Am I a Leftie?

You know, for the most part I am a liberal. I would be more moderate except the right wing scares me, despite being a catholic or perhaps precisely for this reason, I fear extremist Christians just as I would extremist Muslims, even though, I grant you that the former are less likely to blow up people. less likely being the key phrase here.

Honestly I think the ACLU is doing a good job of protecting civil liberties and that job can only be smeared by someone that has no concept of what life under a rouge nation can/would be like. Of course if you are a blond hair, blue eyed all American you probably truly have nothing to fear from wire taps or clandestine prisons or torture techniques. Yet, we forget that in this blend of a multi-ethnic America, there are many people of 'Persian' decent who are American citizens and have a lot to fear. Most of them are well adapted and completely integrated into our American way of life. The argument is one of principle; do we abandon the moral high ground and stop to fighting this war in the manner of the terrorists we seek to undermine? I can understand the argument for that opinion. And yet in taking up the fight with such tactics we become a part of the problem. I think the most telling sign of things going wrong is when you cannot find allies amongst friends.

We cannot look at any nation's human rights record and raise concerns because we now head the league of torturers. Nelson Mandela once said, "it is not enough that justice be served. Justice must also be seen to be served." That's simply food for thought.

What is my point? It is unacceptable that in the interest of trying to seem amicable to cultural differences we lose sight of what America great; freedom. No Muslim should ever be allowed to impose their views on anyone else, in the taxis or anywhere else. In a similar tone though, I don't appreciate the right wing trying to dictate what is acceptable and American either. We have to go for consistence here. If we leave room for Christian rhetoric then it is only fitting we leave room for Jewish and Muslim ones too. We can't both eat our cake and have it. Honestly if republicans stopped peddling to rightwing zealots, I'd be the first to re-assess which side to lean towards. (There's no excuse for Bush though, I think there are many more able men and women.)

So what am I getting at? There are conflicts between, what the conservatives say, and how they act. Don't impose your Muslim ways on me, but I can and will impose my bible totting views on every American. Pick an Ideology and stick to it. Do not argue the issue on both sides of the coin as it suits you.

On the issue of the Iraq war, I was very supportive of the war. I believe Saddam should have been sent packing during the gulf war in the 90s. The humanitarian benefits of a regime change in the region are enormous. Even without WMD there was enough reason to go in there. I honestly believe that the president is right, and, that if we do stay the course, we will win. Not winning that battle has more repercussions for our long term future that we can possible imagine. We cannot, and should not, pull out until the region is stable. That being said, I have major qualms with this administration. Why? Because a very important issue was over simplified and sold to the public under false pretenses, and now, we run an even larger risk, that of pulling out too soon and leaving Iraq worse than we found it. I fault this administration for excessive cronyism, incompetence and arrogance on the world scene, that has lost us many allies in Europe, and, created a hostile environment that has made winning this war all the more difficult. Make no mistake about it, Bush is very right, the situation if we fail in this war is bleak. The problem is that this administration undermined itself, when it presented a complex time staking operation as slam-dunk, when it endorsed torture and gave up the moral high ground, and, when it curtails the very freedoms that we all fight for, in the war against terrorism.

Now I wish there was one single democratic candidate with the guts to have an actual opinion, to break from the rhetoric, and do what's right for this country. So we have a choice between barely competent and completely cowardly. The final choice for me comes down to backing the party that would curb as few of my rights as possible. So I vote for choice, for freedom, for the Idea that I go to church and pray to God, but, for heaven's sake, keep him out of government.

So in this polarized climate, am I a liberal, biased, leftie? I guess so.