Posted on 11/07/2008 10:40:35 AM PST by Traviswf
Hi there. I voted for Obama, but have been reading a lot of Freerepublic lately to see how the other side is reacting. I'm not trying to troll here - honestly - but if you feel I am, that's understandable. I just wanted to offer a perspective on this that I think may be interesting to some of you. Oh, and this is much longer than I intended. And I'm fairly certain I'm not posting this the right way...for which I apologize.
When Bush was elected in 2000, I was upset. And yes, I whined about him "stealing" the election. I don't really think that's true anymore - it was just a painful way to lose. Sure, we can whine about the popular vote vs. the electoral vote, but you can't change the rules in the middle of the game. Then I watched the movie Recount and realized just how awful the democrats were at trying to win the damn thing. Gore seemed like he didn't really want it.
When Bush won in 2004, I was absolutely devastated. I thought the world was going to end. I didn't think we should be in Iraq, I agreed with Kerry that we had to finish the fight in Afganistan. I was worried about the courts. And frankly - I just didn't like Bush. I didn't like the way he governed, the way he spoke, and the way he talked as if we on the left were less American.
On 9/11 I happened to be in Toronto on business. When the towers fell, I knew I had to get home. A colleague and I wanted to go to New York, to help in some way. But we were told nobody was getting anywhere close. Our next instinct was to get home - to California. We didn't just want to be with our families, we desperately wanted to be in our country. That day was rough because my colleague thought his wife might have been on one of the planes - her travel plans were very similar. It took hours of agony before we, thank God, found out she was safe.
So we rented a car in Toronto and drove across the country. It took a couple hours to get across the border in the middle of the night. We stopped in Omaha, and then Colorado. I can't even tell you how much I loved my country driving across its beauty in those days after the attacks. And there were no jokes about "we're in enemy territory" because we were in "red states." We were in America. Everywhere we went people said "How are you? Is everyone safe?"
I know everyone has similar stories of those days. And certainly many, many people have stories of real loss - not just "we thought we lost someone, but it was a happy ending." Then, fairly quickly, I felt my patriotism coming under attack because I had a difference of opinion about how to fight back. I didn't think Iraq was the right choice - it made no sense to me, and I certainly wasn't alone. But people questioned my love of my country. And that was very, very hard to forgive.
When 2008 came up, more than anything, I wanted to win the White House back. I wanted to punish the Bush administration for what I felt was not just a failure to be competent, but a failure to keep the country united. I inititally supported Hilary, but I had this feeling in my gut that she was just going to be Bush - but for our side. She'd be a partisan warrior, a polarizing figure (which Bush wasn't when he started, but Hilary already was...). It made me sick to my stomach.
I wanted to go back to feeling like an American in those days after the attack - where our disagreements were things we laughed about over a beer and the real threat was far, far more serious.
I'd written Obama's candidacy off as a dry run for 2016 or later. Or maybe he was running for VP. I thought - hey, dude, at least finish a term in the Senate. Then when he said "we're not a collection of red states and blue states, we're the United States of America" it hit me like lightning. It had nothing to do with him - it had to do with the country, and my love for it and this feeling deep down in my gut that we were fighting over the placement of the deck chairs while the ship was sinking.
Wow, this got really rambly. Sorry about that. Here's why I posted initially. I saw this thing on here about Obama's "national defense force" and some posters commenting about the coming civil war or some such. I'm pretty sure Obama was just talking about funding for police. I mean - are you guys really worried he's going to do this? There was a rumor on the left that Bush was bringing a military brigade trained in "riot control" home from Iraq before the elections. People were convinced Bush was going to take over the country in a military coup. I'm sure you think that's laughable - as do I. Obama is not going to raise a civilian force of brown coats. First of all there's no money for it, nobody would go for it, and he'd be laughed out of the White House.
He's also not a socialist. And he's not coming for your guns. If he did either of this things, he can basically just go home now. Those are not realistic positions for any president to have. He will likely appoint liberals - at least too liberal for you guys - to the courts.
But here's the thing. He's going to try and be a good president. I think they all do. And Obama ran on uniting the country, on being bipartisan. That's sort of ALL he ran on. It's how he won 60% of independent and brought home so many of the Clinton voters. So if he doesn't deliver on this - I imagine he'll be fairly easy to beat in 2012.
So that's my two cents. Obama was always going to get my vote as the nominee because I'm a lifelong democrat and a liberal. But I'm not a socialist or a pacifist. I believe in the 2nd amendment and favor the idea of most issues being decided by the states. I'm not a religious man, but I respect those who are and I think the Dems over reach in pushing religion out of the public square. I believe global warming is a serious problem, but I also think Al Gore enjoys it WAY too much.
And here's another caveat. I know it's easier to be bipartisan and talk about "togetherness" when my guy won. I was where you guys are now in 2000 and 2004. I mean, my party ALMOST ran Howard Dean and then said "No wait! John Kerry is a much better idea!" Or in this election to have a friend say "You've GOT to read Alec Baldwin's latest piece on HuffPo." I mean...really? He doesn't count as an "Obamacon" you know, he only plays a republican on TV...(you guys ever notice that our most annoying Hollywood liberals end up playing republicans? what's with that?)
So yeah - we've all spent some time in the woods. I just hope we can all agree that we're just as American as the other, and we're passionate about what we believe to be the right path to take. There are real problems with the economy, and Islamic Terrorists aren't going to take a vacation for four years.
