RNC speech

In light of the most recent post of my brother's blog, I've deleted almost the entire entry that I started composing last night during the RNC. This morning I added a lot of cynical interpretations of the party's stances on certain issues including marriage, social conservatism, and "real energy independence." While I disagree with Ryan that he should refrain from inserting his personal beliefs in his blog, I was inspired by his desire to "withdraw myself from the political mudslinging that permeates the television, newspaper, online news sites and blogs." I realized that everything I had written was as negative as the attacks that were making me so angry and that it would be best to try to write with a positive outlook.

However, I had already quoted a part of Mike Huckabee's speech from last night (which, coincidentally, inspired the title of Ryan's post), and I want to keep it:

"I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich; I'm a Republican because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me. John McCain doesn't want the kind of change that allows the government to reach even deeper into your paycheck; pick your pocket, your doctor, your child's school, or even the kind of car you drive, or tell you how much you have to inflate your tires."

This really made me angry. It really trivializes social services and care for the environment. The last few words say to me, "Don't worry about making technologies more efficient--that's laughably unimportant and has nothing to do with the 'Real Energy Independence' that only involves drilling." I think it also unfairly polarizes the working poor from their government. I agree that one's ability to keep themselves above poverty is admirable, but can't stand that others would be against developing government programs aimed at providing service to help pull others out of poverty. Is it not true that poverty in our society has the potential to send one into a downward spiral and entrench them in that poverty? Health care and education are tools that might help those people. I can't reconcile the claims made by Republicans that Democrats are seeking to "redistribute wealth." Certainly that is at odds with Capitalism and I have trouble seeing any fairness in that context. I suspect there are better ways of social organization that diminish poverty, while remaining fair...

All said, I can only rely on my own actions and hope that other individuals will be charitable and compassionate.