# Why I dont vote Republican **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 16, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387 "2010-04-16T20:28:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/41 "2010-04-18T17:28:48Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Oh, I see. The Bush allegations were PROVEN yet the Kerry allegations are ONLY allegations. I think you are letting your personal feelings get in the way of objectivity Uh, you don’t think the truth is a relevant defense in this case? > [@](#): > > You are just blinded by ideology Is this some sort of parody? ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/42 "2010-04-18T17:36:52Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > And I’d say nationalizing multiple industries while trying to eliminate others… Out of (morbid) curiosity, exactly what qualifies (for you) as “nationalized”? And exactly what industries were nationalized? ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/43 "2010-04-18T17:38:58Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Uh, you don’t think the truth is a relevant defense in this case? > > Is this some sort of parody? Do you have anything of substance to say? BOTH stories were allegations based loosely on the facts. We’ll never know what the real truth is. Please read my comments, as well as the comment I was addressing, before replying. I’m not here to argue for or against either tale…rather I am pointing out that this behavior happens in both parties. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/44 "2010-04-18T17:40:27Z")
Ah! He’s teaching the controversy! ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/45 "2010-04-18T17:42:46Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Oh, I see. The Bush allegations were PROVEN yet the Kerry allegations are ONLY allegations. I think you are letting your personal feelings get in the way of objectivity In 1999, Ben Barnes, the former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and Lieutenant Governor of Texas, stated under oath that he had called the head of the Texas Air National Guard, Brigadier General James Rose, to recommend Bush for a pilot spot at the request of Bush family friend Sidney Adger.[7] cf. Some SBVT members have questioned Kerry’s first Purple Heart, received for a wound sustained on December 2, 1968…They assert that the injury was too minor to merit a citation because the only treatment Kerry received, after the removal of a piece of shrapnel from his arm, was bacitracin (an antibiotic) and a bandage, and he returned to service immediately; however, other division members, including at least one SBVT member, received Purple Hearts under similar circumstances (ReportsAwards)…The criteria for the Purple Heart call for its award for any injury received during combat requiring treatment by a medical officer; the military makes no distinction regarding the severity of the injury ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/46 "2010-04-18T17:46:33Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Do you have anything of substance to say? BOTH stories were allegations based loosely on the facts. We’ll never know what the real truth is. Please read my comments, as well as the comment I was addressing, before replying. I’m not here to argue for or against either tale…rather I am pointing out that this behavior happens in both parties. Yeah, I don’t think anyone is buying the “both sides do it equally!” defense that has become all the rage over the last few years. I understand psychologically why you need to justify it this way to yourself, but it just looks silly to anyone with the slightest bit of actual objectivity. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/47 "2010-04-18T18:08:27Z")
> [@Imasquare](#): > > I’m trying to remember who was in government the last time the federal budget was in the black? And then who was in government when it next returned to a deficit? That was the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as far as I’m concerned. With a smart but slimy Slick Willy in the White House, we needed an adroit politician to go toe-to-toe with him and instead we get Newt Gingrich as SOTH. I actually shook my head at that and almost 20 years after the fact Clinton gets credit for the economic turnaround which led to a surplus (which he also gets credit for) and we remember how he was unfairly impeached for a blowjob (forget about perjury) and 20 years later we STILL can’t figure out what Clinton knew all along - perception is reality. But let’s talk about today - A.D. 2010. Do any Democrats favor reduced spending? ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/48 "2010-04-18T18:44:18Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Yeah, I don’t think anyone is buying the “both sides do it equally!” defense that has become all the rage over the last few years. I understand psychologically why you need to justify it this way to yourself, but it just looks silly to anyone with the slightest bit of actual objectivity. You’re correct. The Left does it more and much better. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/49 "2010-04-18T18:46:43Z")
