outsidemyhead

[outsidemyhead]

How to avoid being pulled to the right (or left)

This is probably the easiest topic to cover in this entire tirade!  Seriously! Do you want to avoid being pulled to the left or the right?  Here is your step by step guide to doing just that.

Step one – think for yourself.  Step two – don’t be a douche.  Step three - if in doubt, return to step one.  There you go.  That’s pretty much all you need to do.  You may have to repeatedly go through these steps from time to time, but that’s the price you pay for not being part of the flock (of sheep).

Okay, I’ll be a little more specific for you, but only because you asked so nicely.  Take a minute to think about your political positions.  Do you agree one hundred percent with either the right or the left? If you do, close this book, set it down, and google the nearest protest for your favorite cause.  This book isn’t meant for you, and I can’t help you. You’re too fucking stupid, and my time is too valuable to waste on you.

If you are still reading, I’m so proud of you!  Now, let’s move on.  I’m assuming you don’t agree completely and totally with your party of choice. That’s a really good place to start. It means you, at least a little, think for yourself.  It also means you probably aren’t an extremist in either direction.  It doesn’t mean you are right about anything, but I’m almost never right, so welcome to the club.

Let me take a minute right here to pause and explain to you what I mean by not agreeing completely and totally with your chosen party platform.  It’s okay to think of yourself as a Democrat and still think the 2nd Amendment is a good thing.  On the flip side, it’s also okay to think of yourself as a Republican and believe in equality for the LBGTQ community.  I know, radical concepts I’m pushing, right?

By the way – don’t call yourself an Independent. That’s exactly the same as saying, “Look at me!  I’m special!” And don’t resort to calling other people names.  For one thing, that’s my job – I get to swear and call people names for you, so I catch all the hate and you get all the rewards.  Also, don’t stoop to their level.  Rise above the fray. And for Gods’ sake, definitely don’t sink to my level! I’m as dumb as a box of rocks, have the attention span of a squirrel, and the self control of a horny jackrabbit on LSD.

Here’s the thing – you are a damned adult, capable of making up your own mind about literally everything.  Just because a political party says they stand for something, doesn’t mean you have to.  Your life experience isn’t the same as the rest of that political group, so what you believe can be different, too.

In my mind, being a moderate means thinking for yourself. It means taking in information and forming an opinion based on your personal beliefs and life experience.  To avoid being pulled away from being a moderate, you have to practice what you preach.  In other words, practice being yourself! Don’t be afraid of being called names, and don’t become silent!  Voice your opinions.  Call people out when they are extremists.  Believe me when I say there are others out there that want to hear from you.

Oh, and one last thing.  If you want to be a moderate, you basically have to ignore the media.  One thing you need to understand about the media in this day of 24 hour news cycles is that they key on the dramatic and outlandish.  The media tends to give far too much attention to the extreme fringes of both parties, ignoring the middle where all the work actually gets done.  The perfect example is AOC, leader of the lunatic fringe ‘squad’.  The media, and her cult, hangs on her every word of propaganda, because everything she says is so far outside the norm it borders on lunacy.  The reality is that she actually ranks as among the least effective members of Congress, but why should effectiveness matter, right?

#politics #us politics #government #moderates #think for yourself

[outsidemyhead]

What does it mean to be a moderate today?

WOW!  Way to start off with the gut punch of all questions.  Well, to be honest, being a moderate today is kind of like being a beat cop – everyone hates you until they absolutely need you, but even then you are usually considered incompetent, stupid, or both.  Oh, and just because they called you doesn’t mean they won’t throw urine at you.  For the record, that’s not meant as an insult to police.  I was a cop for a decade, and it’s the most stressful, emotionally damaging job I’ve ever had, which might explain, at least in part, why I hate people so much.  The problem isn’t usually the cop, it’s the publics’ attitude towards police that is usually the problem.  Oddly enough, pretty much everyone will tell you that you can’t judge an entire group by a few bad examples, but they absolutely lump all cops into the same group as one or two guys/gals who fuck it up for everyone.

I’m going to share a little something with all of you before we get too far into this.  This is important, so prepare yourself.  Ready? Here we go.  I’m an asshole.  I swear a lot, I have my own opinions, and I’m not at all afraid to voice them. Also, I generally don’t like people (except you!  You are amazing, and I love you!), so I truly don’t care if people like me or not.  I say what is on my mind, usually unfiltered, and I don’t care if it offends you.  Regardless of what you may think, hurting your feelings is not a crime.  Deal with it.

