Posted on 08/05/2009 5:39:03 PM PDT by KeepingCalm
I was embarrassed for my country when many Americans let the fear of terrorism turn them into cringing cowards, willing to give up our basic civil liberties for the illusion of safety, ignoring how we are 200 times more likely to die in our automobile than in a terrorist attack on our soil. I am equally embarrassed today. Many of my fellow Americans have let themselves be manipulated by corporate interests and ratings-hungry media. They have become frightened, angry, and unable to cooperate to form a more perfect union. Why do so many Americans have so little faith in our fundamental Constitutional principles? Why all the fear?
WE’RE HEADED FOR TYRANNY The nation elected a liberal Democrat by a substantial margin, and he's behaving exactly like a liberal Democrat, not a tyrant. We have representation in government. We have elections every two years. We have a functioning court system. Our taxes have not gone up in the past six months. We are a sovereign nation. Our Constitutional principles are sound.
You disgrace the memory of those who truly suffered under tyranny throughout history by whining about government control of your life because your favorites didn’t win an election. Has anything really changed in your life over the past six months, or are you frightened about what some people say MIGHT happen?
Complaints about "taxation without representation" make no sense while elected legislators represent us. We get to vote them out of office if the majority of constituents want a change, and vote in people we do trust. Calling for some kind of vague but ominous "revolution" in the meantime is counterproductive and can encourage violence by unbalanced fringe elements.
Our Congress still makes our laws, approves federal judges and top-level managers, establishes annual budgets and authorizes all executive branch spending. You don’t live in tyranny when you can choose your representatives at the voting booth.
“WE’RE BECOMING A SOCIALIST (OR MARXIST OR COMMUNIST) NATION!” Socialism (or whatever the 1950s-style bogeyman du jour might be) refers to an economic system. We enjoy a capitalist economy in the United States and this has not changed in the past six months. In recent decades we have certainly increased the number and complexity of government-administered public services funded by tax dollars, but taxation and government spending does not equal socialism. How are the recent public health insurance proposals all that different from the many government services already in existence to “promote the general welfare?”
Socialistic government activities in the United States include interstate highways, Medicare, the Environmental Protection Agency, county health departments, Medicaid, public libraries, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, unemployment compensation, tax-funded fire and police departments, Social Security, the Federal Communications Commission, disability insurance, the Federal Aviation Administration, welfare benefits, food stamp programs, and public schools (where, if you were paying attention, “socialism” was probably accurately defined).
Which of these tax-funded public services frighten you so much? Which of these are you willing to do without to avoid an encroachment of socialism in our nation? These are not rhetorical questions.
WE’RE SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY WE DON’T HAVE! I agree. But this is nothing new. The cost of a new public health insurance plan, or other government activity we don’t have the funds to pay for, will simply be added to the eleven TRILLION dollar national debt. That would be the staggeringly huge mountain of debt nobody seemed to care so much about six months ago, or six years ago. Why all the horror and outrage now?
THE PRESIDENT IS REALLY A FOREIGN CITIZEN! Oh, please. Tin foil hat. Flat earth. Tooth fairy. That is all.
THE GOVERNMENT IS CONTROLLING AMERICAN BUSINESSES! Government control of businesses has been part of our nation since the early 1900s when President Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, took steps to prevent monopolies and centralize commerce. The government has been meddling in industry for years to regulate environmental concerns and public safety issues. Why all the terror about government interference in business now?
Although I do not approve of government purchase of business interests, only one-fifth of one percent of all business assets in America are nationalized, even after the government's recent questionable acquisitions. One-fifth of one percent is not a very slippery slope. Is this what all the fear is about? One-fifth of one percent?
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WILL GET FREE HEALTHCARE! I am uncomfortable with non-citizens getting the same services taxpaying citizens receive. But you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, and we can’t allow children visiting our nation to suffer from illness or injury while we wrangle about political expediency. Surely we can come to some understanding about this without being so afraid of change. It is also interesting how the fickle, attention-deficit-afflicted voters aren’t yelling quite so much these days about our porous borders and the millions of undocumented workers still employed in America. Immigration reform is part of economic recovery, and illegal immigrants have been tapping federally funded services for many years now. Again, why the sudden panic?
WE JUST WANT TO MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER! Are people crying out in anger and fear because they want to effect change? A practical analysis of all the fear-mongering reveals that it makes little sense strategically. Remember how the last Presidential election turned out despite all the inflammatory "He's a terrorist/socialist/foreigner" allegations? Maybe the right wing should re-think how this disruptive anger is going to play with the centrists and independents, who will REALLY decide the next few elections. The scare tactic approach to manipulating the electorate is a foolish strategy that will probably backfire with all those voters who don’t buy the “real American” rhetoric.
In the 2004 campaign, President Bush asked the American people for more time to complete his goals. As an alternative, the Democratic Party offered candidate John Kerry, who couldn’t even supply vague charisma or leadership to counter the “unfinished business” message of President Bush. The voters gave President Bush what he asked for, another term to improve the economy and prevail in Iraq. It's too early to say "anyone but Obama" will win in 2012, and it's a foolish gamble to assume it'll suffice. Today’s Republican Party needs to develop substantially better policies and better candidates, without counting on a disaffected electorate a few years from now. Otherwise, the Republicans might find themselves playing the John Kerry role in 2012.
In Summary This "us versus them" attitude will never advance our nation. It's not the fault of the liberals or the conservatives, it's the fault of the liberals versus the conservatives. The other guys in the left-right dichotomy aren't ever going away, and all this hostility won't change a thing. You are both stuck with each other, in "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for ALL."