> [@Rumor\_Watkins](#): > > In 1999, Ben Barnes, the former Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and Lieutenant Governor of Texas, stated under oath that he had called the head of the Texas Air National Guard, Brigadier General James Rose, to recommend Bush for a pilot spot at the request of Bush family friend Sidney Adger.[7] > > cf. > > Some SBVT members have questioned Kerry’s first Purple Heart, received for a wound sustained on December 2, 1968…They assert that the injury was too minor to merit a citation because the only treatment Kerry received, after the removal of a piece of shrapnel from his arm, was bacitracin (an antibiotic) and a bandage, and he returned to service immediately; however, other division members, including at least one SBVT member, received Purple Hearts under similar circumstances (ReportsAwards)…The criteria for the Purple Heart call for its award for any injury received during combat requiring treatment by a medical officer; the military makes no distinction regarding the severity of the injury The Bush allegations were AWOL and feared a drug test. The Kerry allegations were that he lobbied for the Purple Heart to pad his record and his Cambodia story. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/50 "2010-04-18T19:03:02Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > You’re correct. The Left does it more and much better. There’s not a single thing the Republican party could do, from the outright advocacy of killing all left handed people or nuking Boise, Idaho that you wouldn’t simply defend with “the left does the same thing, even more so!”… If your views are not amenable and alterable based on new information, they are dogmatic and useless - if they intersect the real world it’s only coincidentally. It doesn’t matter how off the deep end they could go - it would never make you realize “wait a second, they’ve gone too far this time and they are worse than the other side in this case”. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/51 "2010-04-18T19:40:19Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > There’s not a single thing the Republican party could do, from the outright advocacy of killing all left handed people or nuking Boise, Idaho that you wouldn’t simply defend with “the left does the same thing, even more so!”… If your views are not amenable and alterable based on new information, they are dogmatic and useless - if they intersect the real world it’s only coincidentally. It doesn’t matter how off the deep end they could go - it would never make you realize “wait a second, they’ve gone too far this time and they are worse than the other side in this case”. Wow…you need to lay off the caffeine. I don’t know what you base that comment on but you’ve gotten far off track. The OP was complaining about how he doesn’t vote Republican due to, among other things, comments made about Kerry and Obama from the Right. I merely pointed out that both sides are guilty of this and that the OP has a selective memory. You, on the other hand, are blinded by ideology…to say that the Bush allegations are truth but the Kerry allegations are merely Right wing bomb throwing. Get your head out of your rear and just think about the ways that Bush was maligned over the past eight years…not just by fringe groups either. Remember that MoveOn web ad with Bush morphing into Hitler? Were you whining then about how off the deep end the left went? Just curious… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/52 "2010-04-18T19:58:06Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > …Remember that MoveOn web ad with Bush morphing into Hitler? Were you whining then about how off the deep end the left went? Just curious… The problem with remembering that has to do with the fact that it didn’t happen. As you probably have heard, but apparently chose to forget, MoveOn did a contest for amateur ads, to be reviewed by the online membership and the most popular would win. The _prospective_ ads to which you are referring were pulled almost as soon as anyone noticed, seeing as they were very near the bottom in terms of repondent’s approval. So, please note: even as insanely vicious as MoveOn’s constituency may have been, they did not approve, did not promote, and did not select any such thing. If you were “just curious”, you could have found this out in about two seconds, instead of opening up a can of creamed crap to serve us. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/53 "2010-04-18T20:02:20Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > And I’d say nationalizing multiple industries while trying to eliminate others makes Obama more like a Marxist that a war makes Bush Hitler. You see…it’s all perspective. You are just blinded by ideology and are trying to excuse the Left for equally, if not worse, bad behavior. Please, please, please tell me what industries Obama has nationalized. And before you say the banks, remember that started the Bush administration. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/54 "2010-04-18T20:04:53Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > If you were “just curious”, you could have found this out in about two seconds, instead of opening up a can of creamed crap to serve us. lol ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/55 "2010-04-18T20:09:35Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > As an aside, were you equally as angry at the left for comparing Bush to Hitler constantly? Is that not as bad as comparing Obama as a Marxist? Which one is closer to the truth? Comparing Bush to Hitler is closer to the truth. