[Vision2020] "Why I'm joining the GOP, " Jeff Gillenkird (SF Gate,
5/29/05
lfalen
lfalen at turbonet.com
Thu Jun 23 13:23:17 PDT 2005
This sounds more applicable to Ayn Rand's Objectivism than to the Republicans to me.
-----Original message-----
From: Debbie Gray dgray at uidaho.edu
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:39:32 -0700
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] "Why I'm joining the GOP, " Jeff Gillenkird (SF Gate,
5/29/05
> Why I'm joining the GOP Leaving the left for fun and profit -
> Jeff Gillenkirk (from the SAN FRANCISCO GATE)
> Sunday, May 29, 2005
>
> After a lifetime voting for and working for Democratic
> candidates and independents, I'm finally going to make the
> switch and become a Republican.
>
> The reasons are many, not the least of which is age. I turned 55
> recently and, having lived more than half my life, I can't
> afford to worry anymore about the other guy. It's time for me.
>
> As a Republican, I can now proudly -- indeed, defiantly --
> pledge to never again vote for anyone who raises taxes for any
> reason. To hell with roads, bridges, schools, police and fire
> protection, Medicare, Social Security and regulation of the
> airwaves.
>
> President Bush has promised to give me more tax cuts even though
> our federal government owes trillions of dollars to its
> creditors. But that's someone else's problem, not mine.
> Republicans are about the here and now, and I'm here now.
>
> As a Republican, I can favor exploiting the environment for
> everything she's got. No need to worry about quaint notions like
> posterity and natural legacy. There are plenty of resources left
> for everyone, and if we don't use them, someone else will.
>
> I want a party that doesn't worry about things before we have
> to. Republicans refuse to get hog-tied by theories such as
> global warming, ozone depletion, fished-out oceans and
> disappearing wetlands. The real problems -- if there are any --
> aren't forecast to take hold for at least 50 years. So what do I
> care? I'll be dead.
>
> As a Republican, I can swagger and clamor for war -- in Iraq,
> Afghanistan, Colombia, wherever -- even though I've never fought
> in one or even been in the military. I can claim that we're
> fighting for Democracy, ignoring reports of torture at Abu
> Ghraib, Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay, and a spreading
> gulag of secret detention centers around the world.
>
> Freedom, as every American should know after spending $300
> billion for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, isn't free.
>
> As a Republican, I can insist on strict moral values when it
> comes to sex and ignore the growing moral chasms in business,
> politics, sports, journalism and the leadership of the Roman
> Catholic Church.
>
> A society that loses control of its sexual urges faces unwanted
> pregnancies, socially transmitted disease, broken families.
> Those overzealous about wealth, however, produce only a higher
> GDP, lifelong security for their family and more minimum wage
> jobs for the lower classes. What's wrong with that?
>
> As a Republican, I can favor strict punishment of criminals,
> except for those who happen to be my friends or neighbors. Isn't
> that the very definition of community -- looking out for friends
> and family?
>
> I will be pro-death penalty and anti-abortion, pro-child but
> anti-child care, for education but against funding of public
> schools. As a Republican, I'll have a better chance of getting
> to spout my opinions in the media, which for some reason seems
> convinced that since Bush was re-elected with the smallest
> electoral margin of any sitting president in history, liberals
> are passe.
>
> As a Republican, I'll say goodbye to "old Jesus" and hello to
> "new Jesus. " Sure Christ started out as a liberal Jew, and look
> where that got him. Compassion, love and diatribes against the
> rich only encourage the weak and punish the most successful
> among us. The Jesus that Republicans worship is a muscular,
> decisive, pro-war crusader hard at work cleansing the world of
> evildoers, not, God forbid, turning the other cheek.
>
> My decision to become a Republican didn't come easily. For years
> I clung to the idea that the foundation of a democratic society
> was our implied social contract, each of us committing some
> level of personal sacrifice to the common good of all.
>
> I regarded taxes as dues we pay for better roads and schools,
> safe inspection of meat and dairy products, maintenance of parks
> and protection of wilderness areas. I see now that looking out
> for the common good resulted in shortchanging the most important
> element in this formula -- me.
>
> Let Democrats continue promising the "greatest good for the
> greatest number." Republicans clearly have my number -- No. 1.
>
> I'm sure a lot of my friends reading this will ask me, "How can
> you sleep?" My answer will be, "Who's got time? I'm busy earning
> money." While they're bellyaching about rising deficits, the
> outsourcing of jobs and casualties in Iraq, I'll be marveling at
> the march of freedom in the Middle East, upticks in the GDP and
> the president's plan to link Social Security to the magic of the
> marketplace.
>
> As a Republican, I simply won't listen to bad news anymore. Bad
> news doesn't get me or my family anywhere. If you don't have
> anything good to say about somebody, don't say anything at all --
>
>
> unless it happens to be about a Democrat, of course.
>
> Jeff Gillenkirk was a speechwriter for former New York Gov.
> Mario Cuomo. He lives in San Francisco. Contact us at
> insight at sfchronicle.com.
>
> Page D - 2
> URL:
>
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-
> bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/200
> 5/05/29/INGJPCU3GL11.DTL
>
> ©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
>
>
>
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
More information about the Vision2020
mailing list