Why I Won’t Vote for Ron Paul

I don’t know what kind of magic dust gets blown in people’s faces that gives them a slavering priapism for Ron Paul, but to date it has not been blown in mine. Paul is doing better in this GOP Presidential primary than he ever has before, because all but one of the other candidates are openly lunatics and the one that isn’t is Mitt Romney.

With progressives massively disappointed in Obama, Ron Paul’s friendly guy-from-UP face and Winnie the Pooh voice advocating an end to our endless campaign of senseless overseas warfare, and the equally senseless domestic “war on drugs,” plus his stated desire to focus on the Constitution, makes him seem like he’s the candidate that would get America back on track.

Thing is, the track he’d get us back on is one we had to fight long and hard to get off of. Ron Paul is not a friend to progressives, and I’m glad there’s finally a concise collected summary of his noxious views. Of course, his non-alliance with progressive values should be obvious even from the simple fact that he identifies with the Republican party and not the Democrats or the Greens or what-have-you.

A man who opposes protection of women’s and minority rights? Whose solution to our economic problems is simply to travel back in time without regard to the current global economic climate? Who would effectively dismantle the federal government and make the “United” in “United States of America” purely poetical? I’m sorry, that’s not the lesser of two evils in most of the plausible election scenarios I can imagine. His supporters say he’s been “consistent” as though that’s a good thing. Aside from his stance on overseas war, the values he’s “consistently” upheld are downright toxic.

Also, consistency in the face of conflicting evidence is not a virtue. We’re still in one of the worst recessions in history and are staying out of full-on depression by the merest skin of our teeth, due to poor regulation and out-of-control greed in our financial system. To believe that the “free market” will work toward the best interests of all people and not just the interests of the people running the market, that “market forces” will have the tendency and power to balance and correct against any shenanigans — to truly believe such things, if indeed he does, isn’t just naïve; at this moment in history, it’s downright insane.

Ron Paul is not the best option for America. Fact is, he might be the one of the worst. He’s certainly the most dangerous. At least you can see how crazy the other ones are just by looking at them.

The 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010

The Buffalo Beast is, as far as I can tell, a satire site — but they have one article that, for all its snark, is far too true (and, like Cracked.com, cites its sources better than any supposed “true journalism” these days). Apparently it’s an annual thing, too.

The 50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2010

I can’t really add anything to it, so I won’t try.

(via Pharyngula)

Regarding the “Liberal Media”

I don’t always agree with Keith Olbermann — since the election last year he’s occasionally seemed a little unhinged. It’s not that he is sometimes “too liberal;” if anything, it’s that he sometimes lets his emotional reactions compromise his liberalism and make him say unreasonable things.

I recall one occasion when he essentially called for a limit on the Constitutional freedom of speech for the teabaggers, birthers, and other such vile creatures. While I was completely on board with Keith regarding the fact that they’re hateful, ignorant embarrassments to the conservative movement in particular and the human race in general, he lost me instantly when he implied that they should not be legally permitted to be hateful, ignorant embarrassments etc. Because they should. Because as awful as they are, giving the government the power to limit free expression of any idea is a slippery slope, and the visceral satisfaction of having people I disagree with silenced would not be worth the inevitable silencing of my own expression when the pendulum inevitably returns. Call it “Mutually Assured Discussion.”

And then there was when this went down. Olbermann went berserk, spearheading the accusations of racism that I honestly am not convinced were intended or even subconsciously inserted. The joke of the cartoon was that the stimulus plan was so poorly-written that it must’ve been written by a chimp. I don’t think at all that it was meant to cast aspersions on the actual writer(s) of the bill, and certainly not against the new black President. I’d be more likely to associate it with the “1000 typewriters for 1000 years” type of monkey than the “porch” type. It’s called satire, folks. When you see “it’s because he’s black!” under everything, you’re the racist. 

Still, among the available talking heads that aren’t Stewart and Colbert, Olbermann is still my preference — although I want to watch more of Maddow’s show. For one thing, he’s a liberal and, occasional lapses of irrational hypersensitivity aside, is usually reality-based. Compare this to Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc, who will distort, dismiss, or outright fabricate information in order to form events to the predetermined version (though O’Reilly seems to have occasional lapses of rationality). Olbermann at least cites his sources.

Compare also to the fact that, again, he’s a liberal awash in a sea of conservatives — and unlike those conservative commentators, who like to pretend that they’re in some way “neutral,” he at least makes no bones about the fact that he’s coming at this from a liberal slant.

I’ve always been annoyed by the blanket references to the “liberal media,” because I really don’t know what the people who use the phrase are talking about. They seem to mean that entertainment is liberal — but the news media certainly isn’t. Conservatives like to say that conservatism doesn’t have a voice in the media because, I dunno, they have a persecution complex or something.

