American Politics: Childhood lessons

. I remember going with my mother as a young child when she voted. The voting machines where placed in a neighbors home down the street. It was memorable to me because of the fancy red curtain that swooshed open and closed. I could have stayed all day playing with that curtain, but I wasn't allowed to touch it. On the way home I asked my mother who she voted for.

"I like Ike," she said.

"Why?"

"He's a General."

That made no sense to me at all. My next voting experience occured four years later. This time it was in my elementary school two blocks from home. One day there was a line of grown-ups leading out the door. I thought they were all in trouble with the Principle but my older brother said, "no. Their here to vote." This was the year of Kennedy and Nixon. Kennedy won of course.

During the next few years, every time Kennedy came on T.V. to give a speech my parents complained about him, though they were both in favor of civil rights. I was home with the flue the day Kennedy was assasinated. I ran into the kitchen expecting my mother to approve since she didn't like him, but she was appaled. The lesson here was tolerance. You may not like a President, or a Congressman, or any other elected offical. You have the right to complain. But if they are killed or die in their term, you are filled with shock and horror. I would have to say that 95% or more of American's feel this way about our leaders.

The turbulant 60's arrived. My older brother and sister where very vocal about politics. I sat quietly at the dinner table while they debated about one Presidential candate or another. Both my syblings had become Democrats though my mother remained a Republican. You can imagine how fierce these debates were. Still, it wasn't until after Nixon's watergate scandel that my mother switched parties. I registered as an independant in college because I didn't want anyone dictating who I should vote for.

Fast forward, and it really feels that way too, the years have flown by. After Bush I knew I'd never vote for another Republican. I then switched and became a Democrat. If a inept Democrat is ever elected I may become an Independant again. You never know. At this point, I am still angry with the Republicans. I recently read a post on Facebook that quoted a famous woman politican. The comment beneath was how true it was. Basically it said that all Democrats took foodstamps, medicaid and other government assistance and where lazy people. I have never benefited from any of those programs to date and I'm not lazy nor ignorant. I would never call my Republican friends lazy or ignorant. I'm an American, we are taught tolerance, some people need help and yes, some take advantage of the system, but don't call those who are needy names.

Okay, so once again I crossed the line a little. I hope you still like me cause I like you.

I think I'm out of fresh ideas for American Politics, so unless something occurs to me I won't be posting about it any more. If you're an American, be sure to vote.

Nancy

American Politics: And the Nominees are...

Hello everyone. It looks like I can't promise anything in regard to regular blogs. I hope to have the computers up and running sometime in July and internet service shortly after. Meanwhile I'm stuck at the library and can't gaurantee when I'll make it in. I promise to devote time to each of you when I'm able.

So...that said, I'll wait to continue my Deadly Sin post with your hero/heroine until I can give it the time it deserves.

I am writing three stories the old fashioned way at the moment. One is a novella that takes place before the action of my e-book, The Treasures of Carmelidrium. The other two are children's books. One is complete but no art yet so in the meantime I'm working on it's sequel and a Christmas book inspired by my granddaughter.

Now for our feature presentation. Popcorn anyone?

American Politics...the nominees are:

Looks like Romney for the Republicans and Obama for the Democrats. Why is it that you can land a job with experience but in politics experience seems to be a dirty word?

If I'm an employer, the first thing I want to know is: Can you do the job? Hay, that's a fair question. If you are a repubican you will claim that Obama hasn't fixed the economy. If you have any memory at all you will know that Obama said it would take longer than 4 years. If you are a democrat you will have heart trouble over Romney. Both think the other party borders on stupidity. This is why I don't participate, cause I'm not stupid.

So, purly from the perspective of an American citizen I want to ask. Does Romney remind you of Richard Gere's character in pretty woman? Or of pirates on the open sea before Johnny Depp turned priates into all time super cool guys? Let's take a narrow minded close up.

Romeny was CEO of a company that took over failing buisness', fired all the American workers, sold off the company in bits and pecies and pocketed the profit. Do you really want this guy as our President? Where is the scene where Julia Roberts takes him to a park to walk barefoot and smell the flowers? Richard got a conscious afterwards, I think Romney left his in the limo.

Family story time:

During the Great Depression, Roosevelt had some pretty unpopular plans to save America and get everyone back to work. Just before the election for his third term as President, or maybe it was his second, you can correct me, it's okay. The jobs started coming back to America. Roosevelt hadn't been popular until that happened.

My grandparents were farmers in Minnesota on rich abundant land. They didn't have the issues of the mid-west dust bowl. They fed their entire family through the depression into WWII. At that time, with so many American's fighting overseas, German prisoners of war where brought in to help harvest the crops.

My grandfather took one of them aside and said. "Do you like Hitler?"

The German soldier was a young man around 17 years, he said. "Do you like Roosevelt?"

My family were Republicans from the time of Lincoln. You can imagine my grandfather's reply.

See you all next time. I hope it is sooner than later.

Nancy

American Politics: American Political Parties

Say what? You heard me. As promised, though I can't guarantee the day I post at the moment, here are a few facts about American Politics that our friends in different countries may or may not know.

I am not involved with American Political Parties except that I am sure to vote. Voting is important. When congress passed the law allowing women the right to vote my grandmother voted. She voted up until she died at 104 years of age. The women in our family all believe it is important to vote and we exercise our rights during election year.

You cannot beleive how many Political Parties there are in America. We have parties just for conservative people, parties for liberal people, parties for no government. We have several factions for Communist parties and also Nazi parties. None of the above mentioned parties have much clout. The two main parties are The Republican Party founded in 1854 and the Democrat Party founded in 1945. I thought the Democrats had been around longer than that.

What's the difference?

I am not giving you the official party statement for each which you can easily look up online. Instead, I will give you my opinion. Watch out, here it comes.

The Republican party started out with much the same philosopy as the democrats now have. The first Republican President was Abraham Lincoln. Need I say more?

Today, the Republican party believes in less government. What does that translate into? Less money for food stamps, medicare and medicade, (medical help for the poor,) less interference for big buisness and lots of tax breaks for the wealthy Americans which are hidden by giving American buisness lots of tax breaks. The Republican Party gives Big Buisness a tax break for shipping jobs to third world countries. I lost my job that way. Can you tell I'm not a big fan?

The Democrats do over spend. However, sometimes it is necessary. If you have millions of unemployed Americans because Big Banks did risky buisness and gambled with the housing industry causing its collapse, than yeah, you have to help people who would be homeless and starving otherwise. Get my drift?

The other BIG thing in politics is abortion. This continues to be a huge issue. The Republicans would do away with legal abortion. The Democrats support legal abortion. As a Christian, if it weren't for the other Republican attitudes I'd probably be one just because of this abortion issue. However, at the same time, I don't think you win any hearts for God by telling people what they can and cannot do.

This is just the tip of the ice. I won't bore you with more of the same. Now for my true life story.

My great grandmother sat on her porch in a rocker that my mother still owns and wept when she learned that Abraham Lincoln had been assasinated. They voted for him.

See you on Monday for Character Traits.

PS...still using the library computer and I'm so limited in what I can do. Nancy