Sam McGowan, Political
As
the 2012 Election will be coming up in just over a year, I decided to
put up a political site on which to voice my views. Let me begin
by telling a little bit about my political history. I grew up in rural
West Tennessee, an area that was deeply divided by the Civil War 150
years ago, although it was less than a century before I was born in
1945. Although my ancestors' loyaties were divided with my dad's family
having supported the Union and my mother's the Confederacy, my parents
supported Republican candidates for president. In the local and state
elections, the Democratic party controlled everything and the statewide
elections were merely a confirmation of the Democratic primaries. My
own political views have been shaped by decades of reading and by
watching the positions of the two national parties. While most people
would say I am conservative - and others would say I'm a flaming
liberal - I'm not actually a political independent and my political
philosophy is traditional, or classic, liberal. Those who might bother
to check the definition of a classic liberal will find that it refers
to people who believe in limited government and basic freedoms. After
all, the word "liberal" means "free." It was liberals who developed the
ideas that led to the American Revolution and the Founding Fathers were
all liberals; the conservatives of the day supported the British Crown
and many of them left the United States for Canada after the colonial
victory. The people who claim to be "liberal" today actually are not;
they are political progressives and their political philosophies are
based on nineteenth and early twentieth century European ideas,
specifically those developed by Validimar Lenin and Karl Marx.
Their goals are social reform through government action; in short, they
seek to control government and thus control society as a whole. To a
progressive, "free" is just a word.
Up until the 2004 elections I had always voted for Republicans. But
during the hysteria after the 9/11 attacks I saw some very dangerous
attitudes developing among those who espouse right-wing views, many of
whom are actually progressives who switched parties; they're called
"neoconservatives," meaning they are "new" conservatives who have
changed certain of their views, particularly those related to foreign
policy. Consequently, I voted a straight Democratic ticket in the 2004
and 2006 elections. Bear in mind that the Democrats won majorities in
both houses of Congress by running conservative and moderate Democrats
such as US Senator Jim Webb of Virginia against Republicans. However,
the national Democratic party lost the message of the 2006 election and
elected progressives as Speaker of the House and Senate Majority
Leader, then in 2008 they nominated the most progressive possible
candidate, Barack Obama. Had the Democratic Party remained more toward
the center I might have voted for Democratic candidates - but never
again. Democrats have received the last vote they'll ever recieve from
me - period.
I will be writing polictical opinion posts and linking them to this page.
The Obama Birth Certificate
Meaningless Polling
Gingrich? Uh uh!
Let's Keep Debates in College Auditoriums
Perry Indictment