Fat Man wrote:You might be a Republican if:
You believe the Earth is only 6000 years old.
< snip >
Fat Man, since Fitman's Brother is not a religious man, this particular post of yours is not relevant to him.
Fitman's Brother, I know this is supposed to be a joke thread, as you've indicated in your title; but it's also exclusively political (or has been so far). So, I'd like to make just a few political comments here. I speak as a guy who was liberal when he was young (at a time when the major political issues were different from those today), but today is now a disillusioned nonvoter.
The creator of this website (who, incidentally, hasn't posted of late, since he's extremely busy doing something else, I assume) is a conservative Republican just like you.
Some Democrats are smart; some are dumb. Some Republicans are smart; some are dumb. Many Democrats are big sports fans; some aren't. Many Republicans are big sports fans; some aren't. Some Democrats are the nicest people I've ever met; some are jerks. Some Republicans are the nicest people I've ever met; some are jerks. My wife and I got married in 1979. As we both joked about it, we had a mixed marriage, since she was a Republican while I was a Democrat. In time we became disappointed in our respective parties, although my wife still votes in elections. Occasionally she has voted for a Democrat or two. Even though she's a Republican, she views Ron Paul as dangerous. She recently told me if Paul were the Republican nominee, she would vote for President Obama as the lessor of two evils. Of course, since Romney's got it all sewed up, that's not going to happen.
Neither political conservatism nor political liberalism have an unblemished history. For example, opposition to Jim Crow laws was a liberal initiative, not a conservative one. I hate to say this, but it's true.
I grew up under Jim Crow; so, I know how evil it was. In 1960 when I was in the fourth grade, a black Korean combat veteran was working for my parents as a yardman. I noticed that even though he was a lot stronger physically than my father was, he was emotionally emasculated. Perhaps he was that way because he was shell-shocked or he was psychologically castrated by growing up as a black male under Jim Crow or both. One day I was home from school with a bad cold. He was bitten by a cottonmouth behind our home. I remember my mom telling me she'd be home in time to cook dinner after she took the yardman to the nearest hospital. (I think my dad may have been out of town at that time, as I don't remember him being home when this happened.) Well, she didn't get back until late that evening. I remember when I opened the door to let her in that tears were running down her face. She had taken him to a nearby clinic that had refused to admit him, although he had put his life on the line for this country. She had to drive to the other side of town to find a hospital where he would be given treatment for the snakebite; but he wasn't treated there for an entire hour and was mocked by white interns. Conservatives had no problem with this injustice, this sort of discrimination no white American has ever suffered in this country.
What is the political orientation of the Ku Klux Klan? Is it a Marxist or socialistic group? No, it isn't. Is it a liberal group? No, I don't believe so. Hasn't it, in fact, always been a conservative group? Yes, it has; and it even predates fascism and Naziism. True, just about all conservatives today shun the Ku Klux Klan, as any decent person would; but the truth remains that it
is a conservative group.
Throughout the history of Jim Crow, there may have been individual conservatives (such as Supreme Court Justice John Harlan at the time of the
Plessy vs. Ferguson decision) who opposed Jim Crow; but the position of most conservatives was to defend Jim Crow as supposedly being Constitutional, among other rationales. (If Jim Crow
were Constitutional, then I'd say we need to change the Constitution.) For many years passage of civil rights laws was stymied by a coalition of conservative Southern Democrats and northern conservative Republicans. During my lifetime William F. Buckley, Jr., defended Jim Crow. Shortly before he died a few years ago, he publicly regretted his past stance. Too little; way, way, way too late. During the 1990s a noted conservative writer named Charles Murray claimed that blacks were genetically inferior to whites. When I hear conservatives today object to affirmative action programs (which I don't necessarily support myself), I just remember their pathetic record on civil rights.
Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan pursued a "Southern strategy" in which they invited unrepentant segregationists (in other words, white Southern conservative Democrats) to join the Republican Party. My wife feels the Republican Party allowed "Southern Democrats" to come into her party without changing their views.
Any members of the Ku Klux Klan who are politically active today are active only in the Republican Party (or perhaps the Libertarian Party as well), such as the Klansman running for county sheriff somewhere in Idaho, not the Democratic Party. (Incidentally, he's a Ron Paul supporter.)
Incidentally, remember David Duke, who attended a Holocaust-denying conference in Teheran last year? I don't remember when this happened, but some years ago Duke once was elected as a Republican to the Louisiana State House of Representatives. Despite Duke's long record of previous activity in the Ku Klux Klan, the now thrice-married Newt Gingrinch publicly declared that if Duke watched what he said for a few years, he would be welcomed into the Republican Party, no questions asked! To be fair, though, I will point out that when Duke ran for Governor of Louisiana, there were decent white Republicans who urged their fellow party members to vote for the Democratic candidate instead, which saved their state from experiencing what would have been quite an embarrassment.
Yes, I believe there are many other issues besides civil rights; but many conservative Republicans seem intent upon emasculating civil rights laws.
Let me repeat, I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I'm just saying the convenient arrangement in which all the evil people are in one political party, but not the other does not exist.
Regarding welfare, I don't believe all poor people are lazy. My own position is somewhere between yours and Fat Man's.
I must say this in Fat Man's defense. As far as his
current situation is concerned, he is physically unable to drive a car. He wouldn't be able to bag groceries because he cannot stand up for very long. I don't know what he could do at this point in his life.
I'm not even annoyed with you. I'm just saying politics are more complicated than you realize and that people have different reasons for supporting one party or the other -- many of which, I'm sure, are equally compelling to them.
Frankly, I wish there were another political ideology or another political party I could support; but there isn't. By the way, I don't bind my political disillusionment upon anyone. I'm just expressing my own point of view.
An addendum: Ah, yes! Politics, the great disuniter. Fitman's Brother, you and Fat Man have something in common after all.

You share this politcal stance in common: You both favor same-sex marriage, which is a liberal initiative. Although I clearly have a "live and let live" attitude towards gays and believe that any vicious crime committed against a gay person should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, I don't support same-sex marriage for several reasons, which would result in many people calling me a terrible bigot. Heh, both of you could get on my case.

So it goes in the world of politics ...