Question for Liberals?

Question

Here's your chance - tell me why you don't like our current Republican leaders.
I don't want to hear bashing or name calling - give valid political reasons for disliking them, other than the fact that they're not democrats so they must be bad. Exclude Bush please- I'm already sick of hearing about how you hate him.

Answer 1

I want to know why they don't like Cheney. He seems like a very knowledgable, very capable man -- but I wouldn't go duck hunting with him!

Answer 2

No child left behind...it's a disaster and does nothing to help improve education in this country. It's failed a lot of children and yet this administration continues to tout it as the best thing to happen to education in decades. Children are the future, whether you have any or not. I think there should be more invested into our future than this farce of a program. They seem to think that standardized testing is the way to measure learning when all it does is test how well a child can take a test. And there are plenty of adults and children who cannot take tests well. They are the children who are left behind. Schools are teaching to tests instead of giving students an education. As a result, education has been dumbed down so that we don't have students who know how to think, just how to take tests. There are other alternatives to NCLB.

The war in Iraq based on lies...WMD, Saddam Hussein, 9/11. I think I'd have more respect for them if they said "We are going to invade Iraq so we can get our hands on and control their oil so that our friends running large corporations can profit"

Cronyism...$41 billion military contracts for Halliburton and the like...they didn't even have to bid for the contracts.

Tax breaks for the wealthy while crushing the middle class. I hope they wake up when there is no middle class and no one left to pay the taxes.

The Patriot Act...I know, if you don't talk to terrorists, you don't have anything to worry about, right? Well, what if someone says you're a terrorist and you get thrown in jail? They don't even have to have a valid reason for doing that, just if they don't like you, they can do that. So where does that bring us? Disagreeing with the gov't can get you thrown in jail at the whim of Republicans? Don't count it out...they already don't need a warrant to order a wire tap on your home.

The whole "if you're not with us, you're against us" thing, Tom Jefferson must be spinning in his grave. "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" I believe he said once.

This is a really good question, thank you for asking it.

Answer 3

1) Lack of accountability. That is, Republican leaders have not held themselves or their deputies accountable for incompetence or malfeasance.

2) Lack of transparency. Rarely if ever does the public ever get a straight answer about whatthe plan is. Instead, we get cutesie slogans or hand waving vagaries.

3) Ideology instead of strategy. What plans that are executed are made according to a very formulaic vison of how the world "ought to work" instead of what actually works. Iraq is a fine example of this. The entire Bush Adm. made plans according to how they thought a hyptothetical Iraq democracy would work, instead of analyzing the political reality and making the appropriate concessions/ strategy adjustments. Other examples would be the AIDS education in Africa (abstinence only- no condoms, No Child Left Behind, etc.).

4) Disregard of constitution/Give up liberty for illusion of security - Terrorism is used as a justification to effectively legislate away the 4th, 5th,and 6th amendments. Meanwhile, screening procedures have not really improved and our cargo and rail networks are alomst completely unprotected.

5) Wholesale environmental destruction - never before has industry had such an easy time flouting basic clean air/clean water laws. Never before have environmental protections been taken away just so that a select few companies can avoid legal prosecution for enormous societal crimes (like dumping toxic waste, or tolerating extremely dangerous situations like the one at the BP plant in Pasadena, TX).

6)Lowering taxes in time of war - 'nuff said

7) Corruption - Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham, Paul Wolfowitz, Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff, etc. ring any bells?

Answer 4

Ok, well cheney and the rest of the Bush administration got it wrong with iraq. they had the opportunity to send in a full fighting force at the onset of war and should've taken care of the resistance by now. the fact that they said we would be greeted as liberators and would be gone in 2 years and that the war would cost us nothing is something i can't get over. I don't think they did it deliberatly but proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance so they should've planned better. I also don't like it when a leader thrust his or her religious beliefs on the poeple like many repubs do.

Answer 5

Bush is our highest-ranking Republican leader. You can't exclude him. He's the President of the United States of America. As the top-ranking Republican in this country, he sets the standard of behavior for the entire party.

Today's Republican leaders tend to want to allow the government to legislate things it shouldn't be allowed to. They want to control individual lives, issues that really aren't any of anyone else's business except the people directly affected.

That is why I don't like them. "Hate" doesn't enter into it - it's a really passionate emotion that I wouldn't bother to waste on a politician of any party. Same with "love."

I really wish you people would stop telling me who I hate. It's exhausting.

Answer 6

exclude Bush?

and talk about Republican leaders?

who do you want us to talk about then? the minority leaders in the house and senate, who haven't so far, and can't really if they wanted too, do very much anyway?

which Republican leaders do you want us to look at? do you have any other leaders that have any real power in the party to do anything worth really discussing?

McCain? most Republicans could give you a long laundry list of why they even don't like him, so I really wouldn't consider him a Republican leader?

it would be like me asking republicans to discuss democratic leaders, but not harry reid or pelosi...

Answer 7

I just do not think they are putting the average American at the top of their priorities list. Every decision they make is a beneficial move for themselves and the wealthy in this country. They have no real sense of what its like to be middle class or poor for that matter, and all I get is a sense of apathy from them, and callousness. I don't necessarily believe they are "bad" or "evil," just they have no true regard for the well-being and happiness of all of us. I think money takes prescedence over anything else, and that is a bad policy for anyone to have, much less those who claim they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Answer 8

Saddam Hussein is not Osama Bin Lauden
There were no weapons of mass destruction
Evidence that there were WOMD were fabricated/ false intellegnce.
Thousands of American soldiers have been killed in Iraq for basically nothing.

Big Oil companies are making billions in profits while enjoying huge tax breaks.

Women deserve the right to choose. Not only abortion rights, but the morning after pill.

Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face.

Answer 9

Less government??? We have more government involvement now then anyother time in our history. IF laws are to be change in the womb they should also envolve the testicles. Doing away with abortion will cause a population explosion which will increase welfare. WE only hearing with doing away with abortion but no solution on how to stop welfare explosions. Then the blame of welfare will fall on the liberals as always.
That's two off the top of my head!

Answer 10

Under Neo-Con leadership, the government has increased the Federal government, increased the deficit to historic heights, destabilized the Middle East, reduced America's prestige abroad, damaged US interests, and weakened the military through over-extension and failure to determine a reachable goal.

And I'm a Goldwater Conservative.

Answer 11

Republicans use issues like guns, abortion, religion and race to attract votes, then set an agenda that rewards the wealthy.