We have all heard so much politics these last few months that if political slander were a currency we would be able to pay off the national debt twice and sponsor research for sharper bayonets and taller horses. Even so, I need to squeeze one more article out of this election. While economics has taken the center role in the platforms of both candidates, it is necessary to take social policies of these candidates into consideration. At first, I was going to rant about how Republicans are all old, cranky, white people. I reconsidered my topic and considered writing on gay rights, then I took it back and started writing about abortion. I couldn’t find anything worth writing about until this weekend. It wasn’t until I was walking around campus in my chicken suit, cape and glow sticks that an idea hit me, like a vision! The separation between church and state!
America was founded on the hope of religious freedom. When the pilgrims left England in the leaky boat we recognize as the Mayflower, it was in order to leave behind the Catholic and Anglican persecutions that ravaged the country. One of the strongest ideas that exist in our Constitution is the idea that religion should be separate from the state. Apparently this has been forgotten by the world of today. All over our nation, very religious people are doing their best to interfere with the lives, and choices, of everyone else.
The Republican Party has absorbed this small few, and in order to keep their votes, they bend to the will of the hyper-religious. If there was a true separation of church and state, gay rights and women’s choices would not be an issue, or at least, not inflated to the degree it is at. The government exists only to protect the life, liberty and property of each citizen. And give themselves raises. They were never meant to tell me who I can marry, or what to do with the unborn child in my uterus.
If we let this continue, soon enough, there could be a long list of arbitrary rules, telling you and me that we can’t eat shellfish, we can’t wear orange on Fridays and that we can’t get drunk in public. What a horrible world that would be. Candidate Mitt Romney, and the party he represents, are the ones condoning such horrible acts that violate our freedoms and our rights as human beings. What sane human being would dare vote for any man or woman that would single out a group of people and declare their rights invalid?
Our country is in a sad place as it is. This is supposed to be the land of the free and the brave. Our forefathers warned us of those who would use everything for their own gain, because men like those will give us nothing in return. In today’s day and age, the Republican Party is those men. They promise a fixed economy, an uncorrupt Washington, a strong military and basic freedoms for all, while still violating the independent rights of certain groups. America was built to protect all, yet those with half the power in our government don’t believe this. They only want power, not responsibility. Remember that on election day.
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