Re: Are all boaters republican?
Just found this thread and skimmed though it. I am NOT a republican or a democrat, I think libertarian would come the closest to my politcal views. I will not vote for King George and I won't vote for Kerry either. I abhor the system that sets me up to have to choose between two evils, and that's what I believe the system has been doing for most if not all of my life. I don't think either party has anything useful to offer most Americans or anyone else. I think the 2000 election was totally rigged, and I think this one will be even more so, so really, from my point of view, with no candidate representing anything close to my values and the system so faulty and corrupted anyway, I doubt that I will bother to vote at all for president. I do still show up at the polls every time, and always vote local issues and candidates if I feel well educated enough to do so, but nationally, I think we have suffered a coup and things are only going to get worse before they get better. Replacing the repugnant George Bush II with the pathetic democrat-du-jour is not my idea of useful change.<br />(And no, I didn't vote for Al Gore either.)<br /><br />That being said, I think that ANYONE who berates Kerry for having gotten a purple heart for injuries that weren't "serious" enough is delivering a slap in the face to every injured vet that ever was. Injured in combat is injured in combat, and to start saying that some injuries suffered in combat aren't as "worthy" as others is pretty.... well, I 'm not sure how to even describe it. And I would guess that most of those doing the sneering have never seen combat, let alone suffered injuries in combat. We know for a fact that King George never got anywhere near combat and I would guess that Karl Rove, John Ashcroft, donald rumsfeld and most of the rest of the gang are in the same boat. There isn't anything they can do to go back and make themselves into decorated vets, so they try to trash Kerry for not really deserving the decorations he got. Disgusting! (yes, more disgusting than Kerry trying to make political hay out of his decorations, although that is pretty lame as well.)<br /><br />As far as Vietnam service records go, I do think that Bush's records are relevant, since he has led us, with much dishonesty and hubris, into a war with no clear end in sight, and from my libertarian point of view, a war that was not necessary or in our national interest. (we used to LOVE saddam when he was warring on Iran, our enemy then, and when he gassed the Kurds, we said NOTHING about it. Blatant hypocisy to condemn him for that a more than a decade after the fact.) Anyway, I digress. Bush's service records look pretty shabby, even if you discount the latest round of disclosures that are alleged to be fakes.<br /><br /><br />"This isn't a war that anybody ever wins. When you think you won and go home, they start again. Terrorists are the people that always have to be kept down to prevent the spread. You can't just say "they'll all be home". The damned terrorists would come right here with the troops!"<br /><br /><br />Reality check: terrorists wouldn't have ever gotten started anywhere at anypoint in history if they didn't have real grievances, some level of popular support, and were getting nowhere working through the "proper channels". The idea that they are terrorists because they are naturally just "bad guys" or because they "hate freedom" is simple-minded BS. No, I do not support blowing up innocent civilians to make a point, but let's get real: terrorism is a method, not a movement or ideology. Terrorism will NEVER be wiped out by killing everyone who practices it. NEVER. If you ignore the legitimate greivances and screw people around enough when they try to work through the normal channels to get their greivances heard, then eventually some of them will turn to non-state-sanctioned violence to get their way. The founding fathers of this country knew all about this. And for a modern perspective, Israel hasn't exactly succeeded at wiping out terrorism by "keeping down" the palestinians. In fact, their attempts at "keeping them down" has probably made the situation all the worse. After all, no humans really want to tolerate living inside a fence under military occupation, no matter who they are, or who their occupiers are.<br /><br />The idea that "terrorism" trumps all other concerns is just a piece of BS to get people used to the idea of perpetual war. It loooks like its working pretty well, when we can sit here and discuss the war that can "never be won" and how we have to let all other issues go by the wayside for the forseeable future. What happens in four years when the unwinnable war is still going on, but our hubris-filled president cannot run for another term? Do we ignore our Constitution and make him King for real? we already ignored our Constitution when Congress cravenly gave away its war making authority to the president in the first place, so I guess doing away with term limits or even elections would probably be OK too, huh? After all, as long as we are "at war", then no one really has the right to challenge whoever is in power anyway, right?<br /><br />I doubt that this post will make me really popular here, but hey, its a free country, right?<br /><br />Anyway, the answer is NO, not all boaters are republicans and some of us who aren't republicans aren't democrats either ( surprise! ).
Forget Democrat or Republican, IMHO there are only liberals and conservatives, some more so than others but this 'independent middle of the road business is just a cop out. You stand in the middle of the road and ya get run over!