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Here's why:
#1, America is good - is said by beck listeners and other conservatives whenever someone dares to criticize certain policies of our government, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. They accuse anyone daring to challenge policies that they personally agree with as being the "blame America first" crowd.
This is - on its face - stupid. Frankly, its stupid to "blame" the government of any other country before my own - I live here. This is where I have at least the illusion of being able to have some say in, or influence over, what my government does. I have less influence over France, China, Iran, or Zimbabwe.
Further, a nation is a construct - it is not an actual entity and as such, it can't be "good" or "bad." People can be. Actions can be, and actions can take the form of political policies. The United States has been responsible for some very good things and it has also been responsible for some very bad things. Honest people talk about both. Beck listeners don't.
#2 Note the asterisk next to this one. On the surface, there's nothing wrong with believing in God and believing that "he is the center of my life." The reason to have a problem with this one is only for the sheer contradiction between what it says and how the people pushing this petition live and act. It should go without saying that the God being referred to here is the God of Christianity. Do you know what the number one most talked about subject in the entire Bible is? Poverty, and how Christians are supposed to take care of the poor. And I can tell you right now, the exhortation was not to oppose social efforts to ease poverty so that you can instead act on idividual charity.
The God of the Old Testiment laid out "his" laws for the nation of Israel - and they were explicitly clear, demanding policies nationally that would make anything we do pale in comparison. They were downright communist. Every 50 years, the year of Jubilee - that's when everyone resets to zero - all debts are canceled, all lands returned, rich people fall to zero, poor people rise to zero. Every seven years, debt forgiveness. God didn't say "you individuals, you go do with your money what you feel is best" - no, God said, "this is what you, as my nation shall do.
God also forbade loaning on credit by the way - credit is the entire foundation of our modern capitalist economy. Chew on that for a while.
#4 The family is sacred - and? The family is private. The government shouldn't make any laws forbidding you and your family from being a family, or dictating what constitutes a family. Beyond this, what relevance does this declaration have to politics? We all know the answer - its intended to declare a anti-equality message of bigoted homophobia. If you have a problem with gays, don't be gay! I'll stand by you in opposition to any laws the government tries to pass to order you to be gay. When that happens, give me a call. Until then, the makeup of other people's families is none of your business. Nor the governments.
#7 I work hard for what I have and I'll share it with whom I want to. First, see my comments on #2. Second, this rests on a false assumption. The factually incorrect assumption being that some individual did his or her own work, all on her own, with help from no one and using nothing but his or her own resources from birth to death. If that were true, then someone might be justified in saying, I work hard for what I have and will share it with whom I want to.
But in the real world, its probably true the petitioneers do work hard. But what they have is not merely a product of their own work. It is a product of the collective efforts and involvement of everyone in this society. I helped them have what they have. My tax dollars pay for the police and fire that kept them safe and their homes from burning them alive. My tax dollars pay for the roads they use to get to work, for the grants they may have received while going to college. My tax dollars pay for water purification so they are not sick with dissentary and hospitals in case they ever have an emergency and find themselves without health insurance. My tax dollars most likely paid for their primary and secondary education. My hard work and my investment into this economic and society has helped create job opportunities and greater wealth. I could go on....
We are all in this together. And the only way it works is if continue to invest in each other. It's in our best interests that everyone have access to good schools, and enough to eat and shelter and good roads, and access to health care -- these are the things that keep society well. The more you take these things away, the more the workforce suffers, the more productivity falters, and consumer spending dies and the economy tumbles and now all the sudden even wealthy people are losing what they "worked hard for."
#8 this one has an asterisk too. Of course the point itself is true, however the supreme irony is that Beck listeners, by and large are the very same people who were calling disagreement "unamerican" and calling those who disagreed traitors during the Bush administration. Either this principle is true and is always true - or it isn't.
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