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happy I realized recently that I am a walking contradiction in terms. Rather, I realized this funny way of thinking about it... I'm a born-again Christian gay environmentally concious Republican. I revel in the irony of it actually. LOL
So next year is Michigan's next gubernatorial (sp?) election. I doubt I will vote for Granholm. I don't believe she's done much good for the state. If you think I'm wrong, feel free to try to correct me. What I do know she's done is fruitless acts of giving us the 2nd highest cigarette tax in the country. Now, when I do smoke, I don't mind so much paying the tax. And when I dont' smoke, I don't care much either. And for all the reasons of helping people to quit, and raising extra revenue for the state, this type of thing seems to be a waste of time. Look at New York, the state with the highest cigarette tax. All that has happened is creating new problems of bootlegging (or pirating, not sure which term is more appropriate). People will litterally drive down to South Carolina, and come back with truckloads of cheap cigarettes and sell them privately for big profits. This is illegal and now occupies the scarce time of law enforcement.
The other thing she seems to be doing is scaring the Big 3 (auto) out of Detroit. If they leave, Detroit's unemployment rate will sky-rocket beyond belief. That city alreay has one of the 3 worst mayors in the country (Time Magazine), so if this happens, how will the city EVER recover or come back to good days like those pre-Mayor Young?
So now on to the Republican candidate for governor. It looks as though Dick DeVos (Rich Jr.) is the shoe-in candidate. I don't know if I'm voting for him either. I don't know much about him. But I've already starting hearing people complain, saying "What good could it do to have a billionaire governor?" The interesting thing is, these same people voted for a billionaire for president! And if your first defense to that is, "Kerry isn't a billionaire, his wife is." Then let me ask you this... if Betsy DeVos (Dick's wife) were running for governor, as CRAZY as she might be (is LOL), would you be saying, even if not voting for her, "she isn't the billionaire, her husband is"?
Which leads me to a couple of interesting facts I've recently learned about the 2004 presidential elections. The first, related to the previous paragraph, is that of the 4 main people running (Kerry/Edwards, Bush/Cheney), President Bush is actually the LEAST wealthy of the 4, and yet everyone complains about him being the spoiled rich brat oil tycoon who just caters to big business. And his link to oil is actually much weaker than people make out.
The second fact, unrelated to the above, is in regard to John Kerry's "intellectual" ability. All through the election we kept hearing how dumb Bush is and how smart Kerry is... it is interesting though, that during the campaigns, the Navy (dunno why the Navy, but still) requested for Kerry to release his Yale transcripts, but Kerry refused, and continued to do so until just a few months ago. I don't know why he suddenly decided to release them now, maybe because he has nothing to lose, because he already lost, but they showed that his grades were WORSE than President Bush's!!! Now, I know full well that grades and intellect are not always directly correlated, but they are still related, and it also pinpoints yet another political game played by someone seeking power, though, unfortunate as it is, I know both sides play these stupid games. One can't seem to get anywhere without them.
Ok, now I'm off to Best Buy to get my PC fixed!!! Don't get me wrong, my Mac and I have gotten SO much closer since my PC pooped, but I still miss the PC too. ;-)
July 22 2005, 23:27:43 UTC 6 years ago
July 22 2005, 23:59:41 UTC 6 years ago
As for DeVos, I don't know that I'd say he's in the pocket of the religious right, or that Republicans are in general. It's more that they ARE the religious right, they believe themselves those ideas that put them into that category. I'm one of them, at least on some issues.
As for the economy, it would stand to reason that someone who is able to make a company as big and successful as Alticor, and keep it alive during tough times, might know a thing or two about helping the economy (tho his father Rich deserves most of the credit for the company). For example, he might have the brains to keep certain business tax credits in place (established by Engler) that will keep the Big 3 in Michigan. However, there's also the argument that DeVos is just rich and greedy. Who knows.
One thing I KNOW I don't support DeVos on is school vouchers. He's in support of them, one of the leaders of the cause (along with his wife). I went to a private Christian school every year except for Kindergarten, so I know there is a great value in private school. I also know how expensive it can be, and how hard my parents worked to be able to send me and my brother there. And yea, some assistance would have been great! However, I am against it because there is a reason the school is private, parent-run (100% of the board is parents of students), and non-denominational (no control from any specific church). Part of that reason is the lack of government influence, apart from D.O.E. laws and regulations to ensure a good education. But once you introduce government funding at such a high level, as with vouchers, it opens private schools up to government regulation. And whether you agree with school prayer, abstinence teaching, etc, private schools should be able to provide education that includes specific value sets and parents should be able to send their kids to these schools. The other reason I'm against vouchers is because our public school system, by-and-large, is in shambles. Taking money away from it only to fund vouchers will only make things worse for public schools, and possibly degrade the quality of private schools.
I know a lot of private schools, at least religious ones like I went to, have other means of providing assistance to parents who want to send their kids there.
Ok, so that comment got long and a little off topic, kinda. LOL Time to eat my spaghetti! :-)
July 23 2005, 00:56:02 UTC 6 years ago
While you make a good argument that letting the government fund something lets them control it, I think that vouchers are important to choice. You're thinking of it as the government's money--it's not, it belongs to you and me, John Q. Taxpayer. If you elect to send your child to private school, you're paying DOUBLE--for the private tuition, plus the hidden costs of the public school. If you subscribe to the notion that people react to incentives, then you should support vouchers--if the public schools face the threat of funding cuts due to people taking their business elsewhere, then they'll respond by being better schools. It's a basic principle of business--competition drive innovation of better products at lower prices. This is why monopolies are fundamentally bad--they eliminate all competition. Central planning is almost ALWAYS bad--no communist country has been as prosperous as countries with economic and political freedoms like the US and Hong Kong.