Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Why are you a Republican?
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December 27, 2012 at 5:03 pm #606041
junction heroMemberDon’t answer if you are inbetweener. Full blooded Republicans enlighten me with your thoughts please.I want to understand. Don’t worry I’m not going to bash you.
December 27, 2012 at 10:38 pm #780991
junction heroMember5 hours went by and no Republican’s responded here? I’m shocked!
December 27, 2012 at 11:28 pm #780992
SmittyParticipantGrew up in a single parent household with an income of about 13K a year. Mom put us through school and taught us to make the most of what we had. Don’t complain or blame others. If you don’t like your “place in life”, work hard and study hard so you can change it – which we did.
Lower tax RATES (not revenues), strong national defense, less government but not NO government, and I have always been big on personal responsibility and accountability (same thing?).
Never got into the social aspects, although I am pro life, pro gay marriage and anti death penalty.
December 27, 2012 at 11:30 pm #780993
DBPMemberDecember 27, 2012 at 11:43 pm #780994
JoBParticipantSmitty..
very similar circumstances produced this lone maverick democrat in a very Republican family.
December 28, 2012 at 12:15 am #780995
SmittyParticipantIn re-reading that I wasn’t trying to say that Democrats are *not* those things (hard working, etc).
Those are just MY circumstances growing up – I am sure there are other factors that played into my disability!
December 28, 2012 at 12:35 am #780996
Genesee HillParticipantI was for Nixon in 1960 as a nine year old. I have been Dem ever since.
December 28, 2012 at 5:28 am #780997
redblackParticipantso, smitty. we meet again.
how low do you want those tax rates?
and why? is it just for you, or do you really believe in voodoo economics, despite empirical evidence that it’s a failure?
and, if i may, i have a follow-up question:
do you believe that pro-life policies contradict libertarianism? i.e. that government should stay out of people’s personal lives unless and until it’s in a woman’s uterus, in which case we have a vested interest in interfering?
<full disclosure> this might strike you as funny, and a lot of my liberal friends will look at me as if i’ve grown a third arm, but i think it’s consistent:
i’m pro-choice and i’m okay with the death penalty.
and i’m pretty liberal when it comes to responsible gun ownership. </full disclosure>
December 28, 2012 at 2:24 pm #780998
SmittyParticipantI like tax rates where they are currently. I am a firm believer in the Laffer curve and think that lower *rates* can (and have) produced higher revenues. That “sweet spot” on the Laffer is always changing however. Take the Clinton years – housing boom, tech boom all played more of a role in federal revenues that any tax policy (imo). Under Reagan, tax revenues soared even though rates were cut. It was spending that did us in (primarily defense). And yes, he did increase them later – after tax cuts had primed the pump.
I have struggled with abortion forever. I am not particularly religious, and certainly understand the keep “your hands off my body” approach, but just can’t get over the fact that the human being inside deserves a “choice” as well, and the women’s body should not “trump” the child’s.
As to the death penalty, I just can’t get my hands around even one innocent person being killed. I would rather lock them up for life and be done with them. I don;t think it is much of a deterrent in its current form either – it just takes way too long to work itself out.
December 28, 2012 at 4:07 pm #780999
JoBParticipantSmitty…
“just can’t get over the fact that the human being inside deserves a “choice” as well, and the women’s body should not “trump” the child’s”
that’s the choice i made decades ago, but i am also the one who has had to bear the weight of that decision…. as does every woman every time she gives birth.
the problem with someone else deciding for you is that you still have to bear the weight of their decision.
if it’s your decision.. it should be your responsibility…
are you willing to take that responsibility?
December 28, 2012 at 4:44 pm #781000
dyn99ParticipantThere are very few “true” Republicans left in West Seattle that can support the agenda that the national party stands for in good faith.
Smitty, it’s good to see that you’re not a die-hard Republican on issues like abortion and the death penalty. These are issues where the party contradicts itself in a wholesale fashion.
The Republican party has traditionally stood for individual freedoms and for the government to stay out of an individual’s private matters.
Unfortunately, the party no longer stands for these things, mostly because it has been taken over by religious zealots that value their interpretation of religious values over individual rights.
The party also doesn’t truly believe in low tax rates. It believes in higher effective tax rates for individuals, especially in lower income brackets, while hedge fund managers and others who receive most of their income from “investments” pay lower effective rates than someone who makes $30k/year (taking payroll taxes into account).
