Posted on 08/29/2002 1:00:30 PM PDT by feelin_poorly
Shortly after 9-11, TV talk-show host Sean Hannity said, "Thank God, we have an honest man in the White House!"
And when you think about it, a great deal of what you might believe about the so-called War on Terrorism is based on statements from George W. Bush. You have only his word, or that of someone in his administration:
Since America is endangered by the "you're either with me or against me" tactics of the Bush administration, it becomes vital to know whether we can trust the man in charge of our government.
The record
So does George Bush's record inspire confidence in his honesty?
Unfortunately, this is the same man who has referred to trillions of dollars in budget surpluses – even though the federal government hasn't had a budget surplus since 1956. (The appearance of any "surpluses" was created by taking excess receipts from Social Security and applying them to the general budget, even as the politicians swore they were protecting Social Security.)
Mr. Bush even has the chutzpah to refer with a straight face (well not exactly a straight face, he loves to smirk) to corporate executives "cooking the books." He neglects to mention that many of the corporate bookkeeping methods the politicians are so incensed about today were motivated by rules imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
And George Bush is the same man who in 2000 said he believed in "limited government." Most people assumed he meant a government limited by the Constitution. In fact, he took an oath in which he swore to uphold the Constitution.
But he's violated virtually every one of the first 10 Amendments – especially the Ninth and 10th Amendments, which are meant to impose precise limits on his power.
So his belief in "limited government" apparently means government limited to what he wants to do.
George Bush is the same man who in one breath tries to ingratiate himself with you by saying, "It's your money, not the politicians' money" – but in the next breath, he says he's entitled to one third of "your money."
George Bush is the same man who said he has learned more about political philosophy from Jesus of Nazareth than from anyone else. But he's proven by his actions that he doesn't really believe such things as "Blessed are the peacemakers." And "the meek" who Jesus said would inherit the earth are in Mr. Bush's eyes really just "collateral damage" in his plans to tell the world how it must live.
Is honesty important?
In these and in so many other ways, George Bush has proven that he's not an honest man – and that we shouldn't trust him with the safety of America.
In fact, Thomas Jefferson understood that we shouldn't put our trust in any politician. He said we should bind them down from mischief "by the chains of the Constitution." And a truly honest man wouldn't even ask you to trust him.
Contrary to what you might have thought, this isn't an article about George Bush. It's an article about you. Are you going to demean yourself by putting your faith in a man who has done so much to demonstrate the folly of such faith?
Are you going to let politicians stampede you into throwing away the Bill of Rights, based on "evidence" you never see, reassured by politicians who have proven that the truth is secondary to their own ambitions?
Don't you have enough respect for your own mind to make your own decisions, refuse to accept conclusions without evidence, and be something better than a cheerleader for a politician or a political party?
I hold W. in a much better light than his father.
Thats a start.
Ron Paul 2004
Maybe he's just checking out their teeth.
My former roomate has a screename on FR, but I don't believe she posts anymore.
Please provide the words needed for a declaration, as specified in the Constitution.
Thank you.
Sorry but this joker lost me at this point.
Pray do tell us what makes you more qualified to make such a pronouncement than anyone else. You're entitled to your opinions and freedom of expression just like I am, but damn, you actually expect people to take you seriously!! All your talk about waking people up....BAH! I'm frankly sick and tired of all the Constitutional "Experts" around here who somehow expect that their subjective opinions and limited knowledge require other people to defer to what they say. Instead of trying to "wake up" everybody else, you ought to wake yourself up. You are no scholar, you're no expert, you're nobody to talk about cattle cars, you're a wife and mother with an opinion like everybody else. If I want a real opinion on the Constitutionality of recent or proposed legislation, I'll ask someone like William Rehnquist or Clarence Thomas or Kenneth Starr, not some fruitloop ranting on the internet.
I'll go back further than you probably want to and say that the United Nations had NO business creating a country out of whole cloth to make up for what a certain race of people suffered at the hands of other nations. Having gotten THAT out of the way, what makes you believe that we should prop up every country that professes (whether true or not should best be left for another time) to be our friend. I can only think of one country that has ever come to our exclusive aid and that would be France during the Revolutionary war. Others have sided with us during wars and conflicts because it also served their own best interest at the time but now some who HAVE fired on the US now proclaim to be our friends, in large part, because they are receiving the money stolen from you and I at the threat of incarceration. Does this make them our friends? I don't think so. It's like this whole 'war with Iraq' business. Our leaders are talking, what is basically, pre-emptive strikes. You know, do unto others before they get the chance to do unto you. This is NOT grounded in ANY Constitutional ideology and, for that matter, flies directly in the face of everything that a true Constitutional Republic is supposed to stand for. Read the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? It could prove quite enlightening to anyone wanting to know what comes next.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.