22 Ways To Be A Good Democrat

Given the topic of my previous post concerning email and taking responsibility for what you pass along I thought it was time to take another look at an email I had received from one of my friends. She had received the following email from a friend whose eye was caught by my piece about Ann Coulter. In the email, her friend referred to himself as a conservative but by not a "blow-hard conservative." His words, not mine.

Based on the following email, what would you say?

22 WAYS TO BE A GOOD DEMOCRAT

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make The Passion of the Christ for financial gain only.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Thomas Edison & A.G. Bell.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and is a very nice person.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it has been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest of the United States.

21. You have to believe that it's okay to give Federal workers the day off on Christmas Day but it's not okay to say "Merry Christmas."

22. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy.

NOT a "blow-hard conservative."

I would hate to see what a "blow-hard conservative" would have said. Since I have Faux Noise blocked at home, I guess I never will.

Since Karl Rove and I both agree that:
“As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing”
Karl Rove

I have decided that the best way to overcome the ignorance this email spewed forth since there were no links to supporting documentation proving these points, is present the facts associated with each point and let the reader make their own decision.

It may be an unfamiliar, uncomfortable concept but this is what the News is supposed to do. Simply present the facts. Then, let the person make their own decision about where they stand on the issue.

Unless you watch Faux Noise. They know their target demographic is incapable of drawing their own conclusions from the facts. That is why they do it for you.

Since there are so many good and valid points to be made, I am going to break this up into several installments. My blood pressure can not handle too much of this at a time.

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

First of all, abortion on demand is overly dramatic. Talk about not being a "blow-hard."

The Right of Choice, is simply that. In America, it is your choice to believe what you want to believe when it comes to religion. Why is that right nullified when it comes to making a choice based in religion but about your body? I respect your decision based in your beliefs to not have an abortion. You can respect my decision based in my beliefs to make my own choice.

Why is the Republican party who believes in less is better government, expanding their authority into something that is a decision between a woman and her doctor?

Expanding government is in direct conflict with the core Republican beliefs.

Are they flip-flopper's or hypocrites?

Moving on to capital punishment. I love how conservatives equate the Democrats being pro-choice to being pro-serial killer. Again, not a "blow-hard?"

Capital punishment is a terrible issue to politicize. Voters in America today do not want to hear how you are going to fix a problem, they want to know who is to blame and how fast can we bomb them to get revenge. "After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad." Shrub

Like abortion, capital punishment has to do with peoples lives. Like the life of Terry Washington. This was a mentally retarded man who was sentenced to death by a jury that was unaware of the fact Mr. Washington had the mental capacity of a 7 year old and that he had been horribly abused as a child.

Mr. Washington did need to be punished for his crime. He would have been punished differently had the jury known his mental status.

According to the ACLU, in the past 30 years, 124 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. ACLU

With wrong convictions and the justice system being manipulated for political gains, capital punishment is not a viable solution for crime prevention. We need to address the root causes and prevent the crime from happening instead of dealing with it once it does.

Next installment, we'll take a look at the relationship between capitalism and its richer, better looking cousin, fascism.