10 Questions Every Liberal Should Ask Every Republican

November 24, 2013 By Allen Clifton

When it comes to politics, I think most people have a love/hate relationship.  When people ask me what I do, one of the followup questions I get asked quite often is, “Isn’t that incredibly frustrating?”  And the answer is yes, it is.
Politics might be one of the few areas I know of where facts, reality and history can suddenly be subjective.  I honestly never thought I’d live in a day and age where climate change would be something millions of people suddenly doubted.  All because a few rich tycoons decided to lobby a political party in the United States to perpetuate the idea that the science behind climate change was some big liberal conspiracy.
Literally every day I see comments from poor or middle class conservatives advocating for the policies of a political party that’s clearly used religion to manipulate many of them into voting against their own interests.  ”You’re going to cut benefits for programs that help me?  Oh, and you’re trying to privatize entitlement programs so rich people can profit from them?  That’s fine, because my church says gays are bad and so does the GOP.”
But when it comes to debating Republicans, I just like to ask them questions.  I’ve realized that unless I’m on Fox News they’ll never believe a word I’m saying.  So instead of trying to make them listen to facts, I just ask them questions to see if they can answer them.  That’s where the real hilarity comes into play.
See, it’s one thing to believe something — it’s quite another to understand why you believe it.
So here are 10 questions (though there are many more) I like to ask Republicans that they often seem unable to answer.

1) If Republicans are so fiscally responsible, why was President Eisenhower (in the 1950′s) the last Republican president to balance the budget? 
2) If President Reagan was such a fiscally conservative hero, why did he quadruple our national debt during his eight years in the White House?
3) If tax breaks are the main driving force behind job creation, how would we create jobs once tax rates were reduced to practically zero?
4) If socialized health care is so awful, why does every country that leads the world in life expectancy have socialized health care?
5) If you support the freedom of religion (as per our Constitution), and my church recognizes gay marriage, isn’t your support for the banning of same-sex marriage an attack on my religion’s First Amendment rights? 
6) What’s more realistic?  1) That an entire region of the United States that supported slavery in the late-1800′s and support segregation in the 1950′s and 60′s suddenly stopped being racist, or 2) The racist southern Democrats in the south became Republicans during the 50′s and 60′s when the Republican party shifted toward an idea called the “Southern Strategy,” where the GOP appealed to the racism in southern whites who didn’t like African Americans voting for Democrats. 
7) If taxes are at some of their lowest levels in history, and the wealthiest in this country are richer than ever, why hasn’t the growth in the wealth of the middle class matched that of the top 2%? 
8) If our Founding Fathers wanted this nation to be based on Christianity, why don’t the words “Christian” or “Christianity” appear even once in our Constitution?
9) If a Republican president reduced massive job losses in the midst of the worst recession in nearly a century by more than 50% in his first 4 months in office; presided over 44 consecutive months of private-sector job growth creating nearly 8 million jobs; killed Osama bin Ladin; saw stock markets reach all-time highs; saved the American auto industry; increased domestic oil production to highs not seen since the late-90′s and championed the largest year-to-year deficit reductions since World War II, would your party not be calling him a hero and a legend? 
10)  If Jesus spent his life helping the poor and the needy, how does it make sense that a party which claims to be for “Christian values” continues to cut funding for programs that help the poor and the needy?
Again, these are just a few of the questions I like to ask Republicans that I get some of the funniest answers from.  Well, if they answer at all.  But if they do, the answers are usually rambling and incoherent, lacking all signs of common sense.
So I would encourage all of you reading this to share it, print it out or just ask them a few of these questions — then sit back and watch the hilarity ensue.

Whitehouse Responds to Westboro Baptist Church Petitions

July 3, 2013   

Posted by: Samuel Warde

 

The White House has responded to several  petitions asking that the Westboro Baptist Church be declared a hate group. In addition to the official written response (below) the White House posted a GIF illustrating the country’s common loathing for Westboro Baptist Church.
Official White House Response to Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group  and 4 other petitions                                                     

Here’s What We Have to Say About the Westboro Baptist Church

The We the People Terms of Participation explain that “the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government.”
To the extent that these petitions request a particular law enforcement or adjudicatory action, we cannot issue a comment. In addition, as a matter of practice, the federal government doesn’t maintain a list of hate groups. That’s the prerogative of private organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center.
That all said, we agree that practices such as protesting at the funerals of men and women who died in service to this country and preventing their families from mourning peacefully are reprehensible– a point that President Obama has made for years. That’s why he signed a law to ensure that protesters keep an appropriate distance at military funerals. As the President has said, “The graves of our veterans are hallowed ground, and when men and women die in the service of their country and are laid to rest, it should be done with the utmost honor and respect.”
Moreover, one of the remarkable things about this set of petitions is that it shows just how strong the bonds that unite us can be. Together, we’re more resilient than those who would try to drive us apart.
Take, for instance, this map of all the signers of the petition “Legally recognize Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group” — that we built with the zip codes that people chose to share with us when they signed. The darker color indicates a higher percentage of signers for that particular area’s population. While support for these petitions came from all over the country, it was densely clustered in two places that have unique insight into the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church — Kansas, the state the church calls home, and Newtown, Connecticut, where the church threatened to picket the funerals of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Take a look: