to social issues ), I realized long ago that here in Scotland County, if you want to be able to have any kind of say in the City or County Elections (Mayor, City Council, Sheriff), you have to be registered as a Democrat because they are the ones who hold the power here in this area and most of the races I mentioned earlier are decided in the Democratic primaries. So this has me wondering just how in the hell that these people got my name and address anyhow? By their standards, I'm the enemy. So why are they even talking to me?
So I went down their list of questions and of course, all of the questions are twisted to make the Republican policies sound fantastic and any alteration or support for anything outside the box is blasphemy. Whatever! That's the way that political games are played and I know this and like I mentioned earlier, when it comes to economic issues, I tend to agree with the Republican policies.
So I did the first page of 17 questions and agreed with all of them. And then we get to questions 18 - 27 which deal with domestic issues. I agree on repeal of Obamacare, the right to "bear arms" as granted by the 2nd Amendment and the repeal of extra legislation that adds extra charges and taxes to the most basic objects of day to day life. And then we get to the places where the Republicans and I do in different directions, such as the issues of abortions and same-sex marriage. The government should have absolutely no say in either of these issues. Abortion, like it or hate it, is something that should be between the mother, their partner and their doctor... period! It's not my decision what others do and shouldn't be the governments. And marriage is a state-issue, as it should be. The federal government should stay the hell out of it and let each state decide for themselves (through a referendum or a legislative decision). They tried to legislate marriage (through the Defense of Marriage Act) and that one piece of federal legislation, which tramples on state rights, is working it's way through the court system and will most likely be declared unconstitutional within the next few years.
After splitting in my thoughts on domestic issues, we moved on to foreign affairs and with the sole exception of the "Patriot Act", which violates so many basic constitutional rights that it's not even funny, I tended to agree with most of the foreign affair based questions. We needs stronger foreign policy and our current "leader" and his policies of appeasement and reluctance to offend our enemies is getting pretty old pretty fast.
But anyhow, we get through all of these questions and I'm just jamming along and we get to the part where they ask for money. If we want to donate money, we check the "Yes" box and the Senate Republicans will fight for our values in Washington (unless they happen to be values that the Senate Republican's don't agree with.)
This is all typical fund-rasing letter stuff and it's no big deal and not worth even writing about actually... UNTIL I saw what was next to the "No" box. If you checked the "No" box, you were agreeing that "I hope Democrats expand control of the U.S. Senate and continue passing their liberal agenda."
Let me say that one more time. If you check the "No" box and don't want to send this political action group money, then it means that "I hope Democrats expand control of the U.S. Senate and continue passing their liberal agenda."
Maybe I'm being over-sensitive here, but that just pisses me off. I don't send these people money because I'd rather keep any political donations close to home and used to support local candidiates instead of national organizations who include people such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, two of the most bigoted and homophobic politicians in U.S. history among their ranks. Just the damn arrogance and presumption of those words really just irks the heck out of me.
I support some aspects of the Republican party and I make no apologies for that. I think, on economic issues (cutting the size of government, cutting taxes, creating jobs) and on foreign affair issues (keeping Iran in line, dealing with China and N. Korea), the Republican's tend to have the right ideas and be on the right track. When it comes to social issues, I tend to have more in common and agreement with the left-leaning Democratic party. And there are even a few issues where I think the government (and both parties) should mind their own business and shut the hell up. That's me and that's how I roll. Like I said, no apologies here. And I've forgotten what my point was going to be. Ooops! Hate it when that happens.
Oh yeah! The attitude that the people who sent this letter out, this so-called "National Republican Senatorial Committee", show by that last statement is that they don't want to hear from people who won't send them money. They don't want to hear from people who don't agree with their agenda. And you know what? They don't want someone like me to give their opinions. All they want is money and if we're not supporting them with our wallets, we're the enemy. If that's what they think, so be it. They're not getting my money and they can take their questions, letters and everything else and shove them straight where the sun don't shine. By their own standards, it's either buy their love and be with them or keep my money for other purposes and be the enemy. So I'm the opposition. Deal with it, Hankeyites!
One good thing did come from all of this actually. I got a chance to rant and ramble for a bit and got a blog out of the deal. That's pretty cool. And I'm (probably) going to take each of their questions and do another blog giving detailed answers for each one. That'll be fun too (and good practice for when I eventually decide to run for a political office - how's that for some foreshadowing folks?)
I've talked long enough. I'm out of here for now. Later.
Ubuntu!
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