Liberals, DUers and Life

Yes, it's another Schiavo thread. But, it goes beyond that. I know that not everyone here is on the same side of that issue. And my post really isn't directed at everyone who doesn't agree with me on that issue. But, there have been more than one poster here who has painted everyone on Michael Schiavo's side as being against life. That we are all blood thirsty and only want to see Terri Schiavo die. That they don't want to be part of a party or ideal that wants to see her die. It is those kinds of posts that prompt my response here.

Let's just look at the party that overwhelmingly wants to "Keep Terri Alive". Putting aside all the arguments that say otherwise, I want to look at the ideals that side, the GOP, promotes. Let's start with their Medicaid cuts. They cut 15 billion dollars from a program that is the ensurer of last resort for millions of people. Those cuts are going to kill people, because without health insurance, people get sick, and they die. The GOP nominated a man for president in 2000 who presided over more executions than any other Governor in modern history and showed no interest in the manifest and obvious deficiencies with the capital punishment system in his state. The Christian Coalition opposed the Governor of Alabama's plan to increase taxes to pay for health care and education for poor children, because they said Jesus didn't approve of income redistribution. The GOP idolizes a president who allowed torture to become an epidemic in Iraq and Afghanistan and then disciplined no one over that failure. They idolize a president who couldn't be bothered to offer his condolences during the greatest national disaster in the last hundred years or at the most recent school shooting. The GOP supports austerity programs in the third world that have demonstrably been shown to make people poorer and increase child poverty and mortality rates. This culture of life that they speak of is a sham They are not concerned with life at every step of the way. They are only concerned with it deals with abortion or apparently involves a white woman who looks good on television.

Any discussion of the members of the party of death have to start with the GOP. This is not about one side wanting to keep a woman alive, and one side wanting to kill her. This is about one side wanting to let a husband deal with his wife's last wishes privately and one side that either doesn't realize the woman is already dead, or is deliberately hiding that fact to score some cheap political points. When the GOP starts to take seriously the problems with the death penalty, children dying through a lack of health care, torture, and economic policies that they know keep children in poverty and destitution, thus shortening their lives, THEN we can discuss which side cares for life more. Because right now, the GOP doesn't give a rat's ass about you once you're alive.

Most people I know at DU and on the left are against just about everything the GOP stands for, including the issues that costs lives that I mentioned above. That is why I want to scream and punch my fist through my laptop monitor every time I see a post decrying DUers and their lust for death regarding the Schiavo scandal. I'm sorry this is long, but I had to get it off my chest.

ring a bell?

http://uspolitics.about.com/b/a/155253.htm

put it to post.

This is one issue that has captured everyone's imagination..not just on DU. People were asking me about it today at work.

I listened to one woman who was for Kerry but was caught up in the msm's version of what's going on with Teri.

She's crazy for animals and has a tender heart but doesn't get it that this is up to Teri..not what the parents want.

I wholeheartedly agree with your points.

I have been appalled at the misinformation, lies, hysteria and hypocracy surrounding this sad affair.

No thinking person could condone this political circus. It is just that - it's not about Terri at all. She's just a vehicle for the Randall Terrys, Tom DeLays, et al who hope to position the GOP to remove any judges who will uphold the law and the Constitution. And the bastards wrap themselves in flags and crucifixes to show us how 'ammurican' and 'holy' they are - implying, of course, that any who dare to oppose them are 'murica-hating,heathen devils'.

Sickening.

Nominated, btw. :hi:

:hi:

thank you for expressing our thoughts so well.....

I like to think I'm pretty liberal, socially....but I am a pragmatist and a realist when the facts indicate that this poor women died 15 years ago. Let this poor women's body go...

I'd like to share (geez, that sounds freeperish, doesn't it) this link about who's bankrolling the ongoing court-battle to "save Terri."

Here it is: http://blog.bioethics.net/2005/03/have-conservatives-bought-bioethics.html

I just wrote a LTTE against an article written by the bishop of a local diocese (with many of these points) ... and I am preparing for the shit storm.

it's damn offensive.

same with the war, we're the commies because we oppose it, but their the ones shopping at walmart.

if schindlers win, she continues going on in the isolation chamber that her body has become. If Michael Schiavo wins, Terri slowly starves until she is released from all this. Either way, everyone involved is in for a world of hurt.

Now, there are thousands of people in America alone that are starving every day, and that is something Congress and the President CAN do somethinmg about. Most of these people have the potential for a bright future ahead of them, unlike Terri. They could become happy, healthy human beings if only they had some food and shelter and a good education. Instead of focusing on one woman who's life is over either way, our leaders could consider helping the thousands who they really can help.