August 31st, 2004 11:47 am The GOP doesn't reflect America - by Michael Moore by Michael Moore / USA Today NEW YORK — Welcome, Republicans. You're proud Americans who love your country. In your own way, you want to make this country a better place. Whatever our differences, you should be commended for that. But what's all this talk about New York being enemy territory? Nothing could be further from the truth. We New Yorkers love Republicans. We have a Republican mayor and governor, a death penalty and two nuclear plants within 30 miles of the city. (Related stories: Moore index page) New York is home to Fox News Channel. The top right-wing talk shows emanate from here — Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly among them. The Wall Street Journal is based here, which means your favorite street is here. Not to mention more Fortune 500 executives than anywhere else. You may think you're surrounded by a bunch of latte-drinking effete liberals, but the truth is, you're right where you belong, smack in the seat of corporate America and conservative media. Let me also say I admire your resolve. You're true believers. Even though only a third of the country defines itself as "Republican," you control the White House, Congress, Supreme Court and most state governments. You're in charge because you never back down. Your people are up before dawn figuring out which minority group shouldn't be allowed to marry today. Our side is full of wimps who'd rather compromise than fight. Not you guys. Hanging out around the convention, I've encountered a number of the Republican faithful who aren't delegates. They warm up to me when they don't find horns or a tail. Talking to them, I discover they're like many people who call themselves Republicans but aren't really Republicans. At least not in the radical-right way that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft and Co. have defined Republicans. I asked one man who told me he was a "proud Republican," "Do you think we need strong laws to protect our air and water?" "Well, sure," he said. "Who doesn't?" I asked whether women should have equal rights, including the same pay as men. "Absolutely," he replied. "Would you discriminate against someone because he or she is gay?" "Um, no." The pause — I get that a lot when I ask this question — is usually because the average good-hearted person instantly thinks about a gay family member or friend. I've often found that if I go down the list of "liberal" issues with people who say they're Republican, they are quite liberal and not in sync with the Republicans who run the country. Most don't want America to be the world's police officer and prefer peace to war. They applaud civil rights, believe all Americans should have health insurance and think assault weapons should be banned. Though they may personally oppose abortion, they usually don't think the government has the right to tell a women what to do with her body. There's a name for these Republicans: RINOs or Republican In Name Only. They possess a liberal, open mind and don't believe in creating a worse life for anyone else. So why do they use the same label as those who back a status quo of women earning 75 cents to every dollar a man earns, 45 million people without health coverage and a president who has two more countries left on his axis-of-evil-regime-change list? I asked my friend on the street. He said what I hear from all RINOs: "I don't want the government taking my hard-earned money and taxing me to death. That's what the Democrats do." Money. That's what it comes down to for the RINOs. They do work hard and have been squeezed even harder to make ends meet. They blame Democrats for wanting to take their money. Never mind that it's Republican tax cuts for the rich and billions spent on the Iraq war that have created the largest deficits in history and will put all of us in hock for years to come. The Republican Party's leadership knows America is not only filled with RINOs, but most Americans are much more liberal than the delegates gathered in New York. The Republicans know it. That's why this week we're seeing gay-loving Rudy Giuliani, gun-hating Michael Bloomberg and abortion-rights advocate Arnold Schwarzenegger. As tough of a pill as it is to swallow, Republicans know that the only way to hold onto power is to pass themselves off as, well, as most Americans. It's a good show. So have a good time, Republicans. It could be your last happy party for awhile if all the RINOs and liberal majority figure it out on Nov. 2.
Like I said on another thread...I knew that anything beyond cut-and-paste was beyond your mental capacity. But man, to cut-and-paste Michael Moore???!!! You've reached a new low in imbecility.
i dont think we need strong laws to protect our air and water. and i definitely dont think women deserve equal pay, at least not enforced by the government. that is a leading question. whether the women should get equal pay is a decision to made by their bosses, not the government. moore implies that those people who think women deserve equal pay want the government to enforce that. republicans do not favor less pay for women, they favor less government interference.