Back to it.  Here’s the thing, the far right hates moderates for not being “Republican enough” but needs us for our votes.  They call us RINO’s (Republican In Name Only) for the slightest deviation from the party line. They use name-calling as a form of peer pressure to try to bully us into compliance.  The far left hates us for not being “Liberal enough” but court our votes when they need us. They use name-calling as an attempt to silence us.  They call us every name known to mankind… I mean personkind… them-kind?  Screw it!  You know what I mean!  (More on this later).

Being a moderate today means not fitting in… anywhere.  You aren’t a Republican or a Democrat.  It means being the target of attacks from both sides for simply having your own opinions.  It means believing in compromise, but knowing it’s not likely to happen ever again.  Being a moderate means walking a lonely road across the political landscape by yourself, with only your wits and common sense to guide you.  It means avoiding eye contact with those on the right and the left, hoping they don’t demand you state your position.  It means hoping for the return of the days when people actually talked to each other with a little respect, even when they disagreed, but fearing those days will never return.

Let’s face it.  None of us likes being called names.  As odd as it will sound, that’s exactly why they – the right and the left – do it. Both sides have figured out that if they insult you enough and belittle you, eventually you will be so afraid of them that you’ll stop expressing your own opinion.  If you are afraid of them, you will remain silent.  A silenced population is easy to control.

Maybe the worst part about being a moderate is the assumptions people make about us.  An example? Thanks for asking!  If, during a conversation, I voice support for the 2nd Amendment, people on both the right and the left assume I’m anti-abortion and anti-immigration, to give just a quick example.  Simply for being pro-gun, people on both sides assume I toe the party line on every issue.  That’s really sad, for many reasons.  One, it bothers me when people make assumptions about me like that.  It limits the chance for conversation. Also, it generally means they think I’m as close-minded as they are.  Personally, I also think it’s a little insulting, because it means people don’t think I’m actually intelligent enough to form my own opinions.

Now I’m going to point out something that should really bother you.  Ready? A quick scan of Congressional reports (co-sponsors and voting records specifically) shows that there are more moderate Republicans in DC than there are moderate Democrats.  I bet you can’t guess why.  Okay, I’ll tell you!  (I’m horrible are keeping secrets).  Republicans are morally opposed to ‘identity politics’.  Identity politics push more Democrats further to the left simply for votes. It’s that simple.  Take a look at Amy Klobachur(D) from MN, if you don’t believe me.  Throughout her career, she’s been widely respected as a mostly moderate Democrat, but once she hit the stage as a Presidential candidate, she was pushed to the left in an attempt to sway the progressive vote.  Now, in order to preserve her reputation and avoid being targeted by progressive activists, she is forced to remain further to the left than she has ever been.

The problem I have with identity politics is that it creates a hierarchy of victimhood.  Yeah, I said it!  With identity politics, the more ‘repressed group’ catagories you can check, the higher on the victimhood chart you place.  If you don’t check any blocks, then your voice doesn’t count.  Identity politics doesn’t guide legislation or create unity.  It forces people to categorize themselves and others to find out who is deserving of their own freedoms, and even to deem others unworthy of rights.

This isn’t exactly new, either.  I’ll give you a personal experience example from… almost thirty years ago.  I had decided to apply for a job with Border Patrol, so I called the toll free number to request an application packet.  I spoke with the woman who answered the phone for a few minutes, when she said (and I’ll never forget her exact words), “I’m happy to send you a packet, but do you really want to waste your time applying if you won’t get the job?”  I ask her what she meant, and she explained.  She said, “I can tell from you voice that you’re a male, probably white, and you already said you are a veteran with some college.  Okay, so you get perfect scores on the knowledge exam, physical assessment test, and psych profile.  That’s 100 points, plus the five points for being a veteran.  So 105.  Candidate B is a gay, black women with a college degree who is also a veteran and partially disabled.  She gets a combined score of 30 on her tests, which is the lowest possible score.  Ten points for being gay, twenty for being black, twenty for being female, five for being a veteran, twenty for her partial disability, and ten for having a degree.  That’s 115 points.  Do you still want me to send the application packet?”  I thanked her for her time and hung up.

Think about that for a minute.  A candidate with a perfect score is beaten out for a job by a candidate who got the lowest possible score.  That’s what identity politics has caused.  Ultra qualified candidates don’t get jobs because they don’t check enough of the right boxes.  Yes, I know, I’m white and male.  That means, historically, that I’ve had privilege.  News flash – being male and white shouldn’t disqualify me or anyone else from a job.  

