He's not as bad as Hitler. I actually think there are some good sides to Republican values. But they don't outweigh the cons.
I think ultimately the democrats will lead, and rightfully so...for their stances on facts, morals, issues, etc., which tend to be progressive, scientific, and global in outlook, rather than nationalistic, conservative, and religiously-biased...it's by a good margin, but it isn't absolute. I agree that there's a problem with the teaching union and it has led to some horrible education kept unchecked for a long time, and it's a cycle.
But I am also wary that Republicans wouldn't just want to bring in their idea of "good" education which would teach Christianity and creationism in the public schools...and raise harmful skepticism about rock-solid scientific evidence about global warming and evolution. In private schools you can do so, but the government and all public schools are supposed to be religion-neutral, and it should stay that way.
I see Republicans as anti-science. Take the science of global warming. Republicans are against it. Scientists are overwhelmingly in favor of it. Take the science of evolution. Again, scientists are in favor of it, Conservatives seem to be against it. How does this not make Republicans look bad to scientifically-minded people?
Republicans also fearful of immigrants coming into the country, of all varieties (stereotyping them as terrorists, criminals, drug dealers, etc). That's basically xenophobia and I think it's better to be open to people coming in, provided they're here for a good reason.
I believe in the melting pot that is America, which really benefits our culture. One example is my wife, who is a Chinese immigrant...a brilliant and caring person with a PhD in electrical engineering. She comes from the country with the highest academic test scores in the world, where the students go to school for longer and work harder than American children. Their combined score for reading, math, and science, was 1731 and the leader by a mile, with the runner up being Hong Kong at 1637...and USA weighs in at 1489, a couple dozen positions down the list. China also as a country has one of the highest IQs in the world (105) compared to the USA (98). I'm not saying China is perfect, but they're doing some things right.
Conservative Americans seem to be afraid of outsiders, maybe in spite of the cases they're more competent than we are. So we need to make American education stronger, and learn from these aspects other countries do better than we do, rather than deny it's happening, and try to puff ourselves up with backwards conservative Christian values that aren't based on science, and have no practical application...and nationalistic, egocentric attitudes not based in fact.
I think the world should function as one unit and try to solve its problems together, as a community...
Take an issue as an example: the American value of religious freedom. Republicans are for it, but come from a distinctly Christian bias, and seem to really be saying they'd like to see Christianity elevated and endorsed by the government (over other religions).
The list goes on. I can't side with Republicans on so many of the broader issues, that the things they may be getting right aren't nearly worth the price of admission. I believe both sides will paint the other as far worse than they truly are, and themselves as glorified, that's politics. But for me democrat is a no-brainer, but I realize we are not the same in our backgrounds and where we're coming from. I understand that Trump does do good for some people and helps out his supporters...or tries to/claims to, anyway.
26 Aug 2020, 2:36 pm