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/56 "2010-04-18T20:11:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > The problem with remembering that has to do with the fact that it didn’t happen. As you probably have heard, but apparently chose to forget, MoveOn did a contest for amateur ads, to be reviewed by the online membership and the most popular would win. The _prospective_ ads to which you are referring were pulled almost as soon as anyone noticed, seeing as they were very near the bottom in terms of repondent’s approval. > > So, please note: even as insanely vicious as MoveOn’s constituency may have been, they did not approve, did not promote, and did not select any such thing. > > If you were “just curious”, you could have found this out in about two seconds, instead of opening up a can of creamed crap to serve us. Yeah…MoveOn claimed they would not post anything that was inappropriate for television. I assumed you were curious enough to know that. [http://www.bushin30seconds.org/rules.html](http://www.bushin30seconds.org/rules.html) That list included two Bush = Hitler ads. Of course they claimed they had NO IDEA that these two ads were on their website after the shit hit the fan. Are you really that naive? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/57 "2010-04-18T20:18:29Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > But let’s talk about today - A.D. 2010. Do any Democrats favor reduced spending? Yes, the ones in Congress. As I said in post #33, congressional earmarks are down more than $12 billion since peaking in 2006. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/58 "2010-04-18T20:53:58Z")
> [@yorick73](#): > > Wow…you need to lay off the caffeine. I don’t know what you base that comment on but you’ve gotten far off track. The OP was complaining about how he doesn’t vote Republican due to, among other things, comments made about Kerry and Obama from the Right. I merely pointed out that both sides are guilty of this and that the OP has a selective memory. You, on the other hand, are blinded by ideology…to say that the Bush allegations are truth but the Kerry allegations are merely Right wing bomb throwing. Get your head out of your rear and just think about the ways that Bush was maligned over the past eight years…not just by fringe groups either. Remember that MoveOn web ad with Bush morphing into Hitler? Were you whining then about how off the deep end the left went? Just curious… Pop quiz: Who did I vote for in 2004? Tell me which ideology I’m blinded by. The right wing apologists to their excessively retarded behavior now always say “well.. your side does it too! Hypocrite!”.. It’s their only defense. It’s applied to such ridiculous extremes that it’s a joke. “Oh, an major elected official from the Republican party said that Obama is a communist that wasn’t born in American? Well, some liberal blogger with 204 page views said something bad about Bush in 2003! You’re just as bad!” Bush was maligned over the last 8 years FOR SHIT HE ACTUALLY DID. He killed hundreds of thousands of people and forever tarnished the image of the US to enrich his buddies, for fucks sake. People act as though somehow ACTUAL LEGITIMATE CRITICISM OF THINGS THAT BUSH DID is somehow equivelant to all of the tea bagger OBAMA IS A SECRET MUSLIM THAT WANTS TO FORCE YOU TO GAY MARRY YOUR DOG! bullshit. You have openly acknowledged that truth doesn’t matter to you here - the fact that Bush using his family ties to avoid Vietnam actually being true, and the idea that Kerry did not legitimately receive his purple hearts is actually false, has no meaning to you. As long as there’s someone bashing someone on the right and someone bashing someone on the left - regardless of where it comes from, or if there’s actual truth to it - doesn’t matter! Both sides are equally guilty, therefore you can’t hold the Republicans responsible for anything they’ve done! You, of all people, trying to play the “oh you’re just a non-objective partisan!” card is a complete joke. I’m not a democrat nor do I particularly like most democrats. I am, however, quite intolerant of bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/59 "2010-04-18T21:25:24Z")
[QUOTE=Michael Lind] The biggest danger is that Democrats will misinterpret the coming electoral setbacks to mean that they need to move in a libertarian direction. That would repeat the mistake made by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and the other New Democrats during the Reagan era. It was their failure to understand that foreign policy and the culture war, not conservative economic policies, were the basis for Republican victories [/QUOTE] Mr. Lind needs to insert more filler between his mutually exclusive assertions. To “move in a libertarian direction” is, by definition, to take a clear stance against Republican positions in “foreign policy and the culture war”. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387/60 "2010-04-18T22:20:56Z")
I think, on the question of whether there is any hope of rational discourse in our political system in the near future, this thread stands as strong evidence. It ain’t gonna happen. Tris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-dont-vote-republican/536387.md?page=4)