I try fairly hard to leave politics at the door, but lately all I see is how Trump is amazing, no he's not he's a loudmouth, nuh uh he's going to build a wall, no he's going to tear this country apart! Well, that and Hillary is a crook, I mean the only main party candidate qualified to be president, I mean a brainless idiot who left classified emails on a private server, I mean the first female president you misogynist! As you can imagine, I am more or less thoroughly fed up with Republicans and Democrats alike. Look folks, I have been a registered Republican since I hit the big one eight and became eligible to vote. I didn't know what a Libertarian was at that time and, I have come to learn, how much closer I am to just right of center on the political spectrum than not. So I'm going to talk about my views on politics. I'm also going to talk to you about voting. Feel free to listen, or don't, that's on you.
Before I give you lot a brief overview on my political beliefs, as well as my basic reasoning, I want to address my biggest complaint with both main party candidates. At the beginning of their town hall meetings, the very first thing both mainstream candidates started doing was trashing the other mainstream candidate. Now we expect Trump to open his mouth and spew garbage, but even my Democratic friends are disappointed in Hillary bad mouthing Trump's kids. Hey, if you hate each other, that's fine, but leave the families out of it. Only, here's the thing... Neither side has figured that out. Trump has talked trash about Bill, Hillary has talked trash about Trump's wife and children. I expect the mud slinging to escalate even further. This isn't politics anymore: this is a really shitty soap opera, or even Reality TV: the Washingtonian edition.
So what do I believe? Wow, so many ways to answer this. Bearing in mind that I'm not about to cover everything, not to mention the fact that my ideas actually evolve as I research the facts for myself, let's look at some big issues on both side. First, LGBT rights: I believe everyone has the right to marry whom they will under the law and that ALL American citizens deserve the right to pursue happiness in any way they choose, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of other citizens in their pursuit. This is far more than just the LGBT community in that blanket belief, but it is the start. Religious groups tell us that gay marriage is wrong, yet they cannot actually tell us it is illegal. Why not? Religious groups claim that marriage is a spiritual affair and thus dictated by the church. However, the government defines marriage as a civil union between two adults. In fact, were we to change the name from gay marriage to a gay civil union, or even hand-fasting, I expect there would be less outrage from religious sorts. Disagree? Well how about you love your neighbor and try not to judge other people you sanctimonious p...person, you.
Or how about Abortion? Capital A on that on because it's a Big Button Issue. O.o There are people who say that Abortion is wrong, it is murder, regardless of the circumstances. My question for you is straight forward. If a woman is raped, who are you to tell that woman she should be forced to have that child? If carrying the child(ren) to term will more than likely result in the death of the mother or both the mother and the child, how should she not abort the fetus? What about a teenager who is the victim of statutory rape, or who succumbs to peer pressure, and ends up pregnant? What about those who cannot look after themselves, let alone a child? I grew up so poor that me and my family lived in a van. We lost everything shortly after my kid sister was born. Would I wish she'd never come about? No. I love her, glad she's with us. But having lived in a situation where we could only flush the toilet once a day because we couldn't afford gas to get to town to pump water into a tank just to flush it, where showers were a one a week thing, where kids were raped by adults and their parents were given that money they needed to survive... No, my kids will never know a life like that. Oh, and no... My parents never took money for me. Did stuff happen to me? I won't talk about it, don't even like thinking about it, and that's that. So yeah, on Abortion I stand pro-choice.
How about the Right, then? Let's start with guns. Look folks, do not let the media tell pull the wool over your eyes on this one. The guns that politicians are most desperately trying to ban are the ones used in the least number of crimes. In fact, statistically, hand guns are used to commit more violent crimes than all other gun types combined. This is true even after you eliminate criminal on criminal gun violence, which is the vast majority of crime committed with a gun present. Do the research, then the math, somebody has lied to you. So let's go further into it. The AR-15, or rather the Armalite model 15, was designed as a civilian use weapon. The talk you hear about this being a 'military' weapon is pure and utter rubbish. In point of fact, there are pistols with more stopping power than this particular weapon. If you convert one of those particular pistols into a rifle, which is actually quite doable, the get a rifle that is more deadly than the antiquated AR-15. It's amusing that there are pistols with higher capacity magazines than this rifle the media hates so much, not to mention that fact that almost every gun on the planet is semi-automatic. The president made a point of telling us about 'military grade semi-automatic' rifles available on the market. Wow, the lie in that! The military uses selective fire, which means either semi, three round, or fully automatic firing. The military uses one semi-auto rifle... and that's for snipers. But President Obama didn't get on the television to tell us the horrors of the fifty-cal Barrett stealth rifle with it's terrible semi-automatic evilness and it's ten round magazine. It's hilarious to me since this particular rifle has a confirmed kill at over a mile and a half (and that's when I looked at it two years ago)!
Here's a big one: The Death Penalty. I find it amusing that the Left tends to vilify the Right, stating that all they want to do is make money off of imprisoning criminals, yet they are opposed to killing off the worst criminal elements. Look, if we kill off the worst elements after a set amount of time is up for appeals then we will reduce the crimes. For some criminals, it's better to live in prison than out, as at least in prison they get three meals a day and the opportunity for an education. Some people quite literally kill to get into prison. However, if prisoners are going to have to face tougher punishment for their crimes, will it not help deter the crime itself? I know that there will be innocents who are caught in the cracks, but the more people who are sentenced to death as opposed to life in prison, the less prisoners living off the taxpayer. Is it possible I'm wrong in this? Quite! Unlike some, I admit to my failings.
So lets look back at the presidential candidates. It turns out we have two other possibilities, Johnson and Stein. The way Johnson's campaign is going, he could actually stand a chance to actually be president. I agree with his stance on legalizing marijuana and doing further research into it. I agree with quite a bit that he's said and done. Yes, Trump is a Republican this year and swears all those Democrats he supported over the years was just a wild coincidence. Yes, Hillary didn't really mean to let those soldiers in Benghazi die rather than deal with it, nor did she intend to leak sensitive information to her friends out of country via an unsecured personal email server. At least Johnson is actually talking about the issues, not going crazy slinging mud at his opponents. Hell, even his criticisms have been clean. And this has gotten long enough. I might respond to comments or edit more into this later, but I don't exactly have a large readership. Vote your conscience this year folks, whomever you support, and I will see you at the polls.
