Sorry I couldn't get back in here last night! But here goes.... Let me start off by saying I am fairly independent in my voting. I've voted for Dems and Repubs, but mostly Repubs in the last decade. I really feel that i'm a Libertarian, but we just don't get enough media attention to challenge the Big Two!
I'm in Wisconsin, and if you've followed the news you'll know that our governor is facing a recall. I voted for this man, and I believe he did the right thing. In my little town of 5,000, we have a "native son" who has been, for DECADES, our state Senator, and he is a Republican, but he voted AGAINST Walker's budget repair bill, which infuriated every Republican in this state! And this isn't the first time he's crossed his party and voted against the way his electors wanted him to vote.
As a consequence of the Walker Recall and this Senator (whose wife in the Administrator of our school district here), my husband and I began attending the local Republican meetings, as did our 38 year old son, to see what we could do to help Walker and help get rid of this Senator. My son and husband eventually paid their dues and became members of the local Republican Party. I refused to do so and here's why:
One of the members of this local repub party is a Baptist minister, and each meeting is opened and closed by a lengthy prayer from him. This upsets me. I don't go to these meetings to be in "church." I go for political reasons. Yet even the chairwoman of this group constantly talks about the "assault on christianity" by the liberal party. OK... I can understand the anger over some of our "traditions" being found "unpolitically correct." But what I don't understand is the mindset of all the people at these meetings who feel that because you are a Republican, you are a christian. And THAT is what I was waiting to see crop up on anyone's list of what they think of the Republican Party.
To me, it has become a wing of the ultra-conservative christian faction in our nation, and it is excluding those who are NOT christians. I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN. My apologies to those of you who are aghast at that information. My husband and son are. I am not. When they open and close their meetings with prayer, I sit quietly, but seething. Do Democrats open and close their local meetings with prayer?
And then the other day, a member of this local Repub. party, who is a Deacon in our local Catholic church, sent an email out to all of us, and in part, it said, "
America and the
world is becoming more and more anti - christian, immoral, and
individualistic. Our government is losing its constitutional power,
the judges have become partisan, and the librals have corrupted and
brainwashed our democratic society.
I can't help it, but I took great offense at these words. I answered him back and part of what I said was "You say that American is becoming more and more anti-Christian and in the next sentence you say our government is losing its constitutional power. There is something inherently wrong in your reasoning. Our Constitution GUARANTEES religious freedom to ALL people in this country, whether they are Christians or not. So on the one hand you lament the loss of constitutional power and on the other you seem to bemoan the fact that we are no longer a completely christian nation. You can't have it both ways. If you want a government which follows the law of the US Constitution, then you must also accept the precepts of the First Amendment and gladly suffer those who are not of the christian religion to also practice their religion under the guarantees the constitution gives them to do so."
His response to me was "
Yes, we can have it both ways. My rights as a christian is just as
important as yours. It appears, to some, that the first amendment
only applies to thoughs who are not Christian.
I thought we were in this together. I thought we were fighting the
libral left. I didn't think that we were going to have issues with
each other.
Well, may God bless who ever wants to be blessed. You are on your own."
And that's all he wrote. (and the spelling errors are all his, not mine, LOL). So I sat here thinking about his attitude and I felt that there are far too many narrow-minded people in the Republican party. Of course there are wonderful people, too, but I simply can't *join* this group because of attitudes like this. If we are truly supposed to be the "Party of the Constitution" then we simply HAVE to get religion OUT of the forefront of the party!
Well, I've carried on too long, but I would appreciate any and all comments, whether you are conservative or liberal. But which ever you are, I welcome all thoughts. I have learned a long time ago that just because a person is of a different political bent than I am, it really has nothing to do with whether I like or dislike that person. That has more to do with personality! And so far, everyone here seems to have a pretty nice personality!