[outsidemyhead]

Guide to being a moderate

Guide To Being A Moderate

           Over the years, I’ve seen both Democrats and Republicans shift further and further in opposite directions.  There has always been a small, almost fringe group within both parties that tries to push the agenda further away from the center, but they have always been a very small group.  That fringe was once considered “the wacko from the third party” who screamed the world was going to end, or we’d all be extinct in a generation.  In recent years, those small groups have taken over both major parties.  The positions on both sides that were once considered radical and impractical are now the norm.  The two parties have become so polarized that nothing productive is getting done.  

To complicate matters further, the two chambers of Congress – The House of Representatives and The Senate – are held by opposing parties most of the time.  The House, bowing to their base, pass radical legislation along strictly party lines. The Senate does exactly the same thing, except their base is on the other side of the aisle, so their bills are completely different.  Both chambers know full well that their legislation is so far from center that it will never see a floor vote in the other chamber.  Neither party cares, so long as they can blame the other.

Well, what about the Independents, you ask?  I’m glad you asked!  Let’s look at the Senate – Bernie Sanders is only listed as an Independent because ‘Communist’ doesn’t poll well, and Angus King is a Democrat who happens to believe in fiscal responsibility once in a while.  Okay, that’s kind of unfair.  Bernie is a Socialist, not a Communist.  The difference is subtle, but its there… or so I’m told.  He’s also delusional, which used to mean harmless, but today is dangerous.  As for Angus, he is actually pretty centrist for a Democrat today, all things considered. I’d hardly call either of them scale tippers in the battle of party lines if I’m being completely honest.

The drift to the fringe on both sides bothers me, if you must know.  It doesn’t bother me because I don’t agree with the majority.  It bothers me because moderation has gone out the window.  With both parties now at the extreme end of their party, there is no compromise.  Neither party will give an inch, and the American people are the ones who suffer.  Rather than work on legislation both parties can agree on, they spend much of their time targeting each other, trying their best to destroy members of the other side. And that is the problem – moderates talk to each other so they can work things out.  Radicals can’t see any chance of compromise, so instead of trying to work together, they target each other with rhetoric intended to literally end careers.

So why have the two major parties drifted further away from the center?  There are several reasons, at least half of which I won’t even claim to understand. One reason I do understand is our political system.  Okay, here is what I mean.  Each party chooses its candidate during the Primary.  Do you know who tends to vote in the Primary?  The extremists.  The average, middle of the road citizen who tends to think closer to the center of the political spectrum… well, we have jobs, kids, car trouble, etc., and get caught up in daily life and forget to vote.  That means, in most cases, that the candidates at the far ends of the spectrum move on to the general election and the rest of us have to live with it. Maybe those of us in the middle should start voting in the Primary, so we can have some decent candidates for a change!

This whole ‘whack-job candidate’ issue in the Primary happens on both sides of the aisle, so let’s be even-handed in our frustration fueled condemnation.  The Left ends up with the bride of Satan who swears that stop signs are racist and abortions need to be legal up until five minutes after birth.  The Right ends up with Dr. Frankenstein who honestly believes God personally told him climate change is a hoax perpetuated by aliens in an attempt to force gay people to get married.  Sure, I’m exaggerating a little, but you get the point.

I suppose I should get this out of the way now – I’m from Maine.  No, I don’t have a weird accent, and no, I’m not a lobsterman or a lumberjack.  Believe it or not, those aren’t the only two career paths in Maine.  I’m old enough to remember Angus King as Governor of Maine (I voted for him at least once), Olympia Snowe as Senator (and her husband John McKernan as governor), and Susan Collins when she was a freshman Senator.  I’m old enough to remember three revered statesmen from Maine – Ed Muskie, George Mitchell and Bill Cohen.  Hell, I voted for two of them!  (I probably would have voted for Muskie, but I wasn’t old enough.  I’m old, but not THAT old!).  The reason I bring this up now is to make a point – Maine politics has a long history of producing moderate politicians, and really good ones at that!  Just look at the list above.

Bill Cohen, a Republican Senator, served as Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.  Wait… A Republican appointed to a cabinet level post by a Democrat?  How many times has that happened in recent memory?  It speaks not only to Cohen’s ability to work across party lines, but also to his ‘middle of the road’ way of thinking.  Today, Cohen would be called a RINO, because he wouldn’t tow the party line on every issue, but in actuality he was a moderate.

