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My original blog - I have moved to http://shannonclark.wordpress.com so this remains only as an archive.
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Searching for the Moon
by Shannon Clark
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Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Lead21 Blog: Hysterics & Condescension Don't Win Elections
Lead21 Blog: Hysterics & Condescension Don't Win Elections: "As an independent centrist progressive (labels aren't too easy to come by - trying that out for now) I too found Michael Moore et. al. obnoxious - especially the note of 'abandon the world' / 'don't trade/do business etc'. That said, I didn't find Enimem's video offensive - I thought it was significently better than the vast majority of get out the vote efforts - something I do take away as encouraging from the past election - the sheer numbers on both sides who did come out and vote (though we still have 10's of millions of people who didn't bother voting)
On the otherhand, I did not vote for Bush or the Republicans exactly because, in large part, of their 'fringe' - the religious right scares me vastly more than the far left. For one, I am much less scared by a philosophy somewhat simplistically of 'live and let live' than I am of one rooted in a fundemental belief that there is a single 'right' view of the world (as an Atheist I find the insertion of God into politics and government fairly offensive, as someone from a part-jewish family, I am also painfully aware of the impact of a single, heaivly biased viewpoint running politics can have. Freedom of religion is one of the cherished bedrocks of the USA - however diversity is another.
For me, the religious right trumps Michael Moore. Then combined with fiscal mismanagement, geopolitical mismanagement, political appointees trumping science or experience on a repeated basis (initial positions in Iraq for example were awarded to former Republican volunteers instead of people with specific skills/experience in nationbuilding; many departmental appointees were even more political than in years past and had very deep ties to corporations managed by those departments - more than somewhat troubling) and deficit spending past necessity (first tax cut while the nation was at war for just one example, no vetos at all - even of pork laden bad bills).
So this year I found my fiscal conservative inclinations strongly opposed to Bush and the Republicans and I found my socially liberal views also in opposition (on issues such as abortion, gay rights, as well as more broadly the role and focus of government). Finally, my underlying view that science and experts should trump religion and belief when setting government policies or implementing them also lead me strongly away from George Bush.
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11/09/2004 10:07:00 AM
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