Democrats

My main issue with the Democrats (ALL the Democrats) is the pervasive "tax and spend" mentality.

Sure their social programs sound all warm and fuzzy. Who wouldn't want free healthcare? But the fact is that WE will have to PAY for that "free" healthcare, and we'll be paying it through higher taxes. But, we won't just be paying for our OWN healthcare (like most of us already do now), we'll be paying for all of the healthcare for all those people who make too little to pay taxes. Don't kid yourself... That $135 billion healthcare plan is eventually going to come out of our (YOUR) pocket.

If you're a gun owner and a supporter of the second ammendment you, by default, can't endorse ANY of the Democrat candidates. They ALL have a history of gun-grabbing. Half the Republicans are just as bad, but that's another issue.

The Democrats' stance on the redistribution of wealth (higher corporate taxes, or "take from the rich", and more social programs and/or hand-outs, or "give to the poor") is straight out of the socialist manifesto. Hillary Clinton's comments in the last few days regarding "more governmental control and regulation of the markets" is just downright SCARY! But hey, it worked for Stalin, it could work for us, right?!

On the subject of economy, I just can't wrap my head around how handing out more welfare checks creates more jobs. Isn't it just common sense that if it was cheaper for businesses to operate and expand in our country, more businesses might operate and expand in our country? Maybe some of the jobs that left our shores could/would actually RETURN to our shores. More investment in business leads to economic growth. Cuts in corporate taxes will have the single biggest impact on our economy. Period.

As for environmental issues, I think everyone on both sides of the aisle are waking-up to the fact that something needs to be done. The fundemental differences between the Democrats and Republicans on the issue of global warming is not that it is happening, but how fast it is happening and how much of it we are responsible for (or how much we can actually change). Personally, I'm not convinced that the sky is falling, but I do think we should be good stewards and start making changes. I'm a fan of clean coal, I'm a fan of nuclear power, I'm a fan of alternative fuel and I'm all for energy independance... Damn... I sound like the Republican candidates in last night's debate!

No matter what you think about how or why we are in Iraq, the fact is that we ARE there now. Right or wrong, we started it. I think we need to finish what we started, but we also need to "win" in the process. Wholesale withdrawl of our troops before it's "done" will leave Iraq in worse shape than when this mess started, it'll leave Al-Queda in better shape then when this mess started, and we (The U.S.A.) will be the ones who suffer in the long run.

For lack of time and energy, and for the sake of my blood pressure, I won't go into the subject of immigration right now.

As for the Republican candidates... The jury is still out on who is going to get my vote (I really liked Fred Thompson). They all have moments of brilliance, but yet there is something about each one that just rubs me the wrong way. I'll save that for another post, though.