Six weeks.

[jlh]

About the political stuff. If someone said in 1964 that they felt that beating back Khrushchev was more important than the civil rights situation in the south and therefore they were voting for Goldwater, they would have been within their rights to do so. However, they shouldn't have been surprised that any Black friends they might have had would take it personally, wondering that a friend of theirs would actually put something ahead of their right to vote/go to school/even exist.

Change 1964 to 2004, Khrushchev to whatever large issue someone might agree with Bush on (terrorism, Iraq, etc.), civil rights for gay rights, and Blacks for gays, and hopefully you'll begin to understand what's been going on. It makes me very sad to see that it really is mostly those who have a personal understanding of predjudice and identity politics that are on the front lines of this. I know, because I have seen, that you don't have to be a person of color, or Jewish, or gay or lesbian yourself to have this visceral understanding of these issues, but it really seems to help, and that's too bad.

So be honest! Come right out and say, "I'm voting for Bush because I honestly feel that his stance on [insert your issue here] is more important to me and to the future of this country than his stance against gay rights."

And if you feel that way, less power to you.

Comments

[without-me.livejournal.com]

You don't know me and I don't know you, but I did want to respond to this:

the illegals who don't pay taxes

Even assuming Kerry would be lax on illegal immigration, which I think is debatable at the very least, please stop to consider that those "illegals" do pay sales taxes (and probably, indirectly, other taxes such as auto registration, etc.), and they pay them out of their lower-than-minimum-wage salaries. They do jobs that legal residents wouldn't take (or wouldn't take for those salaries), and get far fewer of the benefits of taxation (social security, police protection, etc.) than the rest of us do.

Moreover, I would argue that--for an ethical human being--civil rights should trump economic considerations when making voting choices. But that's just my opinion.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't get taken in by the lower-than-minimal wage bs. Yes, it's true that some of them do make crappy money, and a lot of them do jobs we don't want (or won't "lower" ourselves to do), but they can make big bucks. My hubby works for the border patrol and makes good money (here (http://www.opm.gov/oca/04tables/html/gs.asp)), but he's met plenty of illegals who make more than him doing those crabby jobs. Employers of illegals don't have to pay social security or taxes. My hubby's last paycheck had $1000 withdrawn from it to pay for everything. And that's just *his* share of it. An employer of an illegal alien doesn't have to pay or deal with any of that. They can and will pay higher money to an illegal.

As far as benefits? Most of us don't really see the so called benefits taken from our paychecks.

It boils down to, I can't respect someone who breaks the law. Yes, I know there are plenty of good reasons to come here, but the law is the law. And you either obey it or you don't.

Anonymous because of the personal info.

[without-me.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to debate the "the law is the law" argument. You're right; by definition, undocumented immigrants got here by breaking the law. If some of them subsequently make good money by means that would be lawful if they were authorized to work here (i.e., not running drugs, etc.), then I'm inclined to say more power to them. That they still do so at the mercy of people who could report them to La Migra anytime they wanted, so I don't think it's all wine and roses.

I think reasonable people can disagree about the best way to handle immigration issues. I don't think this is a reason to choose Bush over Kerry. Just my opinion.

[(Anonymous)]

Employers of illegals don't have to pay social security or taxes.

And...exactly who employs illegals? Certainly not the Bushes. Or never a Bush nominee for an important post, right?

[widdlekiwi.livejournal.com]

They do jobs that legal residents wouldn't take (or wouldn't take for those salaries), and get far fewer of the benefits of taxation (social security, police protection, etc.) than the rest of us do.

I know this, but you're acting like these people are citizens. I can't have too much sympathy for these people because they are not supposed to be here and they are cutting in front of everyone else applying for visas and citizenship from other countries; you can say that their situation is terrible in Mexico or wherever they're coming from, but there are other people with the same situation that have agreed to apply for legal ways to get into the country, and people coming over the border are just ignoring our laws.

Also, I said this issue was up there in my priorities, not the most important. Just something else I would consider.

[without-me.livejournal.com]

I don't think I was implying that illegal immigrants were citizens. Just pointing out that even undocumented people living in the U.S. do pay taxes in many ways. And also that they contribute to the economy; they don't only take.