Republicans: Time to take a chill pill

I am a Republican. I am a Christian. I believe the best market is a free market. I believe small government and state run legislation allow for the best type of country equality and improvement. I believe, as a party, the conservative movement has molded into a group of angry, ignorant, loud and hateful individuals. They are so far from their core party ideals that there is little left from the “Beautiful Regan Era.”

It is time we evolve. The Republican Party needs to make serious shifts, or our polarized two-party government is going to become a three party system filled with angry crazies.

In an address to a New Hampshire college, Rick Santorum, a prominent Republican Candidate in the 2012 Presidential Campaign compared same-sex marriage to polygamy.

“So, everybody has the right to be happy? So, if you’re not happy unless you’re married to five other people, is that OK?” Yes, Rick Santorum it is OK.

As our nation’s economy plummets further into debt, Al-Qaida spreads to Africa and the wealth gap continues to grow. I don’t care if a citizen wants to marry a penguin. At least one of you will be well dressed.

The Republican’s right can’t keep piggy backing its beliefs and principals on scripture. In a 2006 speech at a church in Minneapolis, Michelle Bachmann, a Tea Party leader, said, “Why should I go and do something like that? But the Lord says, ‘Be submissive wives; you are to be submissive to your husbands.”

She explains pursing tax law was something she did because her husband encouraged her to. She was certain that God was speaking through him.

 In other speeches, Bachmann has also suggested national disasters, like the one off the gulf of Florida, happened because God was attempting to send the American people a message about national spending.

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians,” Bachmann said. “We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”

Seriously? God is punishing us because we’re spending too much? And he’s decided to tell us through the use of natural disasters? That statement isn’t just incompetent and insensitive. It’s insulting to those of us, like myself, who are religious. She makes us look crazy.

The United States needs to put on its big-girl panties and learn that just because we are the “global leader,” does not mean we are reaching our potential.

Human growth index puts the United States at fourth on the 20ll highly developed nations’ chart. Yet we have more money than two of the three countries before us. The human growth index rates countries based on a number of factors: average personal wealth, years in age of education and life expectancy. We are supposed to be the melting pot. America markets itself as the epicenter for international intelligence, acceptance and improvement. Yet we continue to fail.

I believe in a women’s right to choose. I believe — regardless of race, gender or sexuality — you should have the right to marry whomever you please. I believe the separation of church and state is the founding principal of our country. Religious beliefs should not dictate national decisions.

Throughout history we have continued to change. A women’s right to vote, second-class citizens and child labor laws are just a few of the many movements America has embraced. Right now we are the most polarized we have been since the Civil War. That’s horrifying. Over the centuries America has presented itself as an economic and social leader. We need to be demonstrating that again.

 “Things don’t change, we change,” Henry David Thoreau said.

Each political party in is facing major changes. Preaching about improvement, equality and inclusion will make some of you roll your eyes. Having to write a column about it makes me want to hurl. Not because it is not important. Not because things don’t need to change. But, because human decency and inclusion shouldn’t have to be discussed in America, we should have already made these changes.


Kristy Wilkinson is a senior in political science and new media communications. The opinions expressed in her columns do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff. Wilkinson can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.