From: best@anasazi.com (Mike Best)
Subject: Re: Which of you is 'good enough' ?
Organization: Anasazi Inc, Phoenix AZ USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 20:15:55 GMT

In article <1992Jul22.135932.16194@tc.cornell.edu> shore@tc.cornell.edu writes:
>In article <vhfmzz-.crisp@netcom.com>, crisp@netcom.com (Richard Crisp) writes:
>> In article <1992Jul20.223738.6179@athena.cs.uga.edu> heath@athena.cs.uga.edu (Terrance Heath) writes:
>> >Well I have two strikes against me. I'm black. I'm gay. I think its
>  
>> Save it for Donohue we don't need it here.
>
>Actually, we *do* need it here.  Among other things, the
>past 12 years of Republican administration has been marked
>by increasing divisiveness in this country and an escalation
>in the number of hate crimes.  We've seen the resurgence of
>white extremist organizations and we've seen people like David
>Duke enter the Republican party.  We have the AIDS crisis,
>which could have been contained early on if the federal
>government hadn't treated it as a disease of those "other"
>people and had stopped obstructing safe sex education and
>needle exchanges.  And, of course, we have the deterioration
>of our inner cities and overt racism on the part of those
>who are supposed to be protecting all citizens.
>
What an Ithacan (Statist-Liberal).

Would you try to consider another possibility regarding divisiveness?
Project this, the government has promoted the concept of group rights
via the mechanism of entitlements, affirmative action, etc.  The result
is for some of these people to begin to think of themselves as belonging
to a group instead of as an individual citizen.  It must be obvious to
you that, by this argument, the danger for our society to tribalize 
under this environment is greatly increased.  I see people lining up
on group boundaries (such as race!) instead of on issue boundaries, this
is tribal.

Where can you find a better example of the liberal government approach 
to social justice than inner-city LA?  What did we see there?  Those 
people openly stated that they felt like a group and were fighting 
an us/them confrontation on race grounds.

White extremists, Black extremists - what's the difference, you democrats
have been using group rights to promote equality but there can be no
equality unless people are treated as individuals.  How can group rights
be separate but equal?

AIDS contained by the Feds eh?  You don't want the government involved
in sexual behavior when it involves everything from teaching abstinence
through abortion rights yet when it serves YOUR purpose to promote what
you believe is culturally right then it is OK.  Exactly how would the
government go about stopping people from engaging in high risk activities???
Are you advocating government involvement in sexual behavior? (No, you don't
do you.  And neither do I).
>
>The kind of hate and alienation being promoted by our
>Republican presidents has hardly led to a "kinder, gentler"
>nation.  It's led to an angry, ailing, impoverished nation.

I would like you to expand this concept, "hate and alienation", and
specifically how has the President promoted this?  I would think that
it is the democrats which have created entitlements, then made certain
classes semi-dependent upon the dole, and finally when we can no longer
afford the mandated spending increases they tell the dependents that
their rights are being taken from them.  This creates hate and alienation
but I say that it is in part due to the policies of the Great Society
which rely on infinite resources.


Mike Best
{mcdphx|asuvax}!anasaz!best
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.theory,alt.discrimination