After a lifetime voting for and working for Democratic candidates and
independents, I'm finally going to make the switch and become a Republican.
The reasons are many, not the least of which is age. I turned 30 recently
and, having lived more than half my life, I can't afford to worry anymore
about the other guy. It's time for me.
As a Republican, I can now proudly -- indeed, defiantly -- pledge to never
again vote for anyone who raises taxes for any reason. To hell with roads,
bridges, schools, police and fire protection, Medicare, Social Security and
regulation of the airwaves.
President Bush has promised to give me more tax cuts even though our federal
government owes trillions of dollars to its creditors. But that's someone
else's problem, not mine. Republicans are about the here and now, and I'm
here now.
As a Republican, I can favor exploiting the environment for everything she's
got. No need to worry about quaint notions like posterity and natural
legacy. There are plenty of resources left for everyone, and if we don't use
them, someone else will.
I want a party that doesn't worry about things before we have to.
Republicans refuse to get hog-tied by theories such as global warming, ozone
depletion, fished-out oceans and disappearing wetlands. The real problems --
if there are any -- aren't forecast to take hold for at least 50 years. So
what do I care? I'll be dead.
As a Republican, I can swagger and clamor for war -- in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Colombia, wherever -- even though I've never fought in one or even been in
the military. I can claim that we're fighting for Democracy, ignoring
reports of torture at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay, and a
spreading gulag of secret detention centers around the world.
Freedom, as every American should know after spending $300 billion for wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq, isn't free.
As a Republican, I can insist on strict moral values when it comes to sex
and ignore the growing moral chasms in business, politics, sports,
journalism and the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.
A society that loses control of its sexual urges faces unwanted pregnancies,
socially transmitted disease, broken families. Those overzealous about
wealth, however, produce only a higher GDP, lifelong security for their
family and more minimum wage jobs for the lower classes. What's wrong with
that?
As a Republican, I can favor strict punishment of criminals, except for
those who happen to be my friends or neighbors. Isn't that the very
definition of community -- looking out for friends and family?
I will be pro-death penalty and anti-abortion, pro-child but anti-child
care, for education but against funding of public schools. As a Republican,
I'll have a better chance of getting to spout my opinions in the media,
which for some reason seems convinced that since Bush was re-elected with
the smallest electoral margin of any sitting president in history, liberals
are passe.
As a Republican, I'll say goodbye to "old Jesus" and hello to "new Jesus. "
Sure Christ started out as a liberal Jew, and look where that got him.
Compassion, love and diatribes against the rich only encourage the weak and
punish the most successful among us. The Jesus that Republicans worship is a
muscular, decisive, pro-war crusader hard at work cleansing the world of
evildoers, not, God forbid, turning the other cheek.
My decision to become a Republican didn't come easily. For months I clung to
the idea that the foundation of a democratic society was our implied social
contract, each of us committing some level of personal sacrifice to the
common good of all.
I regarded taxes as dues we pay for better roads and schools, safe
inspection of meat and dairy products, maintenance of parks and protection
of wilderness areas. I see now that looking out for the common good resulted
in shortchanging the most important element in this formula -- me.
Let Democrats continue promising the "greatest good for the greatest
number." Republicans clearly have my number -- No. 1.
I'm sure a lot of my friends reading this will ask me, "How can you sleep?"
My answer will be, "Who's got time? I'm busy earning money." While they're
bellyaching about rising deficits, the outsourcing of jobs and casualties in
Iraq, I'll be marveling at the march of freedom in the Middle East, upticks
in the GDP and the president's plan to link Social Security to the magic of
the marketplace.
As a Republican, I simply won't listen to bad news anymore. Bad news doesn't
get me or my family anywhere. If you don't have anything good to say about
somebody, don't say anything at all -- unless it happens to be about a
Democrat, of course.
