You Can't Have It Both Ways

I recently posted a picture on my Facebook page made up of four smaller pictures - President Obama, Osama Bin Laden, Mitt Romney and Big Bird.  The caption under the first set of pictures (the President and Bin Laden) said "Took out Osama Bin Laden".  The caption under the second set of pictures (Romney and Big Bird) said "Took out Big Bird".

It was supposed to be funny.  A humerous little dig at a man that I have very little respect for, and have no intention of voting for.  It's political season, and I like funny stuff.

Which is why I was so surprised when not one but two of my Facebook friends jumped in and exclaimed "Obama didn't take out Osama Bin Laden.  Seal Team Six did."  One friend even went so far as to say "I don't usually get in political fights."

What came afterwards was a very spirited debate that came down to a disagreement in what a soldier actually is, if they are aware of such, and are they offended by that classification?  The thing is, in the end, we were both defending our soldiers, making the point that they are well trained, intelligent and especially with special forces, inventive.  There's a reason our military is feared.  

So when a few days later I saw a news story about how an Illinois congressman, a man who allowed the home his estranged wife and children lived in to go into foreclosure, and who refused to pay child support, was degrading and dismissing the sacrifices of his opponent, an Iraq war veteran that lost both legs and most of the function of one arm, I got a little steamed.  I posted on the skumbag congressman's page, I posted on the Iraqi war veteran's page, and I posted on my own page.  I made sure and pointed out to the primary opponent in our previous argument that I expected him to defend the war veteran as I had.  His response?  "Remember, I don't discuss politics."

Why is it that every time I call a conservative on one of their beliefs, they slither away like that?  Here are some of my favorite ways to make conservatives start darting their eyes about, looking for a way to escape where they can save face:

1.  Social Security/Medicare:  When these programs were set up, they were set up believing the average lifespan after retirement would be no more than ten years.  Today, the average lifespan of the American, while dropping slightly due to obesity, is much longer.  That means that a lot of Americans will "outlive" what they have put into these "socialist" programs.  My question is this - if you TRULY are against all forms of socialism, if you outlive your contributions to these programs, are you then going to write the Social Security Administration and tell them to stop your checks?  Because if you don't, well..gee...that sort of makes you a SOCIALIST.  (The only answer I've ever gotten to this question is "Well, everyone else will be too so why not?" at which point I define socialism)

2.  DOMA:  I have been told by family and friends and strangers and preachers that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.  They point to bible verses which tell them this is so.  Many of these people are good, God fearing Christian women, who are in church every Sunday and who spend their free time in finding ways to help their fellow man.  I'm not being sarcastic, I'm deadly serious. These are literally some of the best people in the world.  Many of them are married.  Many of them have been married more than once.  Most have been with more than one man in their lifetimes.  And yet, when I point out that, according to the Bible a woman who has sex in her lifetime with more than one man, unless that man is the brother of their deceased husband and he has also married her, is ALSO an abomination in the eyes of the Lord and must be stoned to death...the room goes strangely quiet.  The Bible says nothing about degrees of abomination...abomination is abomination.  So how is it that two women who love each other and want to live together and make a home and a good life for each other and their children is an abomination, but a divorced woman with two children that remarries and makes a good life for her and her husband and her children are not?  Or for that matter, a woman and mother that remarries an abuser and drunkard...seems that would be worse, because she puts her children in danger.  No one has ever answered that question for me.

3.  Which circles us back around to the Seal Team Six arguement.  While I do agree that ST6 executed the mission that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden and the confiscation of huge amounts of valuable intelligence information on Al Quaida, ST6 did not plan the mission, they did not crunch the numbers, they did not gather the primary intelligence necessary to know that Bin Laden was there...and neither did the President.  But the President is the Commander in Chief.  He is the one that trusts the people that do these things to give him everything he needs to know to make the final decision, knowing more than those on the ground do how dangerous this mission is, the risks involved, knowing that some, or maybe all of the men he is sending in may not make it out alive.  He wasn't "sitting on the couch in the White House" while the raid was going on, he was in the Situation Room involved with minute-by-minute decisions, and then biting his nails with everyone else while the raid was carried out.  Luckily for our country the raid was a success, no one was killed and we benefitted greatly.  The President rightly shares in the glory of this mission.  And if it had failed...you think he wasn't thinking about the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Iran, and how that one incident almost singlehandedly destroyed Jimmy Carter's Presidency?  And still President Obama gave the orders when he could have hestitated as other Presidents have, took that chance, believing he was doing the right thing for our country.  And when I pointed all of this out....it's like I hadn't said a word.  Those arguing with me were so blinded that they couldn't even admit that if the mission had failed the whole world would have blamed President Obama, not ST6.

If it's a sin, it's all a sin.  If it's socialism, it's all socialism.  And if the buck truly stops with the President, then ALL the bucks stop there.

You can't have it both ways.