I would like to ask, in the spirit of the election, what this community thinks about McCains VP pick; is she a role model or bad example? How does she weigh out vs. Hillary Clinton’s campaign? What do and don’t you like about her and most importantly, do you think she is helping break the stereotype of a woman by running for VP, or is she reinforcing the stereotype with her family-values being a heavy campaign focus?

With the question asked, I’ll start the discussion off with a little of my opinion in the form of this link.

I’m very interested to see what you all think though.

I vote friend.

Here’s the thing, whatever mudslinging goes on about all the candidates, they ALL have history that someone, somewhere, isn’t going to like. They talk about her supporting the bridge to nowhere, then reversing that opinion. Every candidate has some kind of opinion reversal. Changing an opinion is human. She didn’t champion the bridge to nowhere, that ball was already rolling before she took office. 

Hillary’s campaign was dumbass dirty from the get-go. So far Palin has only proven to be a smartass. Well, I would rather put a smartass in charge than a dumbass, no matter the qualifications.

I am not democrat or republican. I am a constitutionalist. I see the McCain/Palin ticket as less bullshit being crammed down my throat than the Obama/Biden ticket.

HerAlterEgo - 25 September 2008 05:56 PM

I am not democrat or republican. I am a constitutionalist. I see the McCain/Palin ticket as less bullshit being crammed down my throat than the Obama/Biden ticket.

What do you believe as a constitutionalist?  When you apply those beliefs to each of the candidates (and I would also include Bob Barr, Ron PAul, Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney) how do the candidates stack up?

I believe in NO government programs. Especially social security in it’s current state. I believe in the right to bear arms, any arms; Sarah Brady can go fuck herself. (The closest I get to gun controI is asking manufacturers to put a trigger lock on the equipment.) I am pro-choice. I believe we should be allowed to put whatever drugs into our bodies that we want. I believe in tax free capitalism. I believe the IRS is America’s worst enemy. I believe in the constitution and all that happy crap that goes along with it...just for starters. I don’t want this to turn into a flame war over political opinions though. So I’m going to stop here. :)

From my belief stand-point, this elections Republican ticket seems to be the lesser of two evils. I could vote for one of the others, but that would just be throwing my vote away.

Now you put someone up there who wants to legalize pot and get rid of the IRS, I’m voting for that candidate!

My response.

Sorry to have done it this way, but it was quite long winded and was very related to content I’ve been preparing for quite some time. As with any political scenario of course there will be plenty of us with different opinions (that’s the beuty of the US right?), hopefully I didn’t phrase anything in a manner that will be taken as the first attack in a flame war, but rather as my responses to your points and additional points I might benefit from outside perspectives on.

I also might point (a little late) out that infrastructure programs like highways and schools would suffer greatly under completely tax-free capitalism, especially in a drowning economy.

Wow… Forgive my rant. I’m Canadian so social programs are part of my heart, which is why I decided to join this forum. A communitiy reaching out to help others. Government programs while not perfect have their place. I lost my job twice in one year so I needed assistance. My father is in resources so he’s been out of work too. These are direct impacts of social programs, forget the fact the gov’t pays my mom’s salary she’s a nurse. I went to a public school, got a government scholarship, which is why I can say I’m a Nerd Girl with a great education. I drive on highways that the government helped build. I know if I get sick I will be cared for (may have to wait awhile, but it’s available).
Meh, there’s nothing free about America. My friend was telling me about her son’s high school. We have the same type of thing except it’s called a minimum security prison. It’s all for “safety”. After talking to people I’ve found that Americans are more than happy to give up their freedom to be told what’s good, bad, safe or unsafe.  I’m part of the Nerd Girls movement to make sure a certain group of people have the right tools to make good decision and NOT accept whatever they are fed, instead they should carefully weigh options/opinions and then take a stand.
All this aside I’m just happy to hear people are going out to vote! Voter apathy is a huge problem in Canada too. I’d like to see Obama win, because he’s a fresh face on the US political scene, but either way life will go on :)
As for Sarah Palin, meh, she’s just a pawn to get the minority vote. Hilliary took chances, stuck her neck out far enough to make political judgements and statements (for better or worse) since 1992.

c

I agree with some aspects of social programs, but can’t say that all of the implementations in Canada are fitting for the constitutional premise of the US. I also can’t say that the ones we have are very well designed. It’s true that they helped me get to where I am and that my family as a whole can now contribute more to our tax-base than we cost it during our recovery, but there is a fair bit of system-abuse as the programs stand and a number of programs that are unnecessary or awfully planned. I definitely think we need to re-evaluate our plan on the matter, but I don’t consider them to be completely optional either. One perspective of social programs is that they waste tax-payer dollars on people who aren’t contributing to the system, but at the same time I think that many people of this school neglect the potential expenses they would accrue were these programs not around. Many of the people with social assistance are only enrolled because they were desperate. Desperation can, in worst case scenarios, cause people to do things they normally wouldn’t, including acts of theft, violence, or vengeance, all of which can have a direct impact on individuals, groups or communities. Another thing to consider is that programs that help people find jobs or survive between may actually serve to reduce the amount of tax any individual might have to pay since they add more people to the collection plate. I do believe, however, that many of these types of assistance can be provided by non-governmental organizations which would allow people with the ability or desire to help people of a certain circumstance to do so without imposing these expenses on the people who can’t afford them, but it could also lead to a lack of contribution by people who don’t care to think of others.

An article I enjoyed quite recently points out many of the things we’re doing wrong as citizens, since we seem to have distorted the separation of powers that we’re supposed to have learned of in childhood. Even so, I can’t elect someone who might die so long as his VP selection is dumb enough to think that Dinosaurs co-existed with us 4,000 years ago all-the-while supporting a witch-hunting minister thinking she has experience on foreign relations because her state is close to Russia even though she doesn’t even know our own countries legal history, let alone any experience speaking with anybody even remotely close to Russia all the while under postponed investigation for conspiratorial abuse of power. You know it’s bad when SNL does a skit of someone and their “parody” is someone saying exactly the same thing she said.

Reading this over I’m guessing some might think of it as an attack against their views, though I most certainly hope they don’t. I get a little emotional when I think about the future of the country I love, but I love this country because we have the right to our own opinions. I really want to hear somebody tell me things I should worry about on the other side of the line because I can’t possibly look at everything from every possible perspective. Lets learn from each other.