EDITORIAL RANT
I was once asked by a news paper editor if I was a Republican, or a TEA partier. I told him that I prefer to avoid labels because they are over-broad. I am who I am, think what I want and try to have good reason for what I think always willing to be persuaded, if possible, where I am wrong.
As Emerson once said "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." I would emphasize the word "foolish" in that quote as I do not believe that there is anything inherently wrong in being consistently wise.
I know many people who are registered to vote under different banners who think very much alike on many issues. The Republicans certainly have no special claim to the "right to life" issue, the "right to bear arms" issue, the right to be free from intrusive government regulations issue or many other issues that are of real concern to people regardless of their party registration.
But listen to the haters and you would think that all Republicans are evil. Such thinking is over broad, over inclusive and born of a little mind.
Dea Riley, former candidate for Lieutenant Governor with the late Gatewood Galbraith recently posted this to her Facebook page:
Come on Dea. Do you really think that all persons in the Republican Party openly embrace exclusion, elitism and social categorization? That we are all radical fascists seeking to impose a specific ideology/theology on everyone, embracing intrusion into individual rights? That certainly doesn't define me, and neither does it define or describe many of the republicans I know. That is an insult.
But you are in good company. MSNBC which has turned out to be the great hater of all things republican made up out of thin air a claim that "conservatives" hate bi-racial families.
My God! First of all there was no "conservative" backlash last year which the facts prove and which caused MSNBC to amend it's tweet to remove the word "conservative". But that doesn't cure the problem.
The far left, the liberals in the democratic party and yes, even some of the TEA party liberals who are hiding out under the banner of "constitutional conservatives" hate republicans so much that they refuse to see that we are all individuals, with individual thoughts, feelings and beliefs.
As a republican I still believe in individual freedom, and that is because like our founders I believe that my life is a gift from God and that I am endowed by Him with inalienable rights.
As a republican I still believe that when a government fears the people there is hope for liberty, but when the people fear the government we have tyranny.
As a republican lawyer I defend the constitution every day, which on some days means that I defend the rights of people to do things, and say things with which I might personally disagree, but they have the right to do and say them.
And as a republican I have no compelling desire to see that we control people through a particular theology. I am a Christian and my faith teaches me that I am to love my neighbor, introduce them to God when the chance arises, but recognize that they operate with free will and their choices are their own. Do I want everybody to be a Baptist, or a Catholic, or a Methodist, or a Quaker or a Mormon or a Pentecostal? Of course not. As a Christian I would like everyone to know and accept Christ and I think the best way to do that is to live what I believe to the best of my ability and introduce them to each other.
But as an American, who believes that people should be free from government dictates as to whether and how they worship, I do oppose the goal of radical Islam to force the world to capitulate to their twisted worship of a pedophile prophet or be killed or enslaved.
And likewise I oppose any effort, by any person or group of persons to enslave people under any ideology, including the disgusting political game that addicts people to government hand outs, destroying their sense of self worth, de-incentivizing them to reach their full potential and thus enslaving them to the masters who they eventually think are the only ones who can provide for them.
The problem in this nation isn't republicans, it's the irrational, unsupportable, off the chart hatred OF republicans. And THAT my friends is not an accident.
Hating republicans is not the natural consequence of an honest study of history. It is not the result of deductive reasoning. Hating republicans is the cold and calculated strategy of those who wish to fundamentally transform America into the kind of nation our founders and thousands upon thousands of our best and brightest ever since have fought to prevent.
It is unfair to say that all democrats are far left liberals. It is unfair to say that all republicans are cracker-assed racists.
We are all Americans. We all have the right to want and pursue different paths to happiness. But hatred of others is destructive.
You may assign to me a desire to run things by my theology, but only on this one point. In my view, hatred has no place in America. I would prefer that we love each other, and all people, as we love ourselves.
If that was our guiding principle, I believe everything else would fall into place.
