Path: NOSPAM.stolaf.edu!handel From: handel@NOSPAMstolaf.edu Subject: Why does Republican Rhetoric sound good? Newsgroups: alt.impeach.clinton Summary: Keywords: [from http://www.progress.org/democrat/repsound.html] : Republican Rhetoric is Too Good : : One of the toughest things about being a Democrat is that the Republican : values sound really neat -- individual liberty! personal responsibility! a : small government! low taxes! not much bureaucracy! entrepreneurial spirit! ...maybe because they _are_ really neat? :) : We doubt that any Republican with a high IQ, and there are some, actually : believes that their party really works for those values. Yep; you know, the Democrats have historically been the party to fight for a smaller government (hi FDR!), lower taxes, less bureaucracy, etc. : Yet they sound really attractive. ...maybe because they _are_ what America was founded on! : So here's what young Democrats need to do -- LIE! :) : build up a habit of CHALLENGING it whenever Republicans ooze about : "personal responsibility" and all the others. Surprisingly, this is actually good advice - we should "Test everything. Hold on to the good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). : Nowadays, messages like "low taxes" are so popular that you probably won't : even win 50%. Ah ha! So the Democrats are not for lower taxes? : So you have to move the arguments from ABSTRACT VALUES to ACTUAL FACTS. Actually, in my conversations with liberals/Democrats, it's _me_ who has to perform this shift. : What are some actual facts? Get started with these.... : * Republicans have fought against individual liberty all along, by : favoring spying on our own citizens, Heard of Filegate, where the Clinton administration misused the FBI to get 938 files "on our own citizens?" : and attempting to curtail the First Amendment I sure am glad that the ACLU will fight for my right to meet before school with friends of mine to pray. I sure am glad they're also out to protect _Christian's_ First Amendment rights. NOT! : * Republicans have never actually worked for a small government; : even under popular Ronald Reagan for eight years, government : spending grew faster than GDP Ever heard of the "Cold War?" I'm sure you guys would have liked the alternative: _real_ war. Gee, interesting how you didn't mention that THE LAFFER CURVE WORKED! When Reagan reduced the maximum tax rate from the confiscatory 70%+ to around the thirties, our revenue almost DOUBLED! How can that happen, you might ask, that lowering taxes caused MORE money to roll in to the government? Come to St. Louis and take my mother's Economics 101 class. : * Republicans obviously don't believe in personal responsibility or : they would stop supporting giveaways of federal land to timber : companies, range land to large ranches, water to large irrigators, : mines to large mining corporations, and airwaves to large : broadcasters. I've noticed that the biggest problem with liberals and Democrats is that they just don't sit down and think a situation through before they form a decision (or they decide an idea [like socialism] looks great on paper, but forget to take the human variable into consideration). Take the above paragraph, and think it through. If the government owns a piece of property, who's going to care how it does? NO ONE! Now, imagine if the gov't gave said piece of land to ME, a wealthy rancher. I now have a PERSONAL INTEREST in seeing that land do well. I will take care of it because it is mine! Obviously, that's a crude way of thinking about it, but it's the truth (and also why socialism/communism have never and will never work). : These are our nation's biggest welfare payments. Again, that liberal shortsightedness: if I own more land allowing me to graze more cattle, I will pay more taxes! : (When you walk around in the U.S. Capitol, you see some lobbyists : but guess what? None of the lobbyists are hired by poor urban : mothers on welfare; they're hired by rich fatcats on multimillion : dollar welfare.) When you walk around voting booths, who do you see? Geee, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are a LOT more poor people than these rich people you talk about. : * If Republicans really wanted to cut bureaucracy, why didn't they : support Al Gore's "reinventing government" initiative : wholeheartedly? I wouldn't want to reinvent government as algore so creatively did at that Buddhist Temple. Oh, and read his book - that should be more than enough reason. I love his stuff on global warming, especially in light of the Earth Day release of an 18-year study that revealed that the average temperature has decreased by 0.38 degrees celsius. By the way, these are the White House's own numbers! : * If Republicans really want low taxes, then why haven't they : proposed a cut in the payroll tax (Social Security and Medicare), : or moved to boost the zero bracket (the amount you can earn before : taxes start) of the federal income tax? Because this would be stupid and would only benefit a few people, instead of everyone. : No, the tax cut proposals : you see from Republicans aren't made for the purpose of cutting : taxes for America, ...but for China? Don't go there.... ;) : they're just for the purpose of cutting taxes : for Republicans. Have we already won? Is every American a Republican? :) Realize that when people are allowed to keep more of their money, they invest it back into the economy! Even my liberal "American Government" textbook must admit this fact, but they claim that inflation will occur, which the Feds will cool with higher interest rates. Take a look at the '80s, where Reagan cut tax rates dramatically, and never had more than 5% inflation. : * The entrepreneurial spirit in America goes beyond party : boundaries. Sadly, I must disagree here: Democrats have traditionally argued that "there are no bootstraps for the poor to pull themselves up by" and "the American Dream is dead." Now you're telling me that Democrats support the entrepreneurial spirit? : Most entrepreneurs in the U.S. are small businesses, : not huge corporations. ...and Republicans are fighting for them too! It's Democrats who are destroying small businesses by drooling at Germany's unbelievably high minimum-wage [and Kohl wonders why his unemployment is through-the-roof]. : Republicans spend their time and effort on : clunky old elephantine corporations and pretend that those are : entrepreneurial, when in truth the entrepreneurial leadership has : always come from the small ones. You're right, we should PUNISH those "elephantine" corporations! How dare they be prosperous! ;) : If Republicans were serious about rewarding inventiveness, [if we were as serious as the Democrats, which are _known_ for rewarding inventiveness, eh? ;) ] : let them try to name any incentive : program that's even half as big as their welfare handout program : to multi-billion dollar mining companies. This doesn't make any sense. This _is_ the incentive. This is like saying, "name any other welfare program that is HALF as big as the federal welfare program." In conclusion, it was interesting to note that the "way to defeat a Republican" wasn't with Democratic ideas, but rather by trying to argue the Republican ones. In Christ, Pete -- _handel@stolaf.edu___Happy 10 year Anniversary Apple IIGS!___JesusisLord!_ |Peter Handel www.stolaf.edu/people/handel Student UNIX Programmer/Math CA| |"God will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear" - 1 Cor. 10:v13| |_______Whatdoesitprofitaman,togainafortune,andyetlosehissoul? - MWS_______|