Chanman,
I should have specified I was talking about Jewish voters vs. other groups of voters. It was in reference to DTB's comments about Jewish voters favoring liberals by a wide margin. From my personal experience, most Jewish voters are very much in favor of having Israel be a safe, stable place, but they oppose things like the Iraqi invasion and other attacks in the Middle East. Those two points of view are entirely contradictory, hence my comment about Jewish voters being dullards.
Stomie, everyone has their opinion on interracial marriage so I'm not going to argue with you on whether you should deem it right or wrong. What I will say is that it's an insult to compare a sexual perversion with a race. Gay people have a right to live with whatever vice they choose, just like gamblers do. I'd draw the line with marriage in large part because there is not a single legitimate religion that would recognize gay marriage, and at its core marriage is a religious ritual.
dr. freeze, you have been snowed under. Completely. I mean honestly, I come across very few people who are willing to swallow bullshit whole to the degree you have.
First of all, America stands for freedom *in America*. We have a long and documented history of removing democratically elected rulers in other countries who were unfriendly to America and replacing them with dictators as long as the dictators were friendly to America. This is especially prevalent in South America, with the most recent example being the attempted ouster of Hugo Chavez.
Remember that I never called Bush a conservative, I called him a neo-conservative. If you are the type of conservative who values civil liberties and your ability to elevate your economic class, then what in the world are you doing voting for Bush???
All that aside, the biggest snow job here is with inheritance taxes, capital gains taxes and just taxes in general being cut or eliminated. I understand the arguement with money being "taxed twice". My arguments are twofold. 1) The inheritor didn't earn the money originally, their parents did. When you take in additional money in this country, you are supposed to get taxed. Period. 2) Look at where our tax money goes. Yes, some goes to schools that the rich never use and other public programs, but a far larger portion goes to the military, police, corporate assistance and other mechanisms in place to help a rich person sustain their wealth. I have no problem with a rich person giving a little extra when you consider the way that government money largely helps maintain the status quo.
As far as capital gains tax, trying to eliminate that one really baffles me. That is new money. It may have been made based on old money, but it is still new money.
Where all of this leads is to an increase in the national debt. When you lower taxes, you take in less money. When you increase military spending, you give out more money. Hence, an increase in national debt. Many people don't understand what a increase in the national debt even means. National debt takes the form of Treasury Bonds, Notes and Bills. If you hold these things, then the government owes you money. Obviously some national debt is good because it allows people the opportunity to invest in their country in the form of Savings Bonds.
The problem comes with interest being paid out on this debt and who it goes to. While the Bonds purchased by ordinary citizens produce a small amount of money, it is incredibly insignificant compared to the interest that gets paid out to the corporate elite who possess large Notes. Generally large scale investments, insurance, pensions, etc. are "guaranteed" in the form of these notes.
As the National Debt grows, more and more of the government's budget is required to pay interest on these debts. Not even the debts themselves, but just the interest on those debts. That interest, by and large, goes to the extremely rich. With the increase in money to the extremely rich, that leaves less money in the budget for "guaranteed" payments that benefit the middle class. This includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Pensions, etc. What it ultimately is likely to lead to, especially in the case of Social Security, is a reduction of these benefits in order to pay the interest on these debts.
You see, the only way to avoid paying interest on debt is by cancelling the debt. The debt is guaranteed by Federal Reserve interest rates so unless the Fed drops interest rates to zero (impossible), the interest payments must continue. It is much "easier" to reduce government benefits to the middle class. You just cut Social Security, government pensions, etc. The end result of this becomes the extremely rich maintaining their quality of life while the middle class and lower class suffers.
Now, if you are extremely wealthy, by all means you should be in favor of the policies the neo-cons endorse. If you are working your way up to a higher financial level, then why would you want to sabotage yourself by voting for a regime that caters mostly to the military and industrial elite?
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