[extropy-chat] Enlightenment and the election

[Greg Burch]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Emlyn
> Sent: Friday, November 05, 2004 7:45 PM
> 
> Greg, I know it's rude to ask someone to explain their vote, so mea
> culpa, and it's only a request, feel free to ignore it.
> 
> However, if you are ok with it, could you please explain why you would
> vote for Bush in the circumstances you outlined below? Quite
> seriously, I can't understand why an extropian would make that choice,
> but also I am uninformed when it comes to US domestic politics, and
> maybe there's something I can learn from your position.
> 
> In the spirit of reciprocity, I voted in the recent Aussie elections
> for the Australian Labor Party, in some way similar to the Democrats
> in the US (our equivalent of the GOP is the Coalition, made up of the
> Liberal and National parties, with the Libs being the major partner).

snip -- an explanation of your vote for Labor in the recent Australian elections.

> What I object to in the conservatives is that I see them as primarily
> responsible for what I think of as a continuing political/social lack
> of confidence on the part of the people of the country, which I would
> now call a world wide depression. It leads to support for these
> policies of warring overseas, closing the borders, viewing foreigners
> and each other with suspicion, and a generally bleak view of the state
> of the world. Blanket pessimism. It's the opposite to what I'd like to
> see as an extropian, because extropianism *requires* optimism.
> 
> So, as a transhumanist and extropian, that's my reasoning for voting
> Labor on this side of the world. Reading back over what I wrote above,
> it's negative reasoning, isn't it? I voted against the conservatives,
> not for the "progressives". Labor these days to me feels like a party
> without much personality.

Emlyn, I appreciate the sincerity of your question and I'll try to answer it as clearly and succinctly as I can.  What I won't do is get into a debate; feelings are too high and this really isn't a forum for such discussions in my personal opinion.

The primary positive reason I supported Bush is his administration's foreign policy.  Based on the fairly in-depth study of Islam and Arab history I have made over the last three years, I believe nothing short of harsh military action on a broad geographic and temporal scale will stop the rising tide of Islamofascism and Arabic violence.  I am a strong supporter of Rice, Wolfowitz and the other "neocons."  I have faced sharp criticism for this -- allegations that my libertarian opposition to the "Nanny State" has given way to support for a strong "Daddy State."  I reject that criticism, but I acknowledge the kernel of truth upon which it is based.  I'm a minarchist who reluctantly supports state action in defense of liberal civilization.  Ironically, that is what the "conservative" Republican party stands for now in America.  A blogger humorously pointed out that a Kerry victory in the 2004 election would have pushed the end of the war from 2020 to 2022 -- the two years it took the Kerry Administration to figure out that, although unpopular in Europe and on the left, the only strategy short of surrender is the one being pursued by the neocons.

I know this will be a shocking sentiment to many who have been posting here for the last few days.  To them all I will say is, "Tell it to Theo van Gogh."  I believe Western feminists should be organizing the "Susan B. Anthony Brigade" of volunteers to fight in the Middle East.

The primary negative reason I opposed Kerry is what I see as the class-based and race-based divisiveness of the Democratic Party.  I believe the DP promotes a "victimology" that cripples American racial, ethnic and sexual minorities.  The fundamental ideology of the American Democratic Party is one based on group identity, something I reject soundly.

That's it in a nutshell.  Obviously, my thinking goes far beyond this but I won't engage in an extended discussion of this matter in this forum: The noise level from such a discussion would be too high for my taste.  There are plenty of other fora for such discussions and if anyone is interested in dropping comments into my blog, they're free to do so; I'm not shy about expressing my views there.

GB
http://gregburch.net/burchismo.html