Conservatives have bizarre priorities.

I am at a loss to understand why most (not all, but most) conservatives in the U.S. these days seem to believe that the most important issues that need to be worked immediately include:

1.     Repealing “Obamacare” which would immediately take away basic healthcare coverage 6 to 12 million people who just got it.
2.     Not allowing any female to have an abortion in the country for whatever reason, including health of the mother, rape or incest.
3.     Letting anyone at anytime be able to purchase a weapon without any restrictions, paperwork or wait times.
4.     Not allowing gay and lesbian people to get married, because something to do with their particular interpretation of the Bible.
5.     Protecting the Confederate Battle Flag, which was a symbol of an army that revolted against government of the United States and has been used by very racist elements like the KKK for the sole purpose of proclaiming white supremacy and hatred of the entire black race.
6.     Refuses to believe in any scientific conclusion or theory if it happens to conflict with their own, already formed, beliefs.
7.     Make enemies of labor unions and vilify regular people who happen to work as teachers and government workers

I am not getting into the “political” arena, such as voter suppression and making or gutting laws solely for the purpose of benefiting the rich and powerful.  This is only about what I would term “social” issues.

Now, it just baffles me how thinking people who seem to be otherwise capable of functioning in society and making a living can think that taking away basic healthcare from millions would be a good idea.  I don’t care if your ideology demands you believe in a small government (“small enough to drown in a bathtub” per Grover Norquist’s edict).  How can people not believe that a large part of the role of any government body, regardless of the country, is to help and protect its citizens?  We have a huge flipping military whose sole purpose is to “ensure our freedom” or whatever the latest catchphrase is.  So why is protecting the population against something that might happen and spending trillions of dollars in the process more important than people have the ability to go seek medical attention when they need it?  That's important, dammit! 

One of the things we keep hearing from the “Pro-Life” faction of the conservatives in this country is how precious each and every life is, and abortion is murder.  And you know what?  I can actually see some validity in that argument.  I can sort of understand why people would believe that.  But conservatives just trash their own argument by the fact that they do not give one single goddamn about a kid once he or she is born.  Born to an illegal immigrant?  Too damn bad!  Back to Mexico or Guatemala for you, even though the kid has never been there before and the Constitution of the U.S. does have that bit about children born in the country.  Your parents are poor or disabled and can’t find work to put enough food on the table?  Too damn bad.  Get a job.  Oh, you’re black?  Well, never look suspicious when doing anything in your entire life, or else some vigilante or trigger happy cop might come along and gun you down. 

Yes, let’s talk about guns for a minute.  There are tens of thousands of people who lose their lives each and every year in the country due to violence using guns.  (Please note the careful language I am using as to avoid people being able to throw chaff into the argument about guns don’t kill...yada yada.)  This country loses anywhere from 2000 to 3000 kids, KIDS, each year to gun violence.  Yes, of course, some percentage is just what conservatives say it is, bad guys with guns.  That still doesn’t excuse it.  But a very, very large percentage seems to be (and we don’t know for certain because the NRA and its supporters won’t let statistics be gathered) accidental shootings, rage shootings where a gun is handy, mistaken shootings like some flipped out white guy shoots at black kids who play their music too loud or show up on their porch asking for help at 2:00 a.m. after they have been in a car wreck. As has been said a number of times already, if we lost this many kids per year and it could be blamed on Muslim terrorists, we would have already bombed two or three Middle Eastern countries already. But because it's just "regular ol' Americans" doing the shooting (like the guy who killed movie goers in Denver or the guy who killed a bunch of 1st graders in Sandy Hook or the guy who murdered 9 people, including their pastor and five or six elderly ladies, while having Bible studies in their church, ad infinitum), that's just stuff that happens.  Nothing to see here. 

Where is all this “each life is precious” crap now?  This, to me, is the absolute height of hypocrisy.  No abortions, ever, for any reason!  But if you happen to get killed with a gun, well, that’s just too damn bad because FREEDOM!!  As Joe the Plumber famously said after the massacre at Sandy Hook, “Your dead kids to not trump my 2^nd Amendment rights.” 

I could rant about that one for ages.  I haven’t even touched the whole controversy about gay marriage and the Confederate Battle flag.  Let’s do another one of those comparisons, shall we?  Having government buildings and other facilities take down the symbol of an unlawful attempt to secede from the Union and that government taking up arms against the lawful government of the U.S. in order to protect an odious institution like slavery is of vital importance because we are trampling out country’s history, but allowing gay people to enjoy the same rights as everyone else in allowing them to marry who they desire will somehow be the end of our civilization.  That is, again, flipping crazy.  That makes absolutely no sense to me. 

I will be the first to admit that I do not understand homosexual attractions.  That’s probably because I am not a homosexual.  But I do understand how it can happen and that has nothing to do with me, personally, and does not somehow degrade or diminish my marriage to a person of the opposite sex.  I have known several gays and lesbians and they are just people.  Some can be annoying just like heterosexual people, but most are fine.  I have hung out with them, had a drink at a bar, worked with them on a team where they were designated “team lead.”  Big deal.  I just don’t get why people get so worked up about it. 

I could go on and on about this.  This is already much longer than I had anticipated.  I haven’t even gotten to the thing about ideology being more important than science.  That one drives me insane and should probably be saved for a post of its own in the near future.

I don’t expect anyone to be able to explain to me why the Right and the Left of this country are so at odds with each other and seem to have their own reality.  And if anyone feels like commenting, that’s great.   Do it.  If it too nasty, I probably won’t read it but I will likely allow it to be shown just because a lot of what I read today really seems to show (to me anyway) the truth in what I am saying.