So, I was thinking today…now that I feel I have diverged pretty significantly from the Grand Ol’ Party and many of its high-ranking officials who refuse to join the fight to keep “that woman” Hillar-ious Rodham out of the White House, should I consider myself to be an Independent? If I decided to seek office, would there be an (I) next to my name now instead of an (R)? I know that despite how muddled the party lines are right now, if I ran for office today, I’d have to choose either a (D), an (I), or an (R), right? And yes, I know there are a host of third-party designations out there to choose from, too, but we all know how their runs for office turn out. I’d truly love to call third-party candidates more than a novelty at this point, but here we are.
There is definitely one thing I can tell you for sure, and it’s that there won’t be a (D) after my name any time soon, if ever. I believe in small government, personal responsibility, personal accountability, immigration laws, tightly controlled borders, and not only no new taxes, but repealing existing ones. I don’t believe in wasteful government spending, the minimum wage, socialism, mandated insurance, and Ponzi schemes like Social Security. I believe in completely eliminating fraud from government spending. I believe in work for welfare, right to work laws, capitalism, free markets, restrictions on abortions, and the right of religious organizations to choose which forms of birth control they offer, or none at all, if they so choose. I believe in saluting the flag, that most police officers are good folks trying to do their best with the difficult circumstances our lax society has created, the right to protect your family with firearms, and above all, that it should be the responsibility of each one of us who is capable of working to go to work and handle our own shit instead of relying on the government and taxpayers to keep us sheltered, clothed and fed. I am entirely against affirmative action and other reparations for things that happened in the past that had absolutely nothing to do with me. I do not believe in the notion of “privilege”, but actually believe that every single human being of sound mind and body on this planet has the same exact abilities as every other human being, and should be treated exactly the same, regardless of skin color, birthplace, views on religion, etc. And no, I am sorry if you think so, but that is not what (D)s believe. I don’t believe anything is, nor should it be free of cost. And I believe that we should all have to pay the same percentage of taxes, regardless if we make one dollar or one billion dollars a year. So, yeah, no question there about the party to which I DON’T belong!
For the most part, all of my beliefs and disbeliefs would automatically qualify me for that (R) after my name, but here are some of the things with which I have a problem; an (R)-controlled congress that passed a budget with MORE spending in it than the previous (D)-controlled congress, (R) politicians that pass special interest- and personally-driven pork projects like they were a (D), a political party that cannot produce a decent presidential candidate any longer and whose leadership refuses to support the nominee its members have chosen to run for President, a party that is so mired in socially conservative issues that it is continually losing ground at any chance of appealing to anyone other than the most staunch social conservatives. Contrary to many (R)s, I do believe we are having a negative impact on our environment, especially our oceans and the planet’s water system. I believe the government should play a role in protecting the environment, but I also believe our government, especially when in the hands of (D)s, goes about it in a completely inefficient and misguided manner.
So, what letter do you choose to describe yourself if you’re not a particularly religious person, but believe people definitely have a right to be one, yet at the same time, do not have a right to force their religious views on others? What letter do you choose if you don’t care what consenting adults do to each other in the privacy of their own homes, think there should be a separation between a religious marriage and a legal marriage, that legal marriages should be between whoever anyone wants, yet have no problem with a football team praying before a game or newly arrived students being taught English before anything else? What letter do you choose if you understand that most people in the world who practice religion are good people, but that there are some who commit horrible acts in the name of their religion? What letter do you choose if you think it is a horrible mistake to not factor those people’s religious beliefs into understanding why they are committing those horrible acts? What letter do you choose if you believe we are fighting a large number of radical Islamist terrorists, yet understand that not all Muslims are terrorists, nor are all the terrorists we are fighting Muslim? What letter do you choose if you understand that sometimes the government needs to listen in on people’s conversations to try to find the bad guys and have no problem with them listening to yours, yet still will be upset because they are wasting tax money in doing so?
Then, while dealing with all of these questions, I also have to keep in mind something that is a huge flaw with our existing primary system, in particular the Taxifornia (R) primary. If I don’t register as an (R), I lose the chance to vote in the (R) primaries here in the grand state of Taxifornia, and will only have the option to vote in the (D) primary. Me voting in the (D) primary is about as stupid an idea as me having to choose between Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez to be my new Senator. Then again, since I live in such a (D) state, our primary seems to always land so late in the cycle that our (R) primary votes are mostly symbolic anyway. By the time the damned (R) primary rolled around this time, Taco Bowls was the only person still running. I waited two years to vote for Ben Carson, and I never got the chance.
So, with no chance of considering myself a (D) because of where that party stands on just about everything, and a growing number of issues that I seem to be parting ways with the (R)s on, is it time for me to consider myself an (I)? I took a little time to research exactly what the common perception and understanding of an (I) voter is these days, and it didn’t necessarily provide me with a cut and dry answer.
Wikipedia describes an (I) as “a voter who does not align themselves with a political party. An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates and issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship; a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party; a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election to election; or a voter who self-describes as an independent.”
Well, while I don’t always align completely with the (R), I definitely am more closely aligned to that letter than either of the other two. But, at the same time, I vote more on my conscience and my fiscally conservative views than anything else, regardless of what political party seems to be blowing that way at the time. Then, again, I definitely have more of a long-standing loyalty to the (R) than the other two. Over time, I have identified far more often with the (R). When I look back, I do usually vote for the same political party in election after election, though when there has been a better (I) choice, I have gone that way – case in point, Ross Perot.
Yet, as for that last point, I am definitely having a harder time self-describing as an (R) these days, but realistically, I wonder if that is because the party’s presidential primary and general election strategy was so lacking this time around. I think, too, that a good deal of the problem I have with blatantly slapping that (R) at the end of my name is due to the fantastically-successful campaign the (D)s have conducted in this country since 2006 to create a social stigma around that (R).
Meanwhile, I feel that the (I) means you vote with the (D)s about as often as you vote with the (R)s, but other than a few propositions here and there for which I might align more with the (D)s based on fiscal principle, I hardly ever vote with the (D)s, especially when it comes to any politician with that (D) after their name. The only time I EVER voted for a person with a (D) after their name was for Willy Jeff in 1992, and have I regretted the shit out of that ever since, especially now, since that vote helped play a role in enabling the crooked monster to rear her head today!
And thus, after contemplating and researching, I find myself in the same quandary now as I was in the beginning of this letter-based party alignment self-analysis. If you divide the political spectrum into just a (D) and an (R), then I would have to choose (R). But, if you provide the third option of an (I), I fit a little less into that (R), especially on some key social issues. And when I weigh all of this, no matter how I look at choosing a letter for myself, I really feel like I need a new choice.
And wanting a new choice brings me back around to what I like to call my core beliefs and wanting my new choice to be based upon those beliefs. My core beliefs are in fiscal conservatism. That means I believe in small government, less spending, lower taxes, strong capitalism, personal responsibility, work for welfare, controlled immigration, and the bottom line as the top priority, including government staying out of social issues to help reduce the cost to taxpayers. If I look at the person running, or the measure being decided, each and every time, I vote for the person or measure that is going to make the most financial sense, first for me, then, for the country. And this tells me that even though the (I) was created to give us an alternative to the (D) and the (R), I still am not comfortable slapping any one of the three at the end of my name right now.
So, in conclusion, the rules and politics can all be damned! It’s time for a new choice! To misquote Uncle Moe, “I was born a fiscal conservative (anyone who knows my grandfather can attest to that), and I will die a fiscal conservative”, regardless of what party or non-party seems to most closely align with those views at the time. So, for now, I will refuse to adhere to one of those pre-existing letters and go with my own choice, (FC) for Fiscal Conservative.
William L. Savastano (FC-TA). Done, and done.
Oh, and yes, the TA stands for Taxifornia, the state in which I was born and pay through the nose for the privilege of living.
Image created by William L. Savastano
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