Absolute hypocrisy. John Kerry - one of the most liberal voting senators in our nations history now trying to come across as moderate. Republicans don't want health care or equal pay? What a joke. There may be a couple assclowns on this board who fall for that, but most intelligent Americans will not. The primary reason we cannot have decent health care is peole just like John Edwards. You know the trial lawyer trying to pass himself off as the common man. Malpractice insurance costs 6 figures per year...think about that. So for a MD to be profitable, they have to make at least 200,000 per year once he/she has to pay off loans and malpractice insurance. But trial lawyers have Democrats in their pockets...and may end up with one in the white house :angryfire Read my signature, but substitute pascifist with liberal..they are interchangable anyway.
Time for a "Fisking." The implication; hard core Republicans care nothing for the environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. 80% of expanded Clinton-Gore environmental regulations were left intact by the Bush Administration. What hard-core Republicans don't believe in is the federal government forcibly confiscating private property or bossing around private-property owners or eminent domain abuse in the name of "saving the planet," or shutting down highway infrastructure expansion to protect a few cypress trees and a half acre bog, or that man is a verminous plague upon Earth whose impact should be confined instead of merely regulated. Hard core Reps believe that nuclear power is an alternative energy that should be fully explored, that minimal impact oil drilling in ANWR can be done safely and cleanly, that local communities know best how to deal with their own surrounding ecosystems, and that real-world solutions for sharing of the environmental burden, not the punitive and unrealistic Kyoto Protocol, are what is called for to preserve clean air and water. Again, the implication is that GOP leadership does not believe in this. Show me a single statement where a big-time GOP leader says women should not receive equal pay for equal work. And besides, if eight years of Billary did not solve this problem, why should we believe that Kerry is going to fix it now? The root cause of the problem, the fact that our culture still sees the man/husband as the primary breadwinner and the wife/woman as the secondary earner (or even optional earner), is not something that can be fixed by either party or any act of Congress. It will change only when the American culture, as a whole, moves toward changing it. Again, the Big Lie about the marriage question; to be in favor of preserving traditional marriage between a husband and wife and the nuclear family, one must be filled with raging, psychotic hatred and fear of homosexuals. Hate does not motivate this Christian or any other true Christian to support preserving the current state of this sacred institution. I have no desire to discriminate against or persecute homosexuals, and am filled with anger and disgust at those who do. Gay and Lesbian Americans, like all Americans, are entitled to their full rights and liberties. I do not think they should face any restrictions on their constitutional rights to speech, press, faith, protest, firearms ownership, or be discriminated against in filing for employment, housing, insurance, financial documents, and medical care. I even believe they should be allowed to serve in the military and police and fire departments while being open and public (but not vocal and boisterous) about their sexuality. But while homosexual citizens are equal to heterosexual citizens, I, and most Republicans and people of faith, draw the line at making homosexuality the equal of heterosexuality. And that is truly what the marriage debate is all about. A majority of homosexuals do not need/care for the government to validate their relationships, and some actually look upon marriage, as a religious and civil convention, with disgust, as part of a life they wish to reject. For them, it's about having their lifestyle held up as perfectly normal and equivalent to heterosexuality. I am sorry, but it is not, it never has been, and it never will be. And it is not their right. Nowhere is the right to marry whomever you choose guaranteed in the Constitution. Rather than accept that this is the way most Americans feel about homosexuality and be happy just to live free and have their own enclaves and communities, where they set their own norms, a small group of militant homosexuals, allied with social change agents on the left side of our nation's politics, have decided to once again bypass the ballot box and force radical social change down America's throat. The GOP disagrees with this, and thinks the will of the people should be respected in this matter. There is a difference of opinion within the party of how best to go about this. Some favor a constitutional amendment. Others say marriage is strictly states issue. We will figure out what needs to be done in time. But make no mistake; poll after poll indicates that Americans by and large, are not comfortable with the idea of gay marriage. Who says these are "liberal" issues? World's police officer? Oh, is Moore now a paleo-con isolationist? Where was he when President Clinton ordered US military action in the Balkans, an area much less vital to U.S. interests than the Middle East? Truth is, he wants the U.S. armed forces to do what the UN and world opinion tell us to do. Also, by implication, we Republicans prefer war to peace. Let's put this little falsehood to bed right now; I, Mr. Radical Right-Wing Christian, hate war. Everyday, the news of another terror attack, the kids being held hostage in Russia, the suicide bombers in Israel, the violence in Iraq, makes me heartbroken. I wish it would all stop. I wish the enemies of peace, freedom, tolerance, and decency would all put their weapons down, abandon their ideology of hatred and dominance, and we could all go home and beat our swords into plowshares. I wish we could all treat others as we would like to be treated. BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!! EVER!!! These people want to kill us all. Every last one of us, they will destroy, because our faith and our belief code is not their own. The armies of jihad are among us. They have now opened up a full-scale war on Russia. They point automatic weapons at the heads of six year olds in the Caucasus. They beat old men in the streets of Najaf. They execute Nepalese waiters and Turkish truck drivers. They firebomb dance halls in Bali, sacrifice themselves to blow up school buses full of Israeli children, systematically rape and hack off the limbs of Christian girls in Sudan, snipe at U.S. and Iraqi government soldiers in Fallujah, and, lest we forget, slash pilots' throats with box cutters to fly civilian airliners into buildings. Their relentless assault on all who disagree with and oppose them continues worldwide. Moore thinks they are the "minutemen." They are animals, who should never be allowed a moment's peace, or they will never allow us a moment's peace. President Bush understands this, and understands that there is no peace for anyone as long as groups and people like this exist, and as long as nations and cultures that harbor the hatred and hopelessness that keep their recruiting grounds fertile. So we took the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan, and we began the long process of setting up an outpost of freedom, democracy, and enlightenment in Iraq, to drain the swamp of radical Islam, while at the same time eliminating a potential threat to the U.S. and our interests. This war will not stop when Michael Moore and the Left want it to stop. It will stop when there are no more terror groups, no more terror sponsors or havens, and no more of the backward Middle East culture and leadership that encourages terror. All true Republicans, President Bush and John Ashcroft included, applaud and celebrate the expansion of individual freedom and liberty. Without the support of the Republican Party against segregationist Democrats in 1964, there would've been no Civil Rights Act. Next, please. I hunt deer with an assault weapon that Clinton/Gore/Reno tried to ban, you idiot! You and yours lost the gun control debate Mikey! The 2nd Amendment says, right there in black and white, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." YOU LOST! GET OVER IT! Next, please. So the only way a woman's physical autonomy can be protected is to kill the unborn child? In an age of birth control and contraception and advanced sterilization techniques, when, if you don't to get pregnant, there are plenty of ways to avoid it, it is truly sad that the Democrats and radical feminists continue to savagely cling to the right to slaughter children as the only barrier between American women and the bhurkha. And besides, at least we allow internal debate about abortion in our party. Pro-life Democrats (like Zell Miller) have been persona non grata in their party for years. The DNC is in the pocket of NARAL and Planned Parenthood, and they use the power they've been given to forcibly silence anyone who disagrees with abortion on demand. To have an open mind, one must be liberal. Nosiree, no intolerance and cruel judgement here. We're the party of openness and acceptance of different ideas, unless those ideas happen to involve any sort of traditional Judeo-Christian morality and more individual financial autonomy. Because they believe, like President Bush, that these problems cannot be solved by more laws, more government bureaucracy and rules, and more Mommy-State. About the Axis of Evil, they really do believe that there is evil in the world and we must fight it. I won't even touch the "tax breaks for the rich" crap, as we all know it's crap. Michael Moore, as always, went to the convention and saw exactly what he wanted to see, or what he wants us to see. Disingenuous does not even come close to describing it. Of course, if he had talked to me, he would have twisted my compassion and optimism as well and turned me into a "closet liberal." Maybe, just maybe, we believe that Republicans really are the "party of compassion-in-action" and not just the party of "I feel your pain." I'm done here.
I don't think gays should get married. I believe women should get equal pay only if their job is that equal of a man.... but in reality, most jobs for men require that man to work harder than most of the jobs that women hold. Just the way world is. As a woman, I have no problem with that. And I am against abortion. It's wrong. I don't want my money, that I worked hard for, going to some worthless person who doesn't even try to get a job, and just sits on the couch, smoking crack on my paycheck. And last, I want to keep my guns!! Im not letting any liberal take my guns away! I have my rifle and shotgun for hunting. And I have my pistol in my car to protect me from crazy men, (like a couple of you on this board). Thats just some things the dem-nutz want for this country that I totally disagree with. I am a TRUE Republican..... RINO is the biggest crock of s**t I have heard since the DNC. Michael Moore can kiss my white republican a$$. :grin: :usaflagwa :911: :usaflagwa Bush '04