This claim is clearly false, but I’ve never quite had the motivation to piece together a response to it. But Olbermann — who again, I like because he does the research and cites his sources — did it for me.

The Maine Situation – No on 1

Back in May, the Maine legislature legalized same-sex marriage in their state. Predictably, the right-wing hate machine has revved its engines to undo social progress, and has put Proposition 1 — essentially identical to California’s Prop 8 — on the November ballot.

Greta Christina has a blog post on the subject that I can’t say better, but the two important points are:

• Every state that legalizes same-sex marriage and does not fall into total social anarchy as a result makes it that much harder for anti-equality forces to spread their lies, because they’re more and more likely to be seen for what they are.

• Proposition 1′s failure will make the first time that a majority vote by the people of the United States upheld marriage equality. Until now it’s been rulings by the courts or decisions by the legislatures, and the opposition has been all too happy to crow about it violating the will of the people. When the will of the people openly supports same-sex unions, even in only one state to start with, they won’t be able to pull that one out anymore. A single clap can start an avalanche.

We in California had our chance to be the first domino to fall and we blew it. We weren’t prepared for the full force of bigotry that the Yes on 8 crowd brought to bear. So now Maine is ground zero. I’m confident that equality will eventually win out, as it always has before. But a win in Maine will bring about a national win much, much faster.

Greta’s post mentions several ways to get involved. I am personally starting to plan a Volunteer Vacation to Maine and spend a week canvassing for the No on 1 campaign. I sat on my hands with Prop 8 and I share the responsibility for its passage as a result. This time can, and must, be different.

Obviously most people have real jobs and can’t afford to take a week off to get political. But you can still be involved. If you can, please donate to the campaign. The Yes on 8 campaign was fueled by massive influxes of cash from big donors, prominently including the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. The Yes on 1 campaign has hired many of the same campaign managers as Yes on 8, and there’s no reason to think it won’t have many of the same supporters and donors. We in California saw the lies and fearmongering they slapped on billboards and TV commercials, and the No on 8 campaign simply didn’t have the resources to wage the battle effectively. Every little bit will go a long way toward fighting the smears that are going to be inevitable.

However you intend to get involved, get involved early. Voting for the Maine election actually opens in October, so if you wait until right before the election date, most of the votes will already be cast and it will be too late. We’ve made our mistakes, now we have the opportunity to show we’ve learned from them.

Iowa Legalizes Gay Marriage

California, you see this? Fucking Iowa is more progressive than we are.

Okay, that’s not entirely fair. Their state supreme court overturned a gay marriage ban, which is after all exactly what happened in Cali last May.

Still, a Prop 8 equivalent can’t pop up in Iowa until 2012 at the earliest. By that time, the gays will have been entering into committed relationships for more than three years without the state devolving into animal-raping child molesting polygamous anarchy. The arguments of the right-wing slime-peddlers won’t hold any water then, and the referendum has a good chance of being defeated. A validation by voters, in any state, that they want to allow same sex marriage will have a domino effect on the rest of the nation. 

And Cali folks, that should have been us last November.

Prop 8 passed because too many of us assumed that it didn’t have a chance in the 21st century, in one of the most liberal states in the union. I hope the lesson has been learned that hate and fear still dominate regardless of the date on the calendar. We need to know better next time, and be ready to get active in the fight for equality, both here in California, and everywhere else that people are finally working to put decency over dogma.

Sleep Tight

Yes We Did

Congratulations to President Barack Obama.

Congratulations America. And welcome back.

‘Nuff said.

My No on 8 Video

This is a somewhat-successful first attempt at using YouTube’s “Direct Upload” feature, and it’s my appeal to California voters to vote against the discriminatory Proposition 8. The audio is out of sync and it cuts off the last sentence, but the bulk of the message is there.

California Voters: The “Props” on the Ballot

(This was originally an e-mail I sent around to some of my close friends. A few of them encouraged me to blog it, so what the heck, here it is.)

One week from Tuesday, Nov. 4, is the big election — although some of you may be voting early (and may have done so already). There are also 12 proposed laws on the California ballot. The props are long and filled with legalese, and the arguments from both sides are adamant and compelling.

I won’t tell you guys how to vote (aside from no on Prop 8 — it seriously goes against everything America is supposed to stand for), but I can tell you how *I* plan to vote at this point, and why, and perhaps help you make your decisions as well.

Last Night’s Debate

Not really much to say, I think the pundits have it right and the country does too. Palin didn’t self-destruct, Biden won the debate in terms of actually being able to do the job.

I’m actually planning to do a YouTube video re: the election, hopefully get that done this weekend when I’ve got the opportunity.