Same Sex Marriage And The GOP

I see there's a guy -- what's his name? Schmidt or something. He worked for John McCain -- who thinks the GOP ought to embrace same-sex marriage and champion it no matter what religious groups say.

I've thought the same thing about the Republicans, that if they knew what they were doing they'd do this very thing. And some of the same reasons, this guy gives. Such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," you know, as inalienable rights. But especially from what I always heard growing up in a Republican household, that the government shouldn't be in your business all the time. That if it's something we could do on our own better than the government, then it's our business to do it, and this meant personal liberties, how to run your life, etc.

In a way I'm very liberal. And in a way I'm very conservative. I'm a Democrat because I think the Democrats are the actual conservatives, in the sense of conserving our liberties and way of life better. They make plenty of mistakes but they're more into conserving the Constitution and the social fabric of the nation. I'm definitely conservative on this point, that by and large what we do ought to be our business. Notice I said "by and large," because it's not "anything goes." We still need someone to say your freedom to punch your fist stops just before my nose.

It's funny that I grew up in a Republican household. I remember being gung ho, hoping Nixon would win in 1968. That's what the family wanted. But by 1972 I was for George McGovern.

Something my parents said several times, and not exactly apropos to this topic, was this, "Any government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away." Yeah, so what? The government is always going to be big enough to bull their way around if that's what they want to do. You notice they have a military? But I don't really need the government to give me everything I want. Because I can get out there and scrape for that. Just step back and leave well enough alone.

But I don't want poor people dying on the sidewalk. Or health care to be such a mess that people are bankrupt just because they get sick. Common sense government is best, apart from the special interests. George Bush had no idea about that, of course. President Obama has a lot better handle on it.