Tuesday, 8 June 2004 - 12:26 PM CDT

A very popular high school teacher spoke sincerely one day about the horrors of Communism. A student of W. Cleon Skousen, he detailed torture, secret arrest, military aggression, suppression of free speech, and on and on. He spoke about our moral duty to speak out against this and do what we could to destroy this evil system. By the end of the class I was convinced that Communism was BAD, very very bad, and as a patriotic American I had a moral duty to fight against these evils.

I did, we all did, perhaps not directly like some, but with donations to charities, support of a strong defence, and simply paying our taxes. And we watched with delight at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the spread of freedom to the East. But since 2000 I have noticed that the same old evils have started growing here. But this time its not the Communists, its the Republican Party. The GOP. I would blame just the Bush admistration, but the whole GOP is 100% behind his policies. I hear no voice of decent. I hear no voice of reason. I only hear excuses, and misinformation.

Torturing enemies.
We have all seen the pictures. We have all heard the excuses, ?We aren't as bad as the terrorist.? I don't want live in the ?SECOND WORST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD?. Do you want to? We have never been, ?just a bit better then the evilest people on earth!? The United States has always tried to be the best. To be the ?Moral Compass? to the world. We are no longer that. Thanks GOP. This is BAD, like Communism.

Imprisoning without Due Process.
Terrorists are bad. Criminals need to be incarcerated. Please don't think I'm easy on crime. I'm not. Lock them up. But...first lets follow our CONSTITUTION, and PROVE they are guilty. Lets give them a trail, lets give them due process. Let them see a lawyer. Lets show the terrorist that cutting off someones head on TV is not what America is about. Lets show them we are better. These secret trails scare me. They can come into YOUR home and take YOU, without telling anyone. You're just gone. No word. They don't have to tell your family, anyone. They don't even have to have a trail. You just disappear. Were you a terrorist? Who knows? No one is saying a word. Thanks GOP. This is BAD, like Communism.

Military Agression.
I use to watch Gun Smoke. It came on after the Eyewitness news. I would sneak out of bed and crawl to the side of my dad's chair. He would be asleep with the paper in his hand. I would watch my hero Marshall Dillion. Marshall Dillion never drew first. The bad guy did, but Marshall Dillion was faster, he had a better gun, he watch the eyes and body language, he was the best. Marshall Dillion was always at a disadvantage. But he always won. An Israeli Court stated the following: "[a]lthough a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand." Freedom gives it the upper hand. Ronald Reagan said: ?Among free peoples, the open exchange of ideas ultimately is our greatest security.? But in Iraq we didn't wait for the bad guy to make the first move. For good or bad we drew first. We didn't have an ?open exchange of ideas? anyone who was opposed to the war was shouted down, called un-american. I just hope the bad guy is guilty of what we claim he had done. I'd hate to invade a country on the pretext of WMDs and then never find any. Thanks GOP. This is BAD, like Communism.

Limiting the Vote.
The Utah legislature, Gerrymanders the state's districts to minimize the democratic vote, in a way ?No Other Legislature In Utah's History Ever Did?! This minimizes my vote. The Utah legislature cuts the funding for primary elections (when there is not GOP primary) thus forcing the Democratic party to pay for it itself and making it harder for me to vote. (Mark my words, this will change in time for the next GOP primary in 2008.) Diebold's CEO has stated that he will: ?do what ever it takes? to see Bush re-elected. This gives me pause, as 1/3 the country will be using voting machines that have no paper trail and have been show to be bug-prone, and not secure. This will limit some peoples votes. Thanks GOP. This is BAD. Just like Communism.

So Communism is BAD, we all will agree! And the current GOP is.........

See now that the gods the GOP swore they served are infact the devils they told us they were fighting against and saving us all from. And everything they did (do) with the promise it would be better for the majority has made it ten times worse for all.