O how the mighty will fall...

One of Ben's general rules, is that no victory worth having comes easily. Granted, there are times when we want things to come easily so bad that when they don't we nearly give up, however we must always realize, that when it is all said and done, we value things most that came at a high price.

Take for instance the greatest generation, (our grandparents). These are people that were children during the depression, and grew up to fight WWII. They valued their freedom like no other generation in recent history. They know what it cost to preserve, and you had better believe they valued it. You see them today lined up at the polls every election day, some pulling oxygen tanks, and some so weak they can barely stand, yet they come out in larger numbers than anyone else.

Look at a soldier returning from some distant battle field, compared to the hippie protestor that dodged the draft and stayed home. Granted some of them are broken by the images forever burned in their memory, however even in them, you see an appreciation of the freedom that they have. Now granted protesting is a very great exercise of freedom, but which of the two do you think appreciates it more?

I greatly fear the day when our generation takes this country by the helm. Don't get me wrong, we have some great people, many of whom will make great leaders, however, the vast majority of our generation are either broken by an unforgiving social structure, or are spoonfed by their parents. The 18-24 year old voting block has the lowest voter turn out of any voting block in the county. And granted, it has always been that way, today, it is taken more to the extreme. One might not be all that surprised when they realize that the majority of votes that come from that voting block actually comes from active duty military personnel. Imagine that. People stationed far away from home, that face long deployments, long working hours, and who get very few breaks in today's world find the time to vote, yet the college kid still living off of mom and dad, can't drag his or her ass out to the polls on Tuesday morning, or can't so much as mail in an absentee ballot. Funny how that works.

The failure of our parent's generation did not come until they started having children of their own. Suddenly discipline was replaced with pampering. Our parents would rather spoon feed us than make us work for what we have. One of the things I am most thankful for in my life is the fact that I have a mother who wouldn't do that.

American society has one of the most class structured societies in the world, the only difference is, we conceal ours with terms like "land of opportunity" and "American dream". The fact of the matter is, our society has an education system (cause lets face it, education is the key to the future) that is designed to keep the poor poor, the middle class mediocre, and the rich rich.

So what then do we have to look forward to? Well, when we take over America, most of our elected officials will not know what it feels like to come home after a hard days work. They will not know the hurt that comes from denied opportunity based on your class. They will not know the rewarding feeling one gets from funding there own education and blazing there own trail in to the future. They won't know the sense of accomplishment that one feels when they realize that though the deck was stacked against them for their whole life, they were able to realize their dream. Call me crazy, but I always interpreted, "land of opportunity" as a place where there is endless possibility, and one has the chance to realize any dream that they work for. I guess I was wrong. It seems as though its meaning today is achieve that which is handed to you.

Get it together...

I am perhaps one of the staunchest supporters of the Republican Party that I have ever known, and even now in a time when most people are disgruntled with the Party I stand firm in defense of it. However there are times when I get the feeling that some of our elected officials need a kick in the pants. We have to come to terms with the fact that our President has a 36% approval rating and we are quickly coming up on mid term elections. Our base is practically disgusted with everything that is going on, and the enemy is salivating at the opportunity to make big gains. We all know that it is the far left and far right that turns out in the mid terms.

Truth-be-told, President Bush has had some of the most ridiculous spending plans known to man. I will give him the fact that we are at war, and a nation at war tends to spend more than a nation at peace, however a lot of his expenditures have nothing to do with the war. Furthermore, the republicans just got a $70 billion tax relief package through both houses of Congress, and President Bush will sign it some time next week. Normally I would say that there isn't a bad tax cut, however this tax cut panders to the rich way more than it does to anyone else, and from an economical stand point, it is terrible. The lower class tends to be the biggest spenders, yet they are only getting about $9 of yearly savings from this bill whereas the upper class is getting + 40k. There is no way that one can logically think that this tax bill will do any good. Not to mention the fact that it is cutting government revenue in a time of record deficits.

The #3 Republican in the senate is Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. This year he is up for election, and his opponent will likely be Democratic State Treasurer Bob Casey. Bob is a little bit more to the right than most democrats seeing as he is pro-life and anti gun control, which bothers some democrats, but he is overwhelmingly popular in the state. Now I never thought that I would say this, but I wish Bob the best of luck in November, and yes, I hope the democrat wins this one.

Oh, and Rick, I would say that your comparison of homosexuality to beastiality was a little over the line, but it went so far past, you couldn't see the line anymore. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

In other news...

IM COMMING HOME SATURDAY!!!

Gay Republican: Oxymoron?

So I was reading some articles online concerning the community, and I came across a blog by Gene Stone that questioned the rationality of a gay person calling themselves a republican. He did make a few valid points among which was the simple fact that the party is dedicating a fairly large portion of their agenda to the degradation of equality at the expense of the GLBT community. The simple fact is, every state republican party has a less than flattering platform when it comes to equal rights for gays and lesbians. My home state have Texas has one of the harshest, but it really doesn't look that good anywhere in the country, especially in the National Republican Party platform. In fact, in June or July, Senator Frist plans on calling another vote on that damn Federal Marriage Amendment. Indeed it appears as though the elephants are against the community.

However, what are the democrats doing? Democrats control the state legislatures in 20 something states, and they have governors in many of those. However we only have legalized gay marriage in one state. Why aren't the so called "allies" of the equal rights movement fighting for rights now? The truth is, whether it is the republican who hates you and lets you know it, or the democrat who hates you and pretends to be your friend, once most of them get into office they don't do anything anyway. The truth is, there are very few representatives anywhere in this country that are actually doing anything remotely proactive on the issue of gay rights.

Now, Gene recognized in his entry that maybe the democratic party isn't the best choice for these "gay republicans", but then let me ask Gene where he expects us to go. America is a nation that works with a 2 party system. Sure, lots of people claim to be independents, but how many independents have ever won a national election. None maybe? How many are in congress? Only so many that I can count them on one hand? Governors? One maybe? Yes, a former wrestler in the WWF. I bet they are proud. The fact of the matter is, that no matter how many people claim to be independents, many of them would never vote for one. So the fact is, if you want to be a part of anything in this country you affiliate yourself with a party and then work with PACs and interest groups to focus on your more heart felt beliefs. Politics is about compromise. As much as we would like the story of the uncompromising outsider that takes Washington by storm, the problem is, the people would never allow it. Call it voter apathy. If you want to get anything done, you have to make sacrifices. After all, the whole goal is minimizing losses while maximizing gain. Nobody ever gets it all, and nobody ever will. That is one of our most prized safeguards.
So maybe these gay republicans are choosing that party because it is the better champion of the ideals to which they hold. Gee, maybe some people consider the fact that this nation still allows the mindless slaughter of innocent preborn children more alarming than the fact that they cant get married. Maybe people consider their physical security a little more important than a right to a contract, especially in these trying times. Maybe people prefer to see their taxes kept low, more than they care about entering an institution to which they should be entitled.

I'm not going to lie, gay marriage is extremely important to me, but the best way to achieve it, is to take out one of its strongest opponents...The Republican party. And perhaps the best way to do that is by working from within from a party that already shares most of my views. To me, that seems like a much more practical approach. If you can get the party to accept it, then you have defeated the last obstacle in the way of equality.