Who is to blame for America's many problems and a betrayal of our trust?
Looking back at the elections for President in 2000 and 2004, I have wondered how many people were fooled as to what type of person they were getting for President by electing Bush. Without understanding these shortcomings, we as a nation have come to understand that we are destined to repeat the same mistakes in the 2008 presidential campaigns.
The job of discerning who the candidates really are, often falls to the media and to the candidates themselves. In the case of George W. Bush, his mastermind was Karl Rove, who not only defined who Bush was, but also successfully defined the opposition. In 2000, that was in defining VP Al Gore, and in 2004 it was in defining John Kerry.
Some phrases during the 2000 Presidential campaign that still can conjure up those campaigns vividly are:
"I am a uniter, not a divider"
"I will restore honor to the White House"
"We will ban abortion"
"I'm a compassionate conservative"
"Jesus Christ is my favorite political philosopher"
Some phrases during the 2004 Presidential campaign:
"He's a flip-flopper"
"I'll go after the terrorists"
"They're weak on Defending America"
"I voted for the war before voting against it"
"I'm a war President"
"I'm the decider"
"Bring it on!"
"We'll get the Evil-Doers"
Were we paying attention to those words spoken during these campaigns? Did they provide insight into the man we were getting as President? Looking back, were we duped, or did we want to see the best side of those comments? Whose problem was it? What has this taught us and what must we learn?
Let me start with the last question. There were many flags we should have paid attention to before anyone supported this President. These flags were revealed during the past 6 years, and have cost America dearly. We should have learned after the first 4 years, that the country was as divided as it has ever been, with the exception of America's Civil War. We have become a Nation of people who allowed fear to scare us into wringing our hands and hiding our courage to stand up and declare, "Your policies aren't working, Mr. President and your rhetoric must stop. You have lost the trust of the American people. Start anew by being a uniter as you promised, not just of the Republican party, but of all Americans, Mr. President. You have failed us miserably!"
We were aided in our deception by the media. I can remember that after 9/11 the media gave George Bush a pass, as we were united as a country. But when we were building up for and followed through with the invasion of Iraq, the media failed to ask probing questions.This came out of fear of challenging this President and Vice President, who were quick to charge people with being unpatriotic. The media was silent in the dialogue about the details of the Patriot Act. Much is still not known of the powers of this President and Administration, to the detriment of both parties. Some day there will be a Democratic President with these powers now law. We saw our Constitution slip through our very hands with unauthorized and illegal wire-taps, and when challenged at all, being labeled as siding with terrorists. We saw this Administration abandon the high ground by allowing torture, in violation of the Geneva Convention. It has only been in recent months that the media has felt it was OK to attack these positions. Where was it early in the process?
We are angry and want to blame this President, VP and the Republican leadership for everything, from that deep place of anger. But we should be angry at ourselves. Those who did not vote in the last election should accept the fact that they are responsible for what has happened to America in the intervening years. Those who did vote Republican and now have regrets should accept the fact that religion and politics should not mix. Faith in God, or not, is a personal matter. With more experience in these matters than our generations have, our Founding Fathers warned us of the unintended consequences when we do not separate Religion and the State, when the two are mixed. Do not forget the emotions the Terry Schiavo interference had on this country, when political leaders got involved.
The entity responsible for where we find ourselves as a country today is you and me! The only question that remains is the following: Are you going to accept the responsibility, correct the matter and restore America as a beacon of hope for the world, by voting next month for change? If not, don't look to anyone but yourself to blame. It is true that we are not replacing a President this mid-term election, but we have an opportunity to restore checks and balances on the Executive Branch, which have been missing for 6 long years.
The job of discerning who the candidates really are, often falls to the media and to the candidates themselves. In the case of George W. Bush, his mastermind was Karl Rove, who not only defined who Bush was, but also successfully defined the opposition. In 2000, that was in defining VP Al Gore, and in 2004 it was in defining John Kerry.
Some phrases during the 2000 Presidential campaign that still can conjure up those campaigns vividly are:
"I am a uniter, not a divider"
"I will restore honor to the White House"
"We will ban abortion"
"I'm a compassionate conservative"
"Jesus Christ is my favorite political philosopher"
Some phrases during the 2004 Presidential campaign:
"He's a flip-flopper"
"I'll go after the terrorists"
"They're weak on Defending America"
"I voted for the war before voting against it"
"I'm a war President"
"I'm the decider"
"Bring it on!"
"We'll get the Evil-Doers"
Were we paying attention to those words spoken during these campaigns? Did they provide insight into the man we were getting as President? Looking back, were we duped, or did we want to see the best side of those comments? Whose problem was it? What has this taught us and what must we learn?
Let me start with the last question. There were many flags we should have paid attention to before anyone supported this President. These flags were revealed during the past 6 years, and have cost America dearly. We should have learned after the first 4 years, that the country was as divided as it has ever been, with the exception of America's Civil War. We have become a Nation of people who allowed fear to scare us into wringing our hands and hiding our courage to stand up and declare, "Your policies aren't working, Mr. President and your rhetoric must stop. You have lost the trust of the American people. Start anew by being a uniter as you promised, not just of the Republican party, but of all Americans, Mr. President. You have failed us miserably!"
We were aided in our deception by the media. I can remember that after 9/11 the media gave George Bush a pass, as we were united as a country. But when we were building up for and followed through with the invasion of Iraq, the media failed to ask probing questions.This came out of fear of challenging this President and Vice President, who were quick to charge people with being unpatriotic. The media was silent in the dialogue about the details of the Patriot Act. Much is still not known of the powers of this President and Administration, to the detriment of both parties. Some day there will be a Democratic President with these powers now law. We saw our Constitution slip through our very hands with unauthorized and illegal wire-taps, and when challenged at all, being labeled as siding with terrorists. We saw this Administration abandon the high ground by allowing torture, in violation of the Geneva Convention. It has only been in recent months that the media has felt it was OK to attack these positions. Where was it early in the process?
We are angry and want to blame this President, VP and the Republican leadership for everything, from that deep place of anger. But we should be angry at ourselves. Those who did not vote in the last election should accept the fact that they are responsible for what has happened to America in the intervening years. Those who did vote Republican and now have regrets should accept the fact that religion and politics should not mix. Faith in God, or not, is a personal matter. With more experience in these matters than our generations have, our Founding Fathers warned us of the unintended consequences when we do not separate Religion and the State, when the two are mixed. Do not forget the emotions the Terry Schiavo interference had on this country, when political leaders got involved.
The entity responsible for where we find ourselves as a country today is you and me! The only question that remains is the following: Are you going to accept the responsibility, correct the matter and restore America as a beacon of hope for the world, by voting next month for change? If not, don't look to anyone but yourself to blame. It is true that we are not replacing a President this mid-term election, but we have an opportunity to restore checks and balances on the Executive Branch, which have been missing for 6 long years.
posted by Charles Amico at 9:54 AM
1 Comments:
Hey.
I saw your blog on blog explosion and I visit it quite a lot, mainly because of the good political content on it...keep it up!
Come by my blog sometime if you ever have time too, its very much the same in regards to politics as your blog is.
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