...but I'm not ready to call myself a Democrat, either. My dad has always been very conservative--he specifically believes in the right to bear arms and less government controls (interesting since he works for a branch of the USDA), and I think that I modeled a lot of my political beliefs after his from a young age. My mom also taught me when I was a preteen that abortion is murder. The first time I was old enough to participate in a presidential election I cast my vote for George W. Bush and again in 2004. But was I voting for the canidate that most represented my values or was I voting for who best represented my parent values? And I have to say that I am not happy with the direction our country is going in many areas.
Just recently I was reading an article in Mothering Magazine on whether or not we should try and instill our political beliefs into our children from a young age. The author of the article said that if we do so, we are running the risk of raising children that don't know how to think for themselves. I don't think that my parents were trying to brainwash me or anything like that, but I do think that children see things in black and white, instead of evaluating them and considering all the different viewpoints.
Then today when I got this week's issue of TIME, I discovered it has a handy little fold-out Voter's Guide that tells what each party basically believes on six of the key issues (education, immigration, trade, environment, Iraq and healthcare). According to TIME, I line up with the Republicans on 2 of the six issues and the Democrats on 4 of the six. But the issues I line up with the Republicans on are big ones for me: education and healthcare. In both of those cases, the Democrats want to create more government, while the Republicans want to return to more local controls in education and decrease bureaucracy in healthcare. Maybe I am not either, maybe I'm a libertarian or an independent, but regardless I still feel like I will need to choose either an R or a D or I will be wasing my vote. I need to do more investigating...to be continued....
7 comments:
Isn't it a mess? The parties that were created don't look much like the original at times either. Great post - Jennifer
Happy Birthday, Late! My friend
I'm voting for Obama if that helps!
there is also a blog called momocrats that might be interesting to you.
Happy Valentine's Day! Jen
Nice post.
Have you thought about Ron Paul? He's for less government. Here's his link just in case.
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
I'm not a Republican or a Democrat either. But I'm voting D in 2008. I find as I get older I am much more NOT an R than ever, for some reason.
I agree with you. Wonderful post. looking forward to your next post.
Nothing ever seems black and white in politics, does it? That said, I do believe that there is definitely one case of brilliant black vs. white, namely abortion. And even though I am conservative on most (okay, maybe all) issues, I think that even were I to disagree with everything Republican, I would still have to vote R due to their strong pro-life track record. You need only go to http://www.lifesitenews.com/abortiontypes/ to see the horrifying reality of abortion, and read of its negative effects on (obviously) babies and also the women who have them. (Warning: don't view if you don't do well with sad, graphic images.)
I think that there are so many women out there who claim to be feminists, and think that to be so means to advocate "choice" and therefore to vote D. I think the best thing women could do to be feminists is to stick up for our unborn babies and offer support for one another during a crisis pregnancy. After all, the "life" part of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" does seem to be the most important thing, and that is the most important reason that I am a conservative and a Republican.
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