An open letter

Dear Republicans:

When you ask me why I’m voting for the socialist, and I reply that the nation cannot afford more Republican governance, your next line is not, “Well, they were all part of it.”

Your next line is, “I like where our country is after eight years of Republican governance, and I’m voting for McCain so we can keep going down this road.” Try saying it out loud.

Just try.

Sincerely,
Dale

17 thoughts on “An open letter

  1. While there are many of the Republican cadre that will no doubt continue to deny reality and proclaim the brilliant state of affairs as regards Republican leadership, you will not find me amongst them. One of many ways in which I would state my opinion would be, “If THIS is what Republican governance looks like, I don’t think I like it so much.”

    No, its not because W can’t pronounce “nuCLEAR”, and no, its not because he won’t admit that a) global warming is occurring, and if it is, that mankind caused(es) it. However, my left-leaning (leaning?) media specialist types, it IS because 1) our Republican friends have sold out to the insurance companies (medical, liability, take your pick) and 2) banks, auto companies, and home buyers that make irresponsible choices should bear the burden of those choices, not me, the rest of the income-earning country, and frankly, all of our children. (“Rescue ye? HANG YE!!!”)

    Clearly, these are not nearly all of the bad reasons (first list) or good reasons (2nd list) to avoid the party of Lincoln. I’m sure you in particular could come up with plenty I would put on both list. But isn’t the enumeration more interesting coming from those of us of the right (center?) hand file?

  2. I know how to get those darn Republicans. Whenever they call us Marxists, we shoot back, “You’re so Hobbesian.” That will get them where they live. We can play hardball. What’s left of their public support will jump ship to avoid being associated with such ideology, don’t you think?

  3. Tried to post this earlier, but either Dale’s redacting me, or something went flaky with my browser:

    While there are many of the Republican cadre that will no doubt continue to deny reality and proclaim the brilliant state of affairs as regards Republican leadership, you will not find me amongst them. One of many ways in which I would state my opinion would be, “If THIS is what Republican governance looks like, I don’t think I like it so much.”

    No, its not because W can’t pronounce “nuCLEAR”, and no, its not because he won’t admit that a) global warming is occurring, and if it is, that mankind caused(es) it. However, my left-leaning (leaning?) media specialist types, it IS because 1) our Republican friends have sold out to the insurance companies (medical, liability, take your pick) and 2) banks, auto companies, and home buyers that make irresponsible choices should bear the burden of those choices, not me, the rest of the income-earning country, and frankly, all of our children. (“Rescue ye? HANG YE!!!”)

    Clearly, these are not nearly all of the bad reasons (first list) or good reasons (2nd list) to avoid the party of Lincoln. I’m sure you in particular could come up with plenty I would put on both list. But isn’t the enumeration more interesting coming from those of us of the right (center?) hand file?

  4. You mean Hobbes ISN’T a stuffed tiger? I never could figure out which frames of that cartoon were supposed to be real, and which were supposed to be imagination.

  5. I love wiki. For instance, I now a very few things about Hobbes (like the fact that he was a secularist that believed a primary purpose of a central government was to provide security), including that Hobbes the tiger was, in fact, named after Hobbes the author. Calvin, of course, was named after John Calvin.

  6. Talking about politics never does any good. Scientific studies have shown this to be so. It just results in more retrenchment. Sigh.

    And since when does the “party of personal responsibility” actually take responsibility for … anything? Everything seems to always be the Democrats’ fault, no matter what.

  7. Didn’t the Joe Sixpack crowd appropriate Calvin (the cartoon character, not the theologian) as the “Pissing Boy” who irrigated assorted enemies from the back of many a pick-up and finally found Jesus? His adventures were sort of a Pilgrim’s Progress for “the base,” weren’t they?

    By the way, thanks for re-making Hobbes into a Libertarian. Much more appealing than what we get from his grim pronouncements on the human condition.

  8. The Pilgrim’s Progress analogy was inspired (and funny).

    As to re-making Hobbes a Libertarian, that was certainly not my intent. When I represented his position as ‘to provide security’, I did not mean ‘to provide police and fire only’ in a libertarian way, but rather ‘According to Hobbes, society is a population beneath a sovereign authority, to whom all individuals in that society cede their natural rights for the sake of protection. Any abuses of power by this authority are to be accepted as the price of peace.’, as in ‘those that would trade freedom for security deserve neither’.

  9. And thank goodness for that retrenchment, eh? Were it not for that, we wouldn’t need newspapers. 🙂

  10. Turff knows my syntactical feats and literary allusions are designed to blow a veil of smoke before my gaping lack of wit. Your Comment #9 has outed me, sir. Please explain. You made an arch leap and left me on the far bank of the brook.

  11. UPDATE: I’ve heard some “Oh yeah?” comments from McCain voters, or to be more precise, anti-Obama voters, but you know what I haven’t heard?

    “I like where our country is after eight years of Republican governance, and I’m voting for McCain so we can keep going down this road.”

    No one has been willing to say that.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *