Need to get this off my chest...

I am a bleeding heart liberal. I have been for a number of years. While I will admit that during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I considered myself a liberal Republican (liberal social views, conservative financial views) there were some rather difficult personal issues I had to deal with in the late 1990s that completely changed my point of view on things. Now, I'm about as left-wing as you can get without being a member of the Socialist Party.

One thing that has been really annoying me lately is the amount of crap that has been thrown around in the political arena the past couple of weeks. While I am a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party, I am open-minded to people of differing political beliefs. Voltaire once said "While I many not agree with what you say, I will defend to death your right to say it." I'm a firm holder of that belief. However, that belief is starting to fracture over a lot of crap I've been hearing recently.

I don't mind if you have a differing opinion as long as you are making an EDUCATED opinion. I don't care if you are a conservative, liberal, libertarian, or a Marxist. As long as you know why you are that way, it's fine by me. Don't just listen to the political heads on places like Faux News (intentional typo) or even CNN. Research what they are talking about and make your own opinion. Don't just take those things at face value. Hell, I'm a liberal and I can't stand CNN or MSNBC because of the way they idolize the Dems to a point they are almost considered god-like. If I have to watch the news, I turn to BBC America which is much more neutral than the U.S. news channels.

So what is the problem here? If I hear one more person state something as fact that is either taken completely out of context or a complete farce, I am going to scream! Either that or beat the person silly. Case in point (and these are true references I have seen in places like Facebook and comments on various news articles):

• Lincoln was a Republican and it was the Democrats who had him killed because he freed the slaves! - Yes, Lincoln was a Republican but if he were alive today, he would most likely be a Democrat. Not only were his ideas incredibly progressive for the time period, he supported a growing involvement of federal power. The Dems of the 1800s were the conservatives while the Republicans were the liberals. That changed in the early 20th century. And also, just because one nutcase was responsible for killing Lincoln doesn't mean the entire party was responsible for the assassination. That's as blatantly stupid as saying the "Jews killed Christ" (when in actuality, it was a Roman who gave the death sentence, not a Jew) and that all Jews then and now are responsible for that.
• It was the Democrats who implemented Jim Crow Laws! - Well, duh. Southern Democrats were for the most part racist shits in the late 1800's and early 1900s. However, do NOT use that argument when discussing Democrats today. See above argument.
• The Democrats are more racist than the Republicans because they feel that minorities are unable to take care of themselves and need a handout. The Republicans, on the other hand, think that we are all the same so no handout or affirmative action is needed - My God. Do people actually think this? Unless you ever faced discrimination or lived below the poverty line this argument is just moot. Going back to the incidents in the late 1990s, I faced both. If anybody tried this one in my face I would laugh so hard I would probably fall over. The Dems aren't just helping minorities, they are helping those who are struggling. If it wasn't for the initiatives of things like Social Security, Medicare, and improvements to education including increased public funding of grade schools and expansion of financial aid, a lot of people in this country would be screwed, both white, black, Hispanic, etc. Oh, and yes, these were put forth by Democrats.
• The stimulus package is going to hurt the economy more than help it! - While I'm not a big fan of bailing out such companies as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, without the stimulus package we would be royally fucked. A friend of mine teaches Asian history and economics and he gave a brilliant lecture on the role of the Asian nations in this financial crisis. The amount of money spent by the U.S. government to bailout companies and promote an economic stimulus is only a small part of the money spent by other nations. Specifically the G20 Nations are responsible for $692 billion in total economic stimulus packages in 2009. On average, the U.S. spent 1.9% of its 2008 GDP which might seem like a lot. However, China spent 2.4% which was significantly larger and they technically didn't have to push for stimulus money because their economy is actually doing quite well. The whole thing is that you need to look at the larger picture. What would have happened if we didn't provide some kind of stimulus package? I have bad news for you boys and girls but we would have headed for a global depression that would have been worse than the Great Depression. This stimulus package was not just a "U.S. thing" but a global one. It was all of the participants who kept the world from going down the economic drain and following in the footsteps of Iceland. In case you didn't know, Iceland declared bankruptcy last year. The country went bankrupt. Imagine if, for example, Brazil went bankrupt or Russia? Imagine how that would screw up the entire global economy! Heck, I remember watching a "documentary" back in the 1980s analyzing how World War III would start. Guess what? They predicted it would start with all of the South American countries declaring bankruptcy. How do you think that would screw up our economy? Ya, it was bad.
• Socialized medicine doesn't work/kills people/costs too much money, etc! - I could spend a month going over this argument. Just think of it this way: we are the only civilized western country that does not provide some sort of state backed health care system. While yes it will cost money, you are going to pay no matter what. Think of all of those people who don't have health insurance. They aren't going to go for regular check ups and will wait until they are truly ill before they see a doctor. By then, the cancer may have spread too far, or what started out as a simple curable illness turns into something fatal. The uninsured can't pay for it so everybody else does in the form of higher doctor bills. Also, if you have health insurance, you do you think is paying for it? If you said your company, you are partially right. How many of you would take a lower paying job if it provided health insurance over one that paid better but didn't provide? We know all of you would. You pay for it in many forms. Some may be paying for it out of pocket in terms of monthly deductions out of your paycheck or you are receiving a lower salary so that your company can afford to give you health insurance. Death panels? Who the fuck came up with that one. All of my friends who live in Europe and Canada love their health care system. While they have to wait a smidge for "unnecessary" surgeries, they don't have to worry about paying for important, preventative measures. Heck, if you have the sniffles, you don't have to worry about not affording your doctor visit. And I'm sorry, if you don't think affordable health care should be a right in this country, our founding fathers would disagree. If you don't believe me, look at our own Declaration of Independence (which happens to mention life...I think health and life go together):
  

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

/gets off soap box and goes to bed.