Advice for republicans and democrats.
Well now that the election is over we hare at Chariots of Iron can turn our eyes back on our primary targets, that of religious hypocrisy, inaccuracy and the pathetic arguments that are “apologetics”. This upcoming episode is the election wrap-up (coming soon!), and is essentially the three of us getting all the political talk “out of our system”.
In essence this blog post is a companion to the upcoming episode and covers some of the things we talked about in the show. Consider this a “sneak peek” if you will. This will also be the last political blog post of this nature as I too will go back to my focus on the intersection between religion and science.
Now that the election is over I want to speak a moment about the future, while my hopes that the level of discourse in future political campaigns will take a turn toward the positive I also want to voice my hopes for the future of each party.
First i want to speak to the republicans out there (are there any?). The future of the republican party is up in the air right now with internal battles to decide what the future of the party will look like, a more centristt, populist message with fiscal conservatism as the central policy, or will a shift to the right be needed to ensure that the “base” never strays. There are some aspects of republican rhetoric that I do like. I want a government that is fiscally responsible, I also like the message of personal responsibility. These are two things that the republican party has preached in the past, but in practice the republican party has fallen short. Republican administrations of the past 30 years have driven up deficits and neutered public education. Both of these things are antithetical to ideological speech coming out of the American political right.
While deficit spending is the obvious antithesis of fiscal responsibility how does my bringing up education relate to my other point of personal responsibility. It is quite simple, if we want the people of the US to behave in a responsible manner they must be educated. one cannot expect an uneducated (or undereducated) populous to make responsible decisions. We must arm people with the knowledge they need in order to make decisions for themselves that are going to be in the best interest of the nation as a whole. Ignorant people acting en masse are going to do more harm to this nation when personal responsibility is not paired with adequate education. Now the evangelical base of the Republican party may not like this reasoning, as true as it may hold as religious liberalism and atheism levels rise as education levels rise, but the doctrine of personal responsibility will be self-destructive otherwise.
Governor Sarah Palin is not the future of a successful republican party. She represents precisely what is leading the republican party to ruin, that is, placing ideology above reality.
Now on to my democratic friends, I am placing this message directly to the incoming Obama administration and to the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. If you use this majority as Bill Clinton did when he first took office you’re only going to have a grand total of two-years to enjoy your majority. If you’ll remember it seemed as if the first two Clinton years were an “extreme liberal” field-day they used the opportunity to pass highly divisive legislation such as banning assault weapons, “Don’t ask, Don’t tell”, and limits on hand-gun clip size. I would actually like to see the first legislation passed by the incoming administration to be some of the good ideas that come out of the minority party. Show the American people, in you first acts, that you are working across party lines. As much as I’d personally like to see a federal removal of anti-gay discriminatory language from these state constitutions, now is not the time for such legislation. Now is the time to shore up our economy, bring manufacturing jobs back to Americans, improve standards in education and health care, end the money pit that ius the Iraq War and bring closure to America by finally capturing Osama Bin Laden.
We at Chariots of Iron may take the hard-line against religion but i believe that reducing the harmful influence of religion will come though a raising of awareness and growth of universal scientific understanding, it will come from a government that assures prosperity to the people. The saying goes amongst atheists that “one hand working does more to solve a problem than a thousand clasped in prayer”.
Get to work America.