It would be nearly impossible to be a “true” Republican, truly believe what the party preaches, and be rational at the same time right now.
And this is coming from someone who voted for Republicans for most of his life, until the past few years.
The party has just become far too extreme nationally for me (and any other rational person, I would argue) to reasonably support.
December 28, 2012 at 5:05 pm #781001
wakefloodParticipantSmitty, you gotta’ start looking at other analyses than just the jilted stuff put out by the Cato Institute, et al.
The Laffer curve is junk science. If you think that the rise in Gov’t revenue during Reagan was due to tax cuts you ain’t looking at all the data.
He cut effective rates on the upper incomes dramatically but also jacked the rates on all us working stiffs via FICA, etc. Hence the few got big cuts, the many got the shaft. It was the auspicious beginning of shifting the tax burden from the investment class down to the average Joe & Jill. (You do know that the self-employed “entrepreneurs” that the GOP love to claim as their own had their rates go from 8% to 15% during the 80’s, right?)
Revenues also rose during Clinton when he raised income rates back up.
If you think Laffer’s got it figured out, here’s a quote for you:
…on August 28, 2006, when stock broker and UC Berkeley alumnus Peter Schiff appeared on CNBC and proclaimed that by 2008, our addiction to debt-financed consumption and the collapse of the housing bubble would plunge the country into one of the deepest recessions it had ever seen. Squaring off against Schiff was none other than Art Laffer, former economic advisor to Ronald Reagan and the godfather of supply-side economics. “The United States economy has never been in better shape,” assured Laffer, who even went so far as to bet Schiff a penny that the economy wouldn’t crash. “I’ll bet you a lot more than a penny,” Schiff retorted.
December 28, 2012 at 5:42 pm #781002
wakefloodParticipantHey R/B,
We feel similarly re: abortion and the death penalty. I’m ok with both. And that does occasionally make my fellow progressive friends uncomfortable.
December 28, 2012 at 6:09 pm #781003
hooper1961Memberi suspect there are many Dan Evans type republicans in WS.
unfortunately WS is a socialist beacon. the biggest problem with socialism is that removes the incentive for hard work and personal responsibility.
December 28, 2012 at 6:26 pm #781004
TanDLParticipantYeah, like the socialism in Canada or France. None of them work or take any responsibility… sarcasm
December 28, 2012 at 6:29 pm #781005
hooper1961MemberTanDL – move to Canada if you think it is so great!
December 28, 2012 at 6:31 pm #781006
TanDLParticipantYou’re funny. “WS is a socialist beacon.” If you’re not a Republican then you’re a socialist now? When Bush was in office it was.. if you’re not a Republican then you’re not patriotic.
Think up a new saying, boys. How about, if you’re not a Republican then you’re smarter than they are… or, if you’re not a Republican then you believe in Democracy… or, if you’re not a Republican then you’re at least on a winning team. I’m sure you find more examples.
December 28, 2012 at 6:33 pm #781007
wakefloodParticipantDecember 28, 2012 at 6:35 pm #781008
hooper1961Memberfirst of all i am not either a R or a D.
December 28, 2012 at 6:40 pm #781009
wakefloodParticipantThat leaves F cuz you’re not a C.
December 28, 2012 at 6:41 pm #781010
wakefloodParticipantOr do you fancy L?
December 28, 2012 at 6:42 pm #781011
TanDLParticipantThanks for the lovely shout out Hooper. I’m not complaining about America and I’m a patriot, so I’ll not be moving to Canada. I do know Canadians and did spend time up there on a visa some years ago and guess what? They are hard working, very responsible people for the most part. You might re-define your personal definition of socialism.
December 28, 2012 at 6:53 pm #781012
hooper1961Memberi do have a libertarian streak.
i have relatives in Canada and they wanted to come to the US to escape the high taxation!
December 28, 2012 at 6:56 pm #781013
TanDLParticipantBring them on down… we’d love to have them. Make sure they understand they’ll have to purchase their own health insurance.
December 28, 2012 at 7:04 pm #781014
hooper1961Memberand health insurance costs would not be so extreme if the government stopped forcing hospitals to provide charity care for those that choose not to purchase health insurance!
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