Republicans, ‘family values’ don’t mix

Ashley Emerole wrote on Monday that Republicans have more family values (“”It’s all in the family for Republicans””). In my opinion this is completely false and has no factual basis.

For instance, there was an article in the New York Times that showed that red states have a higher abortion and divorce rate than blue states. This doesn’t seem like very good family values to me.

Another thing to point out is that one of the front-runners for the Republican 2008 ticket, Rudy Giuliani, isn’t exactly the poster child for family values. Giuliani has been married three times and his two children from his second marriage are alienated from him. Giuliani’s son has been rather vocal about this and admitted to not speaking to his father because before Giuliani and his second wife separated (not divorced!) he was seen publicly dating another woman.

Something Emerole also didn’t seem to realize was that her last paragraph contradicted the rest of her letter. It seemed rather obvious from the blatant bias displayed throughout the letter that she preferred Republicans over Democrats. Or did I misunderstand, and “”Democrats … come off as insecure and unstable”” is actually complimentary? I was expecting to read “”Vote Jeb”” or “”Rudy 2008″” by that time.

I’m not going to make the same mistake and say I am not biased. I am a proud Democrat, not because I’m from a liberal family, not because I’m from California and not because I value family values. The reason I am a Democrat is quite simple: I don’t agree with the way Republicans of the past and present have led our government (especially not Bush Junior’s approach).

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t hate Republicans and I don’t believe that Democrats are without fault or that they are the best major political party. All I’m saying is that before making statements like she did, it might be helpful to be better informed on the subject and to support it with some facts (none from FOX News, however). And so I will end on a more positive note: Barack Obama in 2008!

Erin Hultquist sophomore majoring in English

Personal responsibility too much to bear

Lillie Kilburn’s call for people to accept the un-ideal (“”You can’t have it your way””) is, frankly, cold-hearted. Ultra-conservatives may assert that “”we can’t always have it our way,”” but they mistakenly believe that the method of being content is to ignore cultural fantasies, be aware of reality and achieve things yourself.

Everyone else knows that American citizens are entitled to ideal lifestyles and that it is the obligation of our government to ensure that they we have them. Americans across the states overwhelmingly asserted their right to have what they feel they are entitled to when they voted in a Democratic Congress in 2006.

Great Americans such as Gabrielle Giffords, taking a cue from the people, proceeded to put champions of our freedoms in positions of great power, including House Speaker Nanci Pelosi, House Majority Leader John Murtha and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Time and time again, from the socialists of pre-WWII Germany to the communists of the Soviet Union and North Korea, history has proven that individual citizens simply cannot support themselves no matter the effort exerted and that the government can be relied upon to do what is right and to do it efficiently.

Extremists such as Rush Limbaugh may shout about the American government’s money actually coming from citizens, but these are absurd conspiracy theories. If the government gives you something, it’s free and you deserve it.

Kilburn also hits a surprisingly radical note when she mentions our infant mortality rate. It is simply cruel to criticize women who seek fertility treatments, especially when women’s rights to privacy, equality and their own bodies have been established for over three decades.

If Kilburn doesn’t like fertility treatments, she doesn’t need to get them. Sure, some post-fetal masses of tissue may become inanimate, but the right-wing fascists in this country need to realize that terminations of such undeveloped and inferior life forms in this country occur nearly half as frequently as live births and are ethically inconsequential.

Sadly, people won’t simply stop doing things because their actions are the results of bad decisions. That’s just not how it works. We need to get politicians in Washington to pass laws to make the choices for us since responsibility is a burden and we don’t like making decisions that influence our lives. Again, our enlightened representatives in Congress do this stuff for a living, so let’s get our money’s worth out of them.

Daniel Greenberg political science freshman