russtaglibro

the gop doesn't reflect america
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2004-08-30-moore-gopamerica_x.htm
The GOP doesn't reflect America by Michael Moore:

I asked one man who told me he was a "proud Republican," "Do you think we need strong laws to protect our air and water?"

"Well, sure," he said. "Who doesn't?"

I asked whether women should have equal rights, including the same pay as men.

"Absolutely," he replied.

"Would you discriminate against someone because he or she is gay?"

"Um, no." The pause — I get that a lot when I ask this question — is usually because the average good-hearted person instantly thinks about a gay family member or friend.

I've often found that if I go down the list of "liberal" issues with people who say they're Republican, they are quite liberal and not in sync with the Republicans who run the country....

There's a name for these Republicans: RINOs or Republican In Name Only. They possess a liberal, open mind and don't believe in creating a worse life for anyone else.

So why do they use the same label as those who back a status quo of women earning 75 cents to every dollar a man earns, 45 million people without health coverage and a president who has two more countries left on his axis-of-evil-regime-change list?

I asked my friend on the street. He said what I hear from all RINOs: "I don't want the government taking my hard-earned money and taxing me to death. That's what the Democrats do."

Money. That's what it comes down to for the RINOs. They do work hard and have been squeezed even harder to make ends meet. They blame Democrats for wanting to take their money. Never mind that it's Republican tax cuts for the rich and billions spent on the Iraq war that have created the largest deficits in history and will put all of us in hock for years to come.

I've noticed this phenomenon also: people voting for Bush out of a (false) belief that he's fiscally responsible, and the notion that their tax cut makes it all worth it to do terrible damage to the environment, economy, corporate responsibility, education, employment, healthcare, civil liberties, privacy, international relations, not to mention lying to start pre-emptive wars and a huge deficit increase. RINOs, is money really that important to you, that you value a specious few hundred bucks in tax cut (which you'll pay for in the end anyway - they can't cut taxes and increase military spending indefinitely) more than anything else? Is it really worth supporting a guy who's sent almost 1000 US soldiers to die and killed unknown thousands of Iraqi civilians; who cynically uses gays as a political distraction; who blocks medical research that could help cure Alzheimer's and other diseases because of religious right objections; who wants to illegalize abortion; who is rolling back environmental protections radically more than any other president; who pressures scientists to cook their data to meet his policy goals; who says Rumsfeld is doing a "superb job" even as Rumsfeld meaninglessly accepts responsibility for torturing prisoners; etc etc ... enjoy your tax cuts; I hope they were worth it. It's not too late to avoid repeating that mistake this November...