ARE YOU A SINGLE ISSUE VOTER? DO YOU — WOULD YOU — VOTE YOUR ATHEISM? Other groups, from gays and abortion rights supporters to gun enthusiasts are often “single issue” voters. They judge candidates entirely, or mostly, how they stand on a single political or legislative issue. What about you? Do you “vote your Atheism”? Will Atheism and your commitment to the First Amendment separation of government and religion be the major factor in which candidates you support in 2006 and beyond? GAMPAC, The Godless Americans Action Committee is calling upon Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists and other nonbelievers to support the political candidates that vote “our issues.” How do you feel about this? Let us know.
I’m not a one-issue voter, but I would certainly be favorably disposed toward a candidate that openly professed atheism. However, it just ain’t real likely that a candidate is going to do that. I would really like to see it happen, though.
Lee
Tom,
While I agree with you I am still thinking that if feelings were terminated somehow then our world would be a much better place to live in. People are flawed and will remain flawed. Flawed beings cannot live in a perfect world because they are flawed. I guess without the help of machines, people will always suffer from emotion.
While it can be good sometimes (like parents raising kids) it is the sole source of all human conflict (think how religion came up). If only people were more logical, for example like you. You explained that in a logical sense and it made sense to me. If only most people would do the same.
I will take every candidate’s platform into consideration when I vote. I am very pro-gay rights and anti-religious indoctrination, and unfortunately I have yet to see a candidate who is going to make me happy. I think most of the time it boils down to people like us having to choose the lesser of two evils (b/c we all know that, at this point in time, we’d be more likely to get a terrorist into office than an atheist).
anthony in a way I wish we didnt have feelins either then I wouldnt have to worry about my gender dysphoria but really what kind of world would that be a bunch of mindless zombies sorry might as well be in church
pixel “Alex, don’t you do everything gay???”
Girlfriend, you know I do!
I’m a one man gay pride parade.
Alex.
speaking of gay pride Im going to my first pflag meeting tomorrow and its in a church gonna be a fun night
gonna be the only time ive ever regutly gone to church hahaha
In conservative Texas it doesn’t matter much. Most people simply vote Republican. The Texas/Mexico border and Austin have democrats but that mere word here gets people not to vote for someone. The latest ploy is RINO. Republican in name only. If the candidate is moderate on any major issue, the conservative opponent affixes that label and the moderate generally loses. I don’t vote single issue. I look at key issues and where a candidate stands on those.
tx ask sounds like the recent nebraska primary
well hell look at ben nelsen hes a big DINO
democrat in name only
New Orleans.
A lot of the national guard were stationed in the middle east and couldn’t be there to help. A lot of their equipment would have come in handy too but alas, it too was in the middle east.
Last I heard there were still about 3000 people missing, this doesn’t seem to be newsworthy though, they were poor.
the Republican admin actually voted to cut the budget to reinforce and upgrade the levees (before Katrina)because they needed the money to cover the war on terror.
When there are only two parties that have a chance of winning, it stands to reason that you should choose one of the two that moves the political spectrum your preferred way. In other words, single issue voting is foolish.
Now as an activist, there are many things you can do to promote your single issue to the party of choice. Grassroots activism, that’s where we are. What can we do for our cause Dave?
alexgator said: “I can just imagine how dissapointed you must be then with the current Republican leadership which has created the largest and most intrusive government ever and the largest defecit in our national history. At least they got your strong national defence.”
Are you kidding? They’ve ruined the military! We’re overextended and can’t do a bloody thing about it. Invading Iraq is not defence it’s offense. We lost a major American city, what defence was there of that? We lost the twin towers and 3000 people, what defence?
By the way Ren, no Republican has ever balanced the budget in over 40 years! I’m glad to see you have ‘come towards the light’(as Stephanie Miller, radio talk show host)calls it.
I would prefer to see instant runoff voting. This is where you can vote for your first choice (say libertarian or green party) candidate, and list a second choice should the first one fail to win.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_runoff_voting
Republicans and Democrats alike might like it as there are two examples in recent history where it would have played to each of their advantage. In 1992 Ross Perot spoiled the vote for the Republicans and in 2000, Ralph Nader gained 2.4 per cent of the vote to spoil it for Al Gore. Damn Ralph Nader, look what you did!
If there was runoff voting, you could list Nader as 1st choice and should he fail to win, your second choice would be for , say, Al Gore, in which case he would have won.
jim:
Excuse me, what city was that exactly? Did I miss something in the news?
jim:
Sorry, you sandwiched that between Iraq & the WTC. Misunderstood. Apologies.
W/you on all of it, BTW.
No problem ra, I figured I just confused you.
jim:
Glad you’re the forgiving sort.
Alex, you are too cute!
udonman,
Sorry to hear you are having trouble with gender identity, that must suck, really, I think it must be hard on you. I hope you come out of whatever you’re going through in the a way you can be happy with yourself.
About logic though, I think religious people seem nothing like zombies, more like
angry chickens hopping to not have their head cut off by their angry god. I think purely logical people would not act like zombies but flawless machines. Machines that do not suffer from what humans do. After all, all we are is biological machines who operate on survival instincts. To free our shackles from that would be unthinkably great.
well most of the labels I end up placing on my self but im bisexual not just gay I still like women but yeah this blog is great I still can find like minded indivuals
and no david isnt the only one who can delete or edit post there are about five or six of us who can I mainly use my powers to remove spam.
and I did do a post on my blog about labels but it is really just a rant against soceity. see it here
and speaking of labels heres my favorite one given to me by the IA school system
Talented Gifted Learning Disabled
I mean what the fuck.
anthony I think youve seen the matrix one to many times any way man ive tried living by pure logic it didnt work the problem is we are social creatures we need to be social and sorry to say but to be social we need emotional interaction we need to actually think emotional and think of others emotions sorry if im repeating my self but it could never work like your talking try it see if you last a day with out emotional content
and to prove my point
Sorry to hear you are having trouble with gender identity, that must suck, really, I think it must be hard on you. I hope you come out of whatever you’re going through in the a way you can be happy with yourself.
youve already shone you want to express emotions if you wanted to prove your point you wouldve dove head first into a logical scientific rebuttal to my comment but you didnt and I thank you for your concern see yah later
Tony
ps stop double posting HAHAHA
oh yeah another reason I dont use periods is back before the internet me and other members of my family used a custom chat program my uncle wrote and if you used periods it would hang up your modem never did figure it out but then again this was back in 1989 or so on a IBM pc jr.
WHAT THE HECK? I hate double posting! What happens is my laptop cannot do it the first time and then I CHECK the blog, it was fine, no post of mine there. I then tried again but then this happened, poor David having to clean up after my dirty double posting!
About The Matrix, it was a great trilogy and I must admit I am a huge fan.
I also admit you were right about me responding with feelings to your comment. I am still only human and I am not perfect, although I am working on that. Plus, think how you might react if I was purely logical about a thing like that, you might be offended, which I do not want to inflict upon anyone because my brain tells me not to. Hurting people never feels good to me. (If everyone were logical, then nobody would be hurt by others comments).
PS: Why don’t you use periods to end a sentence? I am just wondering.
Oh, and you’re welcome.
well about my punctioun I really dont know I suppose its like a lot of things I do its not what society tells me to do.
well actually I usually think faster then I type and just dont think about punctioun probally because of my dyslexia I really dont know.
is that better?
well it seems like I ve cleaned up the last couple of double posts like I will do in a second here.
You can clean up double-posts? I thought David did that? Well thanks anyway.
I also have been told I have dyslexia, ADD, mild autism, and some other stuff but for me it is false. I may be a little weird from autism (my extreme favoring of logic) but I really don’t think I have any of these things. You may very well have dyslexia or were just lied to, but I find such labels are irrelavant to myself.
I think your life is hard, with so many labels stuck on your head, like being gay, an atheist, gender problems, and being at least somewhat dyslexic. At least you can find like minded people here who won’t judge you. I love having this blog to use, David has done us all a great favor.
“Talented Gifted Learning Disabled”? What the f**k is right! Gifted and disabled should not be in the same sentence! What is wrong with our nation’s school system anyway? The left is screwing it up by being WAY too prudent about hurting other’s feelings while the right will impose religion on us and not give a crap about anyone, therefore not caring if they hurt our feelings.
Did you know in the south the public schools are a joke? I heard from someone who knows an eye wittness to this, they say they call the Civil War the ?War Of Northern Aggression?! What the heck?!? I from Maine (which I still live in) and they gave up the highest % of men to the war of their State! That is just plain offensive! The north was saving the slaves for crying out loud!
In the south they also teach that holding hands with someone will lead to pregnancy! What the heck? I held my mothers hand when she used to walk me across a road when I was a little kid!
The south also violates the first amendment on so many levels, that is part of the reason why you and me are on this blog! Our country better shape up or we will lose our power, simply because they treat people like you like sh*t, which is unjust and wrong.
Anthony:
Ummmm…hit the F5 button a coupla times after the 1st click. Sometimes you’re (I’m guessing) viewing a cached page. If you’re using Firefox or MSIE (any version).
Refreshing the page is a big help, I find.
Yeah, sometimes refreshing falls on its face though.
What the…I just tried putting something up but it is not here, looks like I will make a Greek god of posts being lost! If only I could get a tax cut for saying that…tax cuts rock.
Oh, it did show up after all…stupid me.
anthony are you using msie or fire fox Ive got a feeling you might want upgrade your browser just an idea.
And I am glad we have this blog too and I am glad I didnt go to school in the south.
The war of northern agresinon
junior year of high school we had a kid she came from goergia and in our american history class she was shocked at the info we knew on the civil war she was adiment we had it all wrong and this was an ap class.
My browser is fine, it is just when I put my laptop to sleep and then it gets messed up with the blog but thanks anyway.
I am glad I did not go to school in the south also and I feel bad for anyone who is, or ever has gone to school in the south. The south is a garden of ignorance and is also a good source of European humor (they are amazed at how they even DREAMT of ID here in such a well off country).
It is all just propaganda down there really, quite sad. I don’t like hot weather anyway, I like it below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (Maine is perfect for that).
PS: I must log off now for the day. I hope you have a great day.
the religious south is good source of humor period.
I have less respect for the spiritual
Anthony-
I’d like to know where this person went to school. I went to school here in Florida from grade 8-12. I NEVER heard the Civil War referred to this way!
The town I lived in was a real Bible-belt, southern small town. Plenty of prejudice and plenty of “Southern Pride,” but I never had any “propaganda” taught to me.
Now, the church I attended for a while was a different story. My Sunday School teacher told me that the Bible said that slavery was right and that we were going against God since we didn’t have slaves anymore!!
My son was born here in FL, and of course has been going to school here – he’s now in 8th grade. He’s never been taught this kind of nonsense, either.
Maybe in the Deep South things are different, but the story sounds kinda fishy to me.
pixel,
I agree with you.
Although I was educated in Iowa( K-12 plus college at ISU ), I don’t find myself at any advantage over my Texas born and raised coworkers.
Public education can be dicy anywhere in the country, but I think parents are a much bigger factor. Mine weren’t much good at hands on, but bought tons of books (encyclopedias, Childcraft, Dr. Suess, etc.) and I learned alot on my own.
My teachers thought I was learning disabled and put me in remedial reading in second grade. By fifth grade I was in the highest reading group( some because of good teachers, mostly because of my own efforts ), so I don’t have that high of view of a northern education.
Where I grew up we felt sorry for the “city kids” who we knew were getting a substandard schooling.
Esperdome
Where I grew up we felt sorry for the “city kids” who we knew were getting a substandard schooling.
funny we used to feel sorry for the kids in the rural schools for the same reasons.
udonman,
I guess this is another example of the grass being greener on your own side of the fence.
Actually, once I was able to get to town on my own I started making friends with city kids and found out they weren’t so bad after all. Well at least the girls.
One of the best advantages of going to a smaller school was that ours didn’t offer physics.So myself and three of my friends roadtripped to the nearest school everyday of our senior year( we were the envy of all our classmates).
To make it back in time for lunch we had to cover the 16 miles in less than 9 minutes. This lead to many 100+ MPH runs from Neola to Underwood.
The old Fury I drove in the rotation actually went slightly faster every day from an unimpressive 100 MPH to 110 at the end. Not too bad for an old 318 with 100,000+ miles on it.
After I graduated I dropped in a built 440 that didn’t like being shifted out of second till 110, and would bury the speedo before hitting high gear if I chose.
pixel,
I will defend my comment here. This person was a female from Tennessee who went to a public school there. When she came to Maine (to vist some family) she was shocked to find out all the lies she was taught. I am not saying (at least now) that ALL schools in the south are like that one school, but a lot are. I don’t see any schools up in the north that say evolution is bull, or that holding hands while get you holding a baby in your arms. Plus Florida is better educated than Tennessee or Alabama.
We also do not say “ain’t” up here in the north nearly as much as the south does (or nearly as many grammer mistakes either). The bible belt is down there also.
To make it back in time for lunch we had to cover the 16 miles in less than 9 minutes. This lead to many 100+ MPH runs from Neola to Underwood.
The old Fury I drove in the rotation actually went slightly faster every day from an unimpressive 100 MPH to 110 at the end. Not too bad for an old 318 with 100,000+ miles on it.
After I graduated I dropped in a built 440 that didn’t like being shifted out of second till 110, and would bury the speedo before hitting high gear if I chose.
and here I thought it was cool to get out of class and drive around the cb school district and do the network admin for credit never was able to get my 1987 toyota tercel past 100 on broadway.
old fury 110 mph on those roads Ive been out that way sounds like fun man.
My first post here, and I confess I have not read every entry above. And no, I don’t think a principled atheism should override all other issues. It’s usually only a symbolic issue, like flag burning. There are often issues a lot more burning than burning flags. Anyhow the enemies of atheism tend to offend most other priciples I have, so it’s rarely a problem. But if John Kerry, for instance, wanted to print In God We TRust on every penny, I would still vote for him over Bush or even a no-chance third-party candidate that I agreed with in re pennies.
My first post here, and I confess I have not read every entry above. And no, I don’t think a principled atheism should override all other issues. It’s usually only a symbolic issue, like flag burning. There are often issues a lot more burning than burning flags. Anyhow the enemies of atheism tend to offend most other priciples I have, so it’s rarely a problem. But if John Kerry, for instance, wanted to print In God We TRust on every penny, I would still vote for him over Bush or even a no-chance third-party candidate that I agreed with in re pennies.
Tom Disch,
Let me be the first to welcome you to the blog.
I’ve read some of your short stories in anthologies, but I’ve got all my paperbacks packed up in anticipation of building a new house, and couldn’t tell you what I’ve read short of a half day research mission out in the barn. I read lots of sci fi but have drank too many memory cells to an early death to recall every story.
sorry about udonman and myself carrying on off topic but we’re both from the Omaha-C.B. area (which has a large contingent on this blog), and sometimes get off track.
But I agree with you on the lessor evil, given no good choice.
Remember people, if you don’t vote you have no right to bitch.
I am a First Amendment “committee” to separation of government and religion(s). I focus on one single issue per election year. Thats all i can handle.(Don’t remember the 80’s and I barely completed high school) I make my decisions and move on. This time it will be the FMA- To be a slave to some(thing) thru marraige or by law is still being a slave and I draw the line there. So I am looking at the issues today via the net and this blog, I’m able to make better choices at the ballot box. It’s better than doing nothing at all.