Conservatives: Drop the Social Issues or You Will Lose. Period. If it Was None of Your Business to Start With, Guess What it is Still.
I am not going to belabor my point by giving you a long preamble to my basic assertions. In fact I have written about this before, but in recent days the topic has come into the news and I feel the need to continue it.
The only disclaimer I will give is this: I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am proud to say that I am an Independent and registered NO PARTY on my enrollment form. I think for myself. I have yet, however, to be able to support a Democrat candidate, and I’m certainly no supporter of the travesty inhabiting the White House at this time. (Oh, I forgot: he’s running away from world tragedy and war by going to Rio with the family.)
With that out of the way my central point is this: Republicans/Conservatives will not win the White House in 2012 if they don’t drop their pathological obsession with social issues. Conservatives claim to be all for individual liberties. What logically follows from that is that you leave people the hell alone to live their lives as they wish. Keep your religion and your laws out of my bedroom, out of my kitchen, out of my bathroom and out of my pants!
A message to all elected officials, current and future: Whether you like it or not, you represent ALL of your constituents, not just the ones whose way of life you agree with. DEAL WITH IT. You need to get the hell off social issues that are matters of personal conscience, not your Bible or Koran…for now, anyway. If religion wants to play with the big boys in politics, then tax them NOW. Two years ago, I was making an attempt to attend a Universalist church in Rochester, New York. Their summer minister – a personally abrasive man who basically only talked about himself and his gayness – actually said one day, “You do not belong here if you do not believe in the liberal ideals of social justice.” So the leftists do it too.
So much for “Universal”.
If churches and religious groups are going to try to influence politics they need to be taxed into the Stone Age like the rest of us. Otherwise, shut up.
So here are a few talking points for political candidates, local and national, who call themselves Conservative:
1) Drop the abortion issue. It is not going anywhere, so deal with it. Personally, as a man, I don’t feel I have a right to have an opinion on abortion. Seems like a woman has a bit more to deal with. And, hey, both Liberals and Conservatives want the same thing: the extermination of the poor. Even Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood said, “There are too many black babies being born.” Anyone want to be remembered for that remark? Not me.
2) Drop the blatant anti-homosexual hatred. Any gay man will tell you that anyone who expends too much time persecuting homosexuals has personal issues central to that very issue. So, drop it. You’re making fools out of yourselves. Ask Jim Baker. I’ll wait……
3) Drop the gay marriage thing. It is a NON-ISSUE. Nobody cares. What does that have to do with running the country? If Conservatives believe in limited government, then why do they want it to control our personal lives with entirely subjective pseudo-moralities? I don’t get it.
4) I can’t believe there are still sex education issues for our schools, but apparently those who can’t get it on a regular basis are concerned. Knock it off.
5) Instead of persecuting those who don’t buy into your hypocrisy, why not spend time and money preventing Liberal nutjobs from politically correcting classic literature and history books to reflect a neurotic lie about the factual progression of our nation?
6) Instead of trying to demonize the way a free people choose to define their lives, why not try to pay our military troops better wages and support our border control officers to actually do their jobs, not jailing them when they do?
7) And for presidential candidates: Instead of joining the NRA and passing laws outlawing flag-burning, why not have the balls to stand up for the very real concern that our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech is being snuffed out by political correctness and the blatant lie of “separation of church and state”, which does not exist? I dare you.
8) Instead of imprisoning people for non-existent “crimes” like drug possession, why not, as believers in “individual liberties”, decriminalize irrelevant chemicals that do far less harm than legal alcohol and nicotine? Everyone has the right to screw up their lives. You have no right to stand in their way. Criminalizing something meaningless does NOT take away desire or compulsion. It just makes it stronger and more intense. And, unless you are on the money-making end of the drug trade, you have no reason to criminalize any street drug. Hmmmmm. I wonder what that means….
9) Contraception and birth control. First, if you haven’t had sex in the last 6 months, just shut the hell up about this subject. Second, birth control and STD prevention are necessary, especially in this economy and just for even trying to prevent the extinction of the family.
10) Finally, all this comes down to the original premise. Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal, you are representing ALL of your constituents whether you like it or not. If you are not, you need to be impeached, or jailed for fraud. So, if you’re a Christian Republican you represent every homosexual, lesbian, transgendered, black, Hispanic, trailer trash person within your constituency. You have no choice. NONE.
If there is a problem with that, don’t even try to run for anything except the exit.
Andrew T.Durham is a graduate of State University at Albany, with a degree in Psychology/Philosophy. In the late 80's to mid 90's he was instrumental in creating ground-breaking outreach/prevention programs, as well as being a highly successful public speaker. A former acupuncturist and clinician (primarily to inner city adolescents), he has also been a consultant to the Massachusetts State Department of Public Health and several non-profit organizations. He is an accomplished musician - proficient in 7 instruments - ,actor and author of 10 plays, 5 of which have been produced. He is currently a consultant for small non-profit agencies and lives in Rochester, NY
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