Ed Muskie, a Democrat, was a Senator, as well as Secretary of State during the Carter Administration.  Previously, he was also a member of the House, then Governor of Maine. No matter how you slice it, a political career as long as his meant he had to work the middle of the field, as they say.

George Mitchell, a Democrat, could be one of the greatest statesmen of the twentieth century.  No, I’m not kidding, just look at his record.  US Attorney, Senator, Senate Majority Leader, Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, Special Envoy to the Middle East. He served in three straight administrations – Clinton, Bush, and Obama, not because he was a political hack, but rather because he was a moderate who could bring people together.  I’ve never heard anyone who knew him or worked in politics say they didn’t respect him.  He got things done.  Period. Also, he genuinely wanted to do what was best for people, regardless of their political party.

Olympia Snowe, a Republican, was named one of “America’s 10 Best Senators” by Time Magazine, who said "Because of her centrist views and eagerness to get beyond partisan point scoring, Maine Republican Olympia Snowe is in the center of every policy debate in Washington.".  Snowe was actually called a RINO by the group Concerned Women for America.  Just a quick heads’ up – if you hear the term RINO, it usually means moderate.

Presently, Susan Collins is a US Senator from Maine, and a Republican.  Yes, she has also been called a RINO.  Of course, she’s also been voted the most bipartisan member of the Senate, and been called one of "the last survivors of a once common species of moderate Northeastern Republican" (Time Magazine).  Recently, I’ve heard people complain that Collins voted to acquit President Trump during his first impeachment.  Those people seem to forget that she also voted to acquit President Clinton, for exactly the same reason – no evidence of an actual crime. That alone should tell you that she doesn’t vote solely along party lines.  And talk about taking your job seriously!  Collins has never missed a roll call vote in over twenty years in the Senate.  One of the most impressive speeches I’ve heard from the Senate in the past decade or so came from Collins.  Just prior to the Kavanaugh confirmation vote, Collins gave a speech that laid out exactly why she would vote the way she did.  Whether you agree with her vote or not, I encourage each of you to listen to her speech with an open mind.  You might actually learn something.

Let’s be honest – Maine isn’t exactly the first state you think of when you are considering which state has a major impact on the national political scene.  Only two Reps in The House, so not much pull there.  Only four electoral college votes, so not (usually) any political pull on that front, either.  Yet in the last forty years, a Secretary of State, a Secretary of Defense, and a Senate Majority Leader, not to mention two of the most powerful women in the Senate during our lifetime.  That’s pretty impressive, no matter how you slice it.

Okay, I know!  I sound like a homer for politicians from my home state.  I suppose I am, to a degree, but you can’t deny the national impact the above people have had over the last couple of generations, or that these people worked across party lines to get the job done. Like them or not, Republican or Democrat, they were/are all moderates.  I suppose I developed my political ideology (as a moderate) partly because of these great people.

There are still a few decent moderates today, but nobody likes them.  They get picked on and bullied, even within their own party.  They try to stand up for themselves, but the odds (and the numbers) are against them.  I mentioned Susan Collins has been voted as the most bipartisan member of the Senate. She’s definitely a moderate.  Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia is another example.  Another great example from the Senate is Kyrsten Sinema (D) of Arizona.  Over in the House, Henry Cueller (D) of Texas is a great example of a moderate among the Democrats.  As for Republicans in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was ranked as the least ‘politically right’ Republican in the House, followed closely by fellow California Republican Devin Nunes.

Speaking of House leadership, I want to point something out. According to govtrack.us Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi(D) has a ‘politically right’ score of 0.34.  Her counterpart, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy(R) has a score of 0.44.  In other words, the two of them agree on 56% of all issues.  So why doesn’t more productive work get done in the House? Note that I said productive work, not just work.  Over the past few decades, we’ve seen hundreds of bills pass through the House for such ground-breaking issues as calorie counts on menus and limits to the size of cups allowed for carbonated beverages.

Oh!  One more thing I want to mention before we move on to equally lame excuses for section headings.  I mentioned above that Minority Leader McCarthy has a ‘politically right’ ranking of 0.44, which means he is fairly liberal, yet he has been painted as a far-right extremist.  Weird, huh? But wait, there’s more!  Exactly 50% of the bills McCarthy was a cosponsor of in 2019 were proposed by House Democrats, showing his obvious willingness to work across party lines.  On the flip side, Speaker Pelosi was a cosponsor on only 6% of bills written by Republicans.  So McCarthy works across party lines and is an extremist, but Pelosi rarely crosses party lines and is considered mainstream.  Got it!  This shit is starting to give me a headache!