That's about it I guess. Sorry you guys lost.
Directed towards the originator who won’t answer the questions, of course. Not to Sidenet
Still waiting for your first link ...
crickets chirping
yea I actually thought of a couple of things you missed .
America has been Borked
Yep, and also signed up over the last several days or weeks.
What I want to say is this post is just like all the other BS we have heard since tues, "Oh, we have to pull together and unify the country!". The POS liberals spent the last 8 years tearing the country apart and doing everything they could to undermine President Bush and now we are supposed to say "Oh, yeah, let bygones be bygones, as if they haven't been the biggest pieces of crap to come down the pike, ever.
While being evil, spiteful, tantrum throwing children since 2000 they now expect us to forget all about it. Well I, for one, will not forget about it, nor will I feel good about America again until we have the Marxist SOB who is going to occupy the WH after Jan 20, out on his ear. I hope he does something really stupid in his first six months, and then we can start up Impeahment web sites, get some of our really conservative senators to start phony investigations the way the dems did with Bush and Cheney. I will fight this gun grabbing, over taxing, welfare enabling marxist Ba****d every way I can and I will respect him or get behind him.
He will ruin our country.
This part is to those people who claim one man can't bring down our country. I say to them he isn't just one man, he has a lock on the senate and the house, he has judges in his pocket from the Clinton era and more to come if any of the Supremes resign. He can easily tear down the country if people don't fight tooth and nail. Unify? He** no, I won't go.
your response was easily the dumbest thing I've yet read.Right back at ya. It's time to abandon the myths that many have been clinging to (bitterly, no doubt) for the last 5-8 years. It's time to stop pretending that invading Iraq was necessary or even a good idea. No one is buying it anymore and I never did.
Absolutely brilliant!
You don’t seem to have responded to 142. We would all like to know: What are Obama’s core principles that he steadfastly believes in and has shown adherence to over the years?
I would jump into a buring building to save you, but beyond that, what is it too have in common?
he sent thugs out to st louis to target anyone who spoke agaisnt him...he has kicked any reporter off his plane whos news outlet did not endorse him...he has similarly banned any tv personal that shown a bad light on him...he is planning on the civilian ss corp....he did say that electricty rates would skyrocket....he did visit pakistan for 3 weeks as a youth....he does hang around known terrorist....
where did his bribery money come from?...that 650,000,000 that no one is quite sure who gave it....
he's been bought but who?
finally....he bought the election ..5 to 1 against mccain....he should have gotten more than an a Bush type victory for his two yrs of campaigning and his brothers in love in the media....
we will have to have a draft, my friend, and I hope it hits you and your family hard....you all deserve it...
our people will be in Canada....its our time now to be resistant.
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I wouldn't object to him never posting again.
It does my heart good to see someone from our side presenting such an eloquent, well-reasoned argument.
Republicans never treat Democrat Presidents this way, especially on foreign policy, when the “water edge” always applied.
Clinton's sexual harassment in the oval office, of a 21 year old intern, was completely his own.
And no Republican could have survived in office with that behavior. Much less be praised now as a brilliant bad boy, while collecting millions in speaking fees.
Your profile tells me everything I need to know about you; you love to incite pissing contests. Fine.
The fundamental, moral and practical imperative for bringing the fight to Iraq is undoubtable. That, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, you'd refute this tells me your unwilling to budge (bitterly, no doubt) based on pre-conceived notions of what you THINK the war on terror is all about. It all comes down to a simple question in this instance: do you feel that priority targets (be them Al Qaeda or Taliban in nature) are essentially useless to go after because more will just "spring up in their place"?
In Fallujah and Baqubah we killed literally thousands of Talibani recruits and stifled a dangerous and burgeoning arm of extreme militant Islam. The progress and the within Iraq for the name of protecting liberty is all the evidence you need to justify the invasion, even before you consider our ousting of the most criminal and abhorrent dictator in the region
bttt
That's a big "if", isn't it?It is a big if, but the point is that it's an if. Painting ourselves into a corner, rhetorically by insisting that it is a foregone conclusion is going to interfere with running a fact-based campaign in 2012.
As far as the gun issue, we'll probably have a renewed AWB in less than a year. I'm sure we'll also have some "reasonable restrictions" on other guns as well as ammunition.That's a possibility. It's a far cry from Obama taking guns away from anyone.
You sure sound like an Obama supporter. Are you one?I've said many times that I supported Barr. That said, I am a patriot and Obama is going to be President. I want Obama to succeed in turning this country in a better direction and I have no choice but to give him the chance to do that in his own way. I could also choose to sink into rage and bitterness. I could choose to rant on about how evil Obama is and how he's a secret Muslim or other such silliness. I could choose to urge my representatives in Washington to block everything he does, or I could urge the to use whatever influence they have to exert some conservative common sense on proposals that are likely to turn into policy under the majority-Democratic regime.
If that makes me sound like an Obama supporter, so be it.
I also don't buy a lot of the mythology that permeates the right wing "blog-o-sphere." Invading Iraq was unnecessary and has proven to be a historically bad idea. I don't feel any obligation to defend it to supposedly redeem conservatism — it has nothing to do with conservatism. Being a conservative is not like being a sports fan. You cheer for your team whether they play poorly or not. I don't have a team, I have a philosophy. Right now, promoting that philosophy will require working with the Democrats.
That's just a fact.
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