<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title></title>
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff">
That's funny. It's sounds like nonsense to me.<br>
<br>
db<br>
<br>
lfalen wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid720afcdb2ab8c98e08e0753dfdfaf6fa@turbonet.com">
<pre wrap="">This sounds more applicable to Ayn Rand's Objectivism than to the Republicans to me.
-----Original message-----
From: Debbie Gray <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:dgray@uidaho.edu">dgray@uidaho.edu</a>
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:39:32 -0700
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</a>
Subject: [Vision2020] "Why I'm joining the GOP, " Jeff Gillenkird (SF Gate,
5/29/05
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">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
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:insight@sfchronicle.com">insight@sfchronicle.com</a>.
Page D - 2
URL:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sfgate.com/cgi">http://sfgate.com/cgi</a>-
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.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a>
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
_____________________________________________________
List services made available by First Step Internet,
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a>
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>