(I’m begging you!  Don’t take my word for any of this.  Go look it up!  It’s public information and can be found online – I googled it.  If I can find it online, any of you can find it, too – I’m no rocket scientist, especially when it comes to technology.  You’ll immediately discover a couple things – both sides lie, and neither side is completely good or evil.  The sooner more of you start seeing the truth and demanding it from the media and government, the sooner they will be forced to give us the truth!  Remember, they work for us, whether they want to admit it or not.).

#us politics #politics #moderate

[outsidemyhead]

Abortion

For well over a year, I’ve been hearing a lot of people on the left saying that Roe v Wade was law and that the Supreme Court was going to try to destroy it, thus taking away a womans’ right to choose.  There is a lot to unpack here, so let’s get to it!

ROE IS NOT LAW.  It is a Supreme Court ruling.  The Supreme Court does not have the Constitutional authority to make law. That power belongs solely to Congress. For everyone on the Left who is saying Roe is settled “law”, please stop intentionally misinforming the people who aren’t smart enough to know the difference.  Got it?  Good.

Now, to everyone on both sides of the debate, I have a question. Have any of you actually read the Supreme Court ruling?  No? Wow… you have an opinion on a topic you don’t even understand, a topic you literally know almost nothing about. How typically American of you, you uneducated hack.  Go eat a tide pod and shut the fuck up!

Maybe I should explain the difference in this specific case. In Roe, SCOTUS ruled a specific state law (Texas) was unnecessarily restrictive.  Why does that matter, you ask?  First, thanks for asking such an important question!  It matters because it means SCOTUS recognized two things. One, that since the federal government had never (and still hasn’t) passed a federal law codifying abortion rights, it is a state right to establish laws for their own citizens. Second, it established that states have the right to create boundaries for abortion. (Also, for more on boundaries, see Casey v. Planned Parenthood).

Okay, I’m just going to say it – I support a womans’ right to choose.  And you want to know something?  That actually makes me at least as Republican as any right-winger out there.  Now I’ll explain to you why, because the logic and common sense behind the entire abortion debate has been lost.

Here’s the thing – as a Republican, I believe the government has too much influence on our lives.  I believe individual rights come first, as long as they don’t interfere with the rights of others.  I believe rights pre-exist government, and therefore can not be denied by government. And I believe most Republicans have been led down a false path on this topic.

Stop with the religion argument right now, because the ‘life begins at conception’ argument is false.  There is no passage in the Bible that reads, “Abortion is wrong”. Read the book, you fucking hypocrite!  The only example of God suggesting that a living being was in the womb, He/She is speaking to and about a specific, rather important individual.  Jeremiah 1:5, if you are curious.  There are a half dozen passages that say life begins with the first breath.  There is even a passage that states causing a miscarriage, which is literally an abortion, isn’t murder.  Check Exodus 21:22-25; "When men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that there is miscarriage, and yet no harm follows, the one who hurt her shall be fined according as the woman's husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."  If causing the miscarriage was killing a baby, why is it not punished by an eye for an eye?  Damn! Straight from your own sacred text! (Mine too, if you must know). Even Saint Augustine argued that a fetus didn’t gain a human soul until it was ‘formed of arms and legs’.

The truth is that abortion was common two thousand years ago.  As a matter of fact, the first recorded evidence of abortion is in text from 1550 BCE.  It was done with herbs (low doses of toxins, to be more accurate).  It was a widely accepted part of daily life, even among those who founded the Christian faith, and nobody gave it a second thought.

Also, if you believe in the ‘life begins at conception’ argument, I’ll take it one step further.  The sperm swims and contains genetic material, right?  It’s alive, by every technical definition.  So washing those little swimmers down the drain is murder, you masturbating little fools.  Oh, and no more swallowing the next generation, you murderous little nymphos. Damned cannibals!

Having said all that, we now come to the crux of the debate.  It’s none of your fucking business! Stop trying to force your beliefs on other people! You believe that abortion is against the word of God (despite the evidence from your own religious texts)? Awesome.  Then don’t get an abortion.  But by claiming that someone else can’t get an abortion because YOUR religion says its wrong is a violation of freedom of religion – you can’t just force your beliefs on other people like that.  It’s very un-Republican, you fanatic!  Damned zealot!

