Warning: lengthy and (unapologetically) controversial. Please consider the temperature in this kitchen before entering /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif.
<<<< I am not in favor of changing it to benefit only one party and one type of voter. How do you feel about felons, dead people, and others illegally voting (and guess who they vote for)? Let's clean up the technical stuff first before we worry about who spends money to defend or defeat a candidate.
And if you feel I'm a little harsh in my opposition to union support of politicians ,,, well, it was completely union money that bought several seats in Michigan and cast the states votes for Gore.>>>>
Wingnut,
Assumptions are risky, of course, but I feel safe in saying that you can assume that most users of this forum would not support a system that benefits "only one party and one type of voter". Ditto for dead people, felons etc. "voting".
I'm a little puzzled about how YOU feel about it though. it sounds as though you think illegal votes are always "cast" for the party you oppose (sounds pretty much like the Democrats to me).<<<guess who they vote for?>>>
Has all your "outside-looking-in" study failed to turn up any "shady" practices among the republican politicians?
Maybe this is the place to assert that I am an independent, with no party affiliation. In my opinion, and that of many of my friends/neighbors, neither "brand" should be a source of pride. Most of us have not felt (for years) that there was a "good" choice among presidential candidates (at least not with a realistic chance of winning). I can't understand "blind" party-loyalty. Labels mean nothing to me. Words MAY indicate something,... so I try to listen. But ACTION is what really counts... it tells you what someone may well do, since they have done it before.
Saying "I'm a Republican", "conservative"/"Democrat", "liberal" or whatever doesn't tell anyone much.
It's like saying "I'm a Christian" (...thin ice, here /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif ).
All it really says is that the speaker, at least, thinks that is a positive statement. I don't care how pleased such a person is with himself. I am interested in whether he is like Mother Theresa, or more like some Spanish priest during The Inquisition. (There's christians, and then there's christians!)
Re. union votes: don't imagine that all union-members are "sheep", obediently voting the "union-ticket". Speaking again of myself and my friends, (union-members who were urged to vote Democratic) Gore's stand on the 2nd Amendment outweighed any "endorsement" the union made. (incidentally, considering the closeness of the election results, I have no doubt whatever that the union-members who "deserted" the unions over this issue alone, cost Gore the election...hope he thinks about this some. I am from Florida, living in Oregon now, and know that a great number of Floridians take their 2nd Amendment very seriously.)
As for "fast-tracks" for certain immigrants... I didn't notice major policy differences in this respect when the "Reaganites" had the reins for 8 years... did I miss something there, too?
I am a bit sensitive about immigrants who come here, not to "become Americans" in the best sense, but rather to simply seek a better place to live in a "relocated but unchanged" fashion. These people need the chance, the willingness, and the obligation to study and adopt the way-of-life that America-at-it's-best represents. Otherwise, we will have simply relocated the various countries (represented here by their respective immigrant populations) within our borders, and given them the "right", to vote "out" the American Ideal-based culture, and vote "in" changes that more resemble their "own" country's ways. ( disliking oppression and knowing how to float on an inner-tube are not the only prerequisites for "good American-citizenship".)
I think one-"citizen"/one -vote is often a very different thing from one-"immigrant"/ one vote. I think that the principles upon which this country was founded have to be taught, understood, and cherished before ANYONE (native-born or otherwise) can vote "as an American". And if enough of us fail to vote American...none of us will live American.
These views explain my own strong feelings that NO immigrant should be on any "fast track". Becoming "an American" takes study/idealogical adjustment and therefore TIME. We hardly prepare our own native-born children for responsible citizenship anymore. How much more difficult to change someone who has already developed a foreign culture's idealogy/values.
Simply opening the door , saying "Welcome,...here's your voter's registration!" and hoping all will be well, is setting the stage for disaster (if you see vote-swaying numbers of any-and-every culture seeking to do exactly as they do when on their own soil as a cultural disaster for the United States). I am very openly biased in this matter, being a "refugee" from S. Florida, myself. I was born and raised there when it was very like the rest of America in its mix of citizens and commonality of interest in "the American way of life".
It is not now called "Little Havana" for no reason.
Some people come here to live differently, in a different place. Others have come here to live as they always have, in a different place.
With one example as the basis, I would like to remind any readers of the distinction between bias and prejudice. Let's say that if you were an American English-speaking, tax-paying native-born (for generations) citizen with children in a public school, and found yourself and other such parents, unable to communicate/participate in the Parent-Teacher Association meetings WHICH WERE HELD IN SPANISH(!),... then you might develop a "bias" against "cultural invasion". At some point, when there is no "National" language for instance, and sufficient other "adaptations" to newcomers have been made, there is no one or "united" nation at all, ... just a bunch of enclave "nations" on the same piece of real estate.
(The PTA example is a very small "tip' of a very large "iceberg".)
I suppose this is the place to acknowledge that some of our very "best" citizens are "recent" immigrants (as opposed to the less recent "immigrations" that have brought all-but-the-NativeAmericans here.).
They often more fully appreciate the value of what American "ideals" promise than many of us who have never lived elsewhere. Hats-off to them! Would that all Americans took their citizenship as seriously.
But this type of immigrant is more often found in the past than the present, in my opinion. The trend today is to ask less of ouselves AND of others. I am afraid that's just what we'll get!
For what it's worth : I "value diversity" as the slogan goes.
I support legal/controlled immigration WITH "schooling requirements", etc. before "granting" citizenship. No blank-check, resposibility-free welcome for ANYONE.
"Differences" have their value, particularly when they enrich the experience of the "United" whole.But We have to be united by more than the fact that we "are all different".
I think history and careful thought support the concept that the ideals affirmed in the forming of this nation are a most worthy foundation for "unity". I don't want any "fast-tracking" of anyone to result in the dilution of those ideals. I would prefer that there be NO "qualifier" (racial, ethnic, or otherwise), ever used before the word "American".The one word should be enough to say all that needs be said. If that time comes, We will be that much closer to achieving "the American dream".
If anyone is stll hanging-on, after this ramble, I wonder if this will all come across as American "arrogance"(?). I think of it rather as an expression of determination that the very real distinctions between this nation/culture and so many others not be discounted. After all, SOMETHING has made this country (with all its imperfections) the place that the immigrants we're discussing have chosen TO COME TO. Maybe they will help to preserve that "something",... so this place will always be more appealing than the one they chose to leave.
(These are some of the thoughts that float around in a mind where there is too much empty space! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
I plead "politics overload".
Larry
