elections

What we have here is the eternal battle between the pragmatists and the idealists. Both are right in their own ways.

I wish the world would evolve in the way Daniel is working for. Like a beaver, one branch at a time, I suspect it will. But in the meantime my children and I have to live in today. So, while wishing the Greens a lot of luck, spending my vote on them will cost my daughter over the course of her life, as votes for Nader did. "Sending an alarm to the Democrats," is not worth the price it cost. Bush's two terms have increased our national debt to historic highs which todays youth, with no vote at all, will have to pay for.

When the Titanic is sinking, you don't need a new hull design plan. That will come later. What is needed is anything that floats. I'm sorry the country is in such a situation. Daniel's complaints about both parties are valid. But to paraphrase my hero, Don Rumsfeld, "You have to live with the world you've got, not the world you would like."

Look around FHOP and see how difficult it is to get a lot of folks to even admit that Bush, et al, aren't magnificent heroes! They have to start with little steps in the direction of the Democrats before they will be able to jump to the Greens. Daniel has admitted that the DEMS might be better at doing some things than the REPS. These items are not insignificant and are doable now. Let's try to clean up this mess before we begin redecorating. I'm not ignoring Utopia, where the grass is always greener, but I live in Bedlam.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alnilam @ Oct 9 2006, 09:30 PM) [snapback]330453[/snapback]</div>

Shake hands, yes. I have lots of friends I disagree with. I even have some good friends who are staunch Republicans.

But I guess I won't promise to drop the topic as long as the thread is continuing.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alnilam @ Oct 10 2006, 08:59 AM) [snapback]330627[/snapback]</div>

I think I am being pragmatic. Because I do not think we (or your daughter) would be better off under the Democrats. That of course is a matter of opinion, and we each have our own, as some of our friends here on PC think we'd be worse off under the Democrats.

Everybody, D and R, seems to think that I am or should be a D, simply because my ideals are to the left of the Ds, and everybody to the left of the Ds is supposed to be a D. Well, I'm not a D. I actually think that most of what both parties say about each other is true.

Let me say it again. I'm not a Democrat, and I'm not going to vote for the Democrats just because every Democrat I know believes the Democrats are less evil than the Republicans. (None of my Democratic friends actually believes the Ds are good, though, oddly, most of my Republican friends believe that the Rs are good. So in that respect I guess I am more in agreement with the Ds, since they admit they are evil. Except that I'm not talking about people who run either party, just people who vote for them.)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alnilam @ Oct 10 2006, 08:59 AM) [snapback]330627[/snapback]</div>

Not really. I have "admitted" that the Ds might spend 5% less on killing people than the Rs, and that the Ds might give away 5% less to the corporations than the Rs. I don't think I've said they'd be better at doing anything.