American Politics the 2016 edition

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 micky wrote:

 rushfan4 wrote:

As a white middle-class/upper-middle-class professional male, it is in my best interest to vote Republican...but I have always been a Social Democrat.  It just sits better with my belief system...but sadly most things that matter don't really matter to me personally.  

I'll never need an abortion.
I'm not ever marrying another dude.
I'm not an immigrant and have little concern of illegal immigrants taking my job.  
I am not a minority.
My employers have always provided me with health insurance so I'm actually a little worse off because of ObamaCare.
I don't believe that I will ever do anything that will result in me facing the death penalty.
Although I support gun control...the reality is that cat got out of the bag long ago and the truth is that if "you outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns".  I respect people's rights to own guns and living 8 miles from the city of Detroit, I fully understand why "normal" citizens would want to own guns to protect their families.
I've never collected unemployment nor welfare...I appreciate the safety net being there, but fully believe that the system is broken and needs to be fixed.  Something needs to be done to make abusers employable.
I am not in the military and currently do not have any family members in the military so war or no war has no personal effect on me.  I believe that peaceful means and diplomacy is generally the right way of things, but sometimes, whether we like it or not, the USA needs to step in and be the "parent" to make the misbehaving "children" behave.  Yes, that is US arrogance, but that is the role that our ancestors have chosen for us to be the world's policeman.  

Everything screams at me that I should be a Republican, but aside from arguably being more fiscally responsible, nothing about the Republican side appeals to me.  Number one on my list being the religious fanatics.  Being Agnostic, every phony religious thing that comes out of Republican politicians mouths irks me.  From my point of view, they are either smart enough to know better and are lying through their teeth or they are gullible and have no business governing over men.  I respect people's rights to believe in the flying spaghetti monster or whatever else you want to believe in but don't force your beliefs upon me.  The sad part is that many of those beliefs are actually not really such a bad thing...i.e. the ten commandments.  Teaching people morals is actually a good thing, for the most part.  etc. etc. etc.

  damn right Scott.  I vote my conscious .. not as something as selfish as my pocketbook.

I'll never be a woman (try as I did), never be gay (even though many have thought I was) nor black (though I have as much SOUL baby as any) but damnit man... my conscious.. and my strong sense of right and wrong.. AND very strongly held notion of what this country.. was and no longer is.. tells me that my personal concerns are petty.  My vote is for a better .. more socially diverse country where who you are, or who you choose to sleep with means NOTHING to anyone but ones selves and should never EVER be grounds for discrimation.

and don't buy the crap Scott...  the days of fiscal responsibility being a corner stone of conversative (GOP) poitics are many years and many Presidents in the past. Yes they will cut taxes for you... but it only runs up the deficit when you don't bring in enough to cover what the government is supposed to do.. provide for its people.
Republicans are more fiscally responsible in the sense that they are budgeting the money to spend on things that in theory at least will grow the economy.  Spending money on the military budget does create jobs and create wealth (at least within that sector).  Lowering taxes on the wealthy does provide them with more money to invest (and create jobs) or spend (and create jobs).  Again, this is purely theory as Reagonomics is also known as trickle down economics because only a small amount trickled down.  

On the flipside, giving money to homeless people and welfare recipients and mental patients gives them money to spend, which in theory creates jobs.  But none of that gets invested.  And you are stuck with the dilemma of why should those that work hard (or were born into a family that once worked hard) and succeed be punished and forced to support those who are too "lazy" to work hard and are perfectly content to scam the system.  Isn't it the church's job to support these unfortunate souls who are down and out?  Congress gives us a tax incentive to volunteer and donate money to the church and other organization to help these less fortunate individuals.  If I don't choose to do this, then who gives the government the right to force me to do this.  (Playing Devil's Advocate, but I can understand this point of view).  And just to throw out another saying "give a person a fish they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime".  This is what is the most wrong about our welfare system.  I can't say that I am a big fan of Bernie promising free college education because again, why should I have to pay to send someone else's kids to school, but on the other hand at least it is helping "teach them how to fish" so maybe they will be able to "Eat for a lifetime" and someday help to pay for someone else's kid to go to college. 