Oh, by the way…. The landmark case Roe v Wade (1973) was decided by a 7-2 vote in the Supreme Court.  Six of those seven votes were by conservative justices.  You might want to take a breath and think about what that means. Those justices certainly thought about it, and they concluded that their personal beliefs took a back seat to the Constitution.

While we are on the subject of Roe v Wade, let’s have a history lesson!  The majority opinion in the case was written by Justice Harry Blackmun, a conservative appointed by President Nixon. He based his ruling on the due process clause in the 14th Amendment.  Here’s a little known fact.  Liberal activist and justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said that Roe v Wade was the right outcome based on the wrong reason, by the wrong body – she believed Congress should have been allowed to try to address the issue of abortion before the Supreme Court did.  And she was completely correct.  The only problem is that Congress refuses to pass laws on politically divisive issues like abortion because they don’t have the balls (or vaginas) to potentially piss people off.  Why do you think abortion laws and immigration reform never pass?  Because politicians are weak-minded, soulless cowards!

But let’s not stray too far in the other direction, either!  Here is where being a moderate comes in.  Science has done a pretty good job at telling us some things about the fetus while it is still in the womb.  Ultrasounds can show us images of the unborn, and we can hear a heartbeat, once the heart muscle develops.

So what does all this mean?  It means that we know that, at some point, that fetus will become a living being. Now we need to determine, using science, when that is.  Is it during the first breath?  That would mean legal abortions right up until the moment of birth.  Yikes.  Is it when the heart muscle beats for the first time, independent of the mother? You can grow a beating heart muscle in a lab, but that doesn’t mean it has a soul.  Also, a heartbeat is detectable at like seven weeks, but let’s not forget that the mothers’ heart is still pushing blood through the umbilical cord. How about we actually follow the science to its natural conclusion for once?  At what point in the development of the fetus could it reasonably be expected to survive outside the womb?  In other words, if a fetus were to be removed from the womb, could it survive without life support machines?  Science gives us the answers, so why not follow the science?  Science says that at 20 weeks, the survival rate of a fetus outside the womb is roughly 20%, and that at 23 weeks, that rate is roughly 50%. Personally, I think 20% is a fighting chance, and in this situation I’d take those odds.  I’ll pull for the underdog on this one.

Now let me address both sides of the argument for a second.  To my friends on the Right:  It’s not your body, and you don’t have the right to tell someone else what to do.  The moment you make it about religion, you risk violating the freedom of religion of others.  You are not morally superior to anyone else, so get off your high horse.  Also, don’t complain about taking lives while sending me and my friends off to fight your wars.  Take the win at 20 weeks.  To my friends on the Left:  20 weeks is a scientifically supportable position.  Morally, as a group, you are a disappointment.  Also, learn to wear a condom or take the pill.  And no, abortion is NOT birth control, and the sooner you figure that shit out, the better everyone will be.  Don’t push your position beyond its logical end.  Take the win.  See that?  Now that’s called compromise.  I know, none of you are familiar with the concept.  It’s something only moderates currently understand.

One last thing about abortion before I throw up, pour a drink, and move on to the next topic.  My tax dollars should never be used to pay for an abortion.  That shouldn’t even be open for debate.  And yes, I’ve heard the argument ‘its cheaper to pay for an abortion than it is eighteen years of welfare’.  How about learn personal responsibility and don’t make babies you can’t fucking support?!?!?  I have a solution to this – men who make a baby they can’t/won’t support or personally pay for the abortion spend eighteen years in prison.  Women who make a baby they can’t support or personally pay for the abortion must give the child up for adoption or be sterilized to ensure they don’t keep making bad decisions.  Maybe then, both men and women will exercise a little personal responsibility.

Okay, I lied.  I have one more thing to point out while we are on the abortion topic.  Until the federal government – read as Congress – steps up and passes a federal law regarding abortion, the Supreme Court is going to rule on the side of states’ rights.  Just be aware of that.  

My friends on the left – in 1993-95 and 2008-10, your party held the House, Senate, and White House with a substantial majority, yet they failed to pass a law to protect reproductive rights of women.  Why do you think that is?  The simple answer is because if they actually pass a law to protect abortion, they can’t beg you to re-elect them so they can fight for womens’ rights.  It’s all about the next election, and YOU fell for it.