The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Over the past year or two, I've heard with growing frequency, Republican politicians and commentators saying, "Why do minorities support Democrats? Republicans were the ones that voted to abolish slavery, the ones that fought for their Civil Rights!" When discussing the Charleston, South Carolina shooting and Confederate flag debate on C-SPAN recently, conservative author and woman voted most likely to have been a demon-skeleton in a past life - Ann Coulter - continued this trend, as she said the following: "I think it's completely moronic (debating the Confederate flag) . ...This is an awful, awful thing that happened in Charleston. Luckily, it's quite rare. To jump on this and go back to a litany of liberal talking points that make Republicans look bad, how about banning the Democratic Party? They were the ones on the Confederate side of the Civil War. They were the ones who supported segregation for 100 years." This is the point many Republicans...

For a number of years now, I've contended that Americans are more liberal than polls have showcased. In poll after poll, when asked whether they considered themselves to be "conservative," "moderate," or "liberal," the percentage of self-described conservatives and moderates far outweighed the self-described liberals, even though these same Americans supported liberal-leaning policies such as: Increasing taxes on the rich, more gun control regulations, legalizing medical marijuana, and perhaps most recently, equal marriage rights for the LGBT community. Regardless of how liberal people's opinions on issues were, however, many such individuals still shied away from labeling themselves as liberal due to the bastardization of the term. Especially after Fox News debuted in the mid-90s and talk radio started being dominated by conservative voices such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, to many, liberal came to mean: Tax and spend, baby-killer, communist...

It's very commonplace for liberals or progressives to desire change, to want the country to "progress" and move forward on a number of issues. It's one reason why I believe self-described liberals to be less consistent making it to the polls on election day, because if we don't see the progress we had anticipated or been told to expect, we'll often times feel less motivation to vote the next election cycle. Conservatives, meanwhile, as the term would suggest, tend to want things to stay as they are, for things not to change too drastically. Because drastic changes aren't very common, they tend to be regularly more content come election day than progressives, which may be one factor why Republican candidates have a tendency to outperform Democratic candidates in the midterms. Going along those same lines, conservatives tend to claim that they love this country as it is or "as it was" and will even go so far as to criticize progressives for seeki...

Over the past year, the Pew Research Center has been conducting a study with regard to where people of different political persuasions get their news and how they discuss such matters. Here were some of the findings: Consistent liberals... - ...were rather divided when it came to a main news source they consistently went to for information: 15% went to CNN, 13% relied on NPR, 12% checked out MSNBC, and 10% read The New York Times . - ...trusted 28 of 36 news outlets which were listed in the survey (NPR, PBS, and BBC were the three most trusted). Consistent conservatives... - ...went to Fox News first and foremost for news throughout the day. An astounding 47% listed Fox News as their main source for news. - ...distrusted 28 of 36 news outlets which were listed in the survey. However, 88% said they trusted Fox News. I can't say these results were surprising, but they're still quite frustrating. It's like I've said all along, while I despise Fox News and t...

For a while, I've wondered what Bible far-right Republicans and Tea Partiers have been reading. They've preached that: God grants us gun rights, homosexuals are condemned to hell, we shouldn't take care of the poor and needy, we should provide benefits and loopholes for the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle-class, war is anything but a last-resort, etc. Having read many religious books, there's one which stood out to me as being partially representative of the modern day far-right on the political spectrum. Before giving away what this book or religion is, I'll intentionally place the word "God" in particular scriptures when deemed appropriate, so that it hopefully reads like something a Tea Party member might be prone to saying. Here we go... - "God represents kindness to those who deserve it instead of love wasted on ingrates." - "God represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek." - "God repr...

I haven't had very many interesting back-and-forths on Twitter yet. For one, I've only been a member for approximately 3 weeks or so. Secondly, I'm still learning how to use the darn thing. Finally, my main intent with the site is to garner more recognition for my written work, so I've interacted mainly with like-minded people. Yes, it's boring sometimes, I admit, but I have a much better chance of selling my books to liberals, moderates, and sarcastic individuals than to conservatives or people whom don't much care for sarcasm. Today, though, I discovered that an individual with whom I disagree more than drunk drivers and cops replied to a tweet of mine and we've gone on to have a somewhat interesting and sad back-and-forth. Here's how it's gone to this point: Me: "Why are so many conservatives turned off about conserving the environment?" Him: "'Conservative' is incorrect. You can say 'right' or 'republicans....

I've discussed this subject before, but in more of a general sense than I will be doing today. Why is it that Democrats have won 4 of the past 6 presidential elections (more like five), are expanding the blue area of the electoral map, and it appears as if the younger generations are becoming more and more liberal, yet when polled, many more Americans identify themselves as conservatives rather than liberals? A Gallup poll, which was released last year, showed that 40% of Americans consider themselves to be conservative, 35% consider themselves to be moderate, and 21% consider themselves to be liberal. How can this be? Many Republican politicians and conservative talking heads alike point to such polls and say, "This is a center-right country. These numbers show if either party should be compromising, it's the Democrats." I've held the belief that this country is actually more liberal than these polls lead us to believe, but that due to the bastardization of...

Greedy Old People Shouting our belief in God, Seemingly adamant in our claims, Laughing behind the scenes, Contradictory actions are then displayed, There shall be no gun regulation, No infringement on our rights, Medical history is of no matter, Criminal record is irrelevant, A fetus is a living being, Should be tallied in the census, Unprinted money shall follow a similar pattern, Average people making millions, The chair is humane and just, An eye for an eye, DNA results are not essential, Nor are innocents’ lives, War is often times necessary, To protect us of our freedoms, Even in invasions based on false pretenses, And soldiers’ lives are lost, It’s all voluntary, They chose to be this way, Even when disowned by their parents, Condemned, beaten and hanged, Let’s build a giant fence, Keep the immigrants away, Philosophically consistent throughout history, If only Natives thought this way, It’s a natural cycle, All part of God’s plan, As polar...