So what's next?
Maybe it's time to try for consensus instead of conflict. There are ways to make a difference with dignity, and without fear:
Vote whenever we can and encourage others to vote too. Stay in touch with our elected representatives about the things that matter to us.
Support candidates you trust with volunteer time and contributions.
Be civil to each other even when we disagree.
Recognize how the media exists to keep us tuned in so they can sell advertising, not because they care about us and want us to be objectively informed.
Think for ourselves.
Honestly, people, we have weathered Democratic Party presidents before. If we can’t survive the next three-and-a-half years, we don’t deserve to continue as a nation. But we certainly will. We’re already good at it.
"You called down the thunder, well now you've got it."
Hey, Chode!
You still here? (I’m always afraid I’m going to be banned or suspended...)
C’mon over to the UT...find me or sionnsar or taxchick, and we’ll tell you the latest!
Ahhh, the new zombified thread!
CommentsA new study reported in Science found that while chimps and orangs could count and add as well as human children, only humans were able to learn by watching others and seeing how they do things. It is now possible to understand the peculiar inability of the Bush administration to profit from the experiences of others.
Prior to reading this new study I was under the mistaken impression that Bush was a parrot, because of his apparent inability to say anything about Iraq except ‘progress is being made’, which he repeats mechanically every time the topic is raised. But now the scales have fallen from my eyes: Bush is a chimp. It seems so obvious now, watching him speak.
For example:
(1) Every few weeks the Europeans capture terrorists and prevent them from blowing up things. Even from blowing up Americans. And they do this without destroying democratic rights and freedoms. Bush can see this behavior, but, like the chimps, pays no attention and instead, sends more troops to Iraq, destroys more democratic freedoms, and ends the rule of law in America—the result of which has been only to create more and more terrorists and keep hundreds of innocent people imprisoned for years, while laughably few serious terrorists have been convicted.
(2) Every civilized country in the world has a viable healthcare system except the United States, and they’re all a whole lot cheaper—partly because they don’t pay huge ‘overhead’ to insurance companies—money spent largely in finding ways to cheat us out of our benefits. American longevity rates, infant mortality rates, and other indices of health are the worst in the industrialized world. And no, Mr. Bigot, it’s not because of immigration—all those countries are flooded with immigrants, too. But Bush, chimp-like, persists in touting our ‘free’ system, even though it’s the most expensive and least effective in the world.
(3) All problems facing the United States today are international ones, yet under the Bush administration our nation has become a minority of one—refusing to ratify even the most transparently necessary international accords—refusing, in true chimp fashion, to pay attention to how everyone else is solving these problems; preferring to persist in out-dated policies and old-fashioned attitudes. The Kyoto protocol has been or is in the process of being, ratified by every nation in the world except the United States and Australia (currently also suffering under chimp leadership). International corporations (with the exception of Exxon-Mobil which spent half a billion dollars on propaganda trying to convince the public that global warming was a myth) are competing with one another to achieve sustainability, while up until two years ago Bush was still denying that climate change was occurring. His solution? More oil exploration. But what can we expect from a president whose energy policy was written by Enron executives. We look forward to 2008 when we can say at last, ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chimp’.
Bill Clinton once pointed out that every problem we face in America is being solved somewhere in the world. He felt the greatest failure of his administration was that he couldn’t get these solutions to be replicated here in America. Maybe Bush isn’t the only chimp. There seem to be quite a few in Congress—many of whom have never been out of their compound. And in the electorate as well. Maybe there’s something in those burgers and fries that’s affecting American genes as well as American waistlines. Maybe we’re all turning into chimps.
YEAH WE KNOW HOW REASONABLE YOU AND YOUR ILK ARE. BEGONE
Gee. Maybe you should have stopped at "ratings-hungry media".
"You Moron! That's right! I said it!" (Okay, I have been listening a LOT to Mark Levin lately...:)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2294472/posts?page=364#364
We love it!!
You can beg us for membership. *choke* *gasp*
(OKOK!! You can have free membership for the month of *arrgh* *stop* free membership forever....)
(*sheesh* You guys su—! *HALP!*)
It’s a vision of my departed Wednesday. (sigh) If I end up going to the Other Place, I’m sure she’ll be there to follow me into the bathroom and call me rude names.
The part that is correct is that fear mongering is a loser and beneath us, and the whole hysteria is suicidal as politics.
The right lost the last election primarily due to the financial crisis and its own policy mistakes. The Dems just stood there, it was all they needed to do.
Aside - has anyone heard anything or given the slightest thought, in months, to our men overseas and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or to when they might win and come home?
The hypocrisy is astounding, even if cynically expected.
Wednesday is waiting for you. You are one of her um...judges...
She can’t go anywhere until you show up, so rest easy. She can’t even call you rude names, yet. When she she can, you will understand them all too well!!!
No, that’s actually an Obama staffer saying about us what Dean Wormer actually said about the Deltas...
“I hate those guys.”
Gotcha. I’ll be generous to the poor mixed-up kitteh. No fun going to the bathroom by oneself, anyway, even if she did shed all over the place ;-).
(Good night! I hope there are no black cats with wild yellow eyes in your dreams, and no Taylor Swift videos.)
Haven’t you been paying attention? We don’t want them to achieve “victory” over there.
It brings dark thoughts to our Commander in Chief of Hirohito signing the instrument of surrender under the watchful eye of General MacArthur.
We couldn’t have that.
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