Adios, George!
Adios, George!
When we examine closely the differences between the so-called Conservative and the so-called Liberal factions of American politics, one is hard pressed to formulate a clearly pronounced set of characteristics that make a liberal a liberal and a conservative a conservative. Conservatives want less taxation from the federal government. But it would be ludicrous to think liberals want the government to take their hard-earned wages and spend them on social services which are both wasteful and impossible to track. This is the impression one would get if listening to the Republicans’ inescapable advertisements on television and radio. Similarly, it would be as ludicrous to think all conservatives are war mongers desperate to snatch dollars out of the mouths of impoverished mothers to hand over to the Defense Department as Democratic candidates’ commercials indicate. Most sane Americans want the federal government to be less wasteful, prudent in its show of force, and fundamentally fair.
These differences render the terms liberal and conservative as mere labels without regard to the words’ original meanings. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the difference between the words ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ and the labels Conservative and Liberal indicate the political landscape shifts with time. This gives evidence that our political system is alive, vibrant, and flexible enough to change; and that is a good thing. What is not such a good thing is when citizens become so very beholden to these symbols that they forget to bring along their common sense.
The differences between the two factions in this political climate lay out in popular media as a morality play. Conservatives, from a liberal’s perspective, are rich, greedy inside manipulators of a system that torques all benefits to fall upon the laps of the wealthy. Those conservatives who are not rich are dupes of sloganeering politicians who prop up empty symbols like the American flag to justify aggressive acts in the foreign political theater while exercising fear-mongering, xenophobic practices at home. Liberals, from the conservative point of view, are frightened and emasculated militarily; to the point their inability to act emboldens potential foreign enemies to attack the United States. Also, liberals are overreaching do-gooders on the domestic front who snatch tax dollars away from hard-working Americans and give them to the less hard working and thus much less worthy.
What remains after this political spitball fight is over? Is there common ground? Actually, I think there is, but it is important we drop the labels, respect our political opponents as the key component in keeping our politics vibrant and meaningful, and then thank our lucky stars for the calamitous Bush administration. If we somehow manage to avoid absolute financial and military disaster as a country, almost the entire American politically conscious populace will recognize the George W. Bush presidency as a complete failure. Even his own party’s presidential candidate, John McCain, trumpets his worthiness by stating without equivocation: “I am not George Bush.”
OK, we despise what the Bush administration has done, but here is the big question: why? What have they done that is so reprehensible? We have screwed up wars before, and the economy was in the toilet in 1978 and 1987, but Ronald Regan remains revered by Republicans without equivocation and Jimmy Carter has since won a Nobel Prize.
What is different this time around is America has lost its moral imperative. What do I mean by that? Well, we don’t wear the white hats in the movies made about this area. We are bullies. We are incompetents. We are wasteful spenders, polluters, and spoilers. We are determined to grab world resources for no other reason than we simply want them. We prop up dictators without compunction. We destabilize democracies with only the thinnest veneer of just cause.
And while it is true we don’t need the outside world’s opinion to go about our daily business, our foreign policy is based on, yes, foreigners. We need cooperation from others besides the ever-faithful English to enact world-wide strategic maneuvers concerning terrorism, global warming, world economic turmoil, and a host of other concerns that make it impossible for us to ignore that there are other people in the world who speak other languages and believe other beliefs. The Bush administrations refusal or inability (take your pick) to acknowledge there are humans outside American borders with needs and wants has rendered this version of the United States as the most callous US government in history. In short, Bush has made all of us look bad. He left many of us broke. He has left us afraid. Mostly, he has left us divided.
But he has left us one opportunity to rally around a single great and important cause. And it goes like this: Sha-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey, hey, Good-bye. Adios, George! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
When we examine closely the differences between the so-called Conservative and the so-called Liberal factions of American politics, one is hard pressed to formulate a clearly pronounced set of characteristics that make a liberal a liberal and a conservative a conservative. Conservatives want less taxation from the federal government. But it would be ludicrous to think liberals want the government to take their hard-earned wages and spend them on social services which are both wasteful and impossible to track. This is the impression one would get if listening to the Republicans’ inescapable advertisements on television and radio. Similarly, it would be as ludicrous to think all conservatives are war mongers desperate to snatch dollars out of the mouths of impoverished mothers to hand over to the Defense Department as Democratic candidates’ commercials indicate. Most sane Americans want the federal government to be less wasteful, prudent in its show of force, and fundamentally fair.
These differences render the terms liberal and conservative as mere labels without regard to the words’ original meanings. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the difference between the words ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ and the labels Conservative and Liberal indicate the political landscape shifts with time. This gives evidence that our political system is alive, vibrant, and flexible enough to change; and that is a good thing. What is not such a good thing is when citizens become so very beholden to these symbols that they forget to bring along their common sense.
The differences between the two factions in this political climate lay out in popular media as a morality play. Conservatives, from a liberal’s perspective, are rich, greedy inside manipulators of a system that torques all benefits to fall upon the laps of the wealthy. Those conservatives who are not rich are dupes of sloganeering politicians who prop up empty symbols like the American flag to justify aggressive acts in the foreign political theater while exercising fear-mongering, xenophobic practices at home. Liberals, from the conservative point of view, are frightened and emasculated militarily; to the point their inability to act emboldens potential foreign enemies to attack the United States. Also, liberals are overreaching do-gooders on the domestic front who snatch tax dollars away from hard-working Americans and give them to the less hard working and thus much less worthy.
What remains after this political spitball fight is over? Is there common ground? Actually, I think there is, but it is important we drop the labels, respect our political opponents as the key component in keeping our politics vibrant and meaningful, and then thank our lucky stars for the calamitous Bush administration. If we somehow manage to avoid absolute financial and military disaster as a country, almost the entire American politically conscious populace will recognize the George W. Bush presidency as a complete failure. Even his own party’s presidential candidate, John McCain, trumpets his worthiness by stating without equivocation: “I am not George Bush.”
OK, we despise what the Bush administration has done, but here is the big question: why? What have they done that is so reprehensible? We have screwed up wars before, and the economy was in the toilet in 1978 and 1987, but Ronald Regan remains revered by Republicans without equivocation and Jimmy Carter has since won a Nobel Prize.
What is different this time around is America has lost its moral imperative. What do I mean by that? Well, we don’t wear the white hats in the movies made about this area. We are bullies. We are incompetents. We are wasteful spenders, polluters, and spoilers. We are determined to grab world resources for no other reason than we simply want them. We prop up dictators without compunction. We destabilize democracies with only the thinnest veneer of just cause.
And while it is true we don’t need the outside world’s opinion to go about our daily business, our foreign policy is based on, yes, foreigners. We need cooperation from others besides the ever-faithful English to enact world-wide strategic maneuvers concerning terrorism, global warming, world economic turmoil, and a host of other concerns that make it impossible for us to ignore that there are other people in the world who speak other languages and believe other beliefs. The Bush administrations refusal or inability (take your pick) to acknowledge there are humans outside American borders with needs and wants has rendered this version of the United States as the most callous US government in history. In short, Bush has made all of us look bad. He left many of us broke. He has left us afraid. Mostly, he has left us divided.
But he has left us one opportunity to rally around a single great and important cause. And it goes like this: Sha-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey, hey, Good-bye. Adios, George! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
posted by milesjason03 at 12:23 PM
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