For those of you who voted to try and send a message to the Republicans to get back to conservative principles, it looks like you wasted your vote. Listening to Dubya and some other Republicans, they're all trying to spin this as not about what the voters said it was about, namely a referendum on Iraq and the War on Terror. While I don't blame them for trying to reject this idea, since it really says some harsh things about the average American citizen, you have to address the world as it is, not as you wish it was.
The American people do not believe the War in Iraq is worth the cost.
Look at the agenda Speaker Pelosi has laid out for the first 100 hours of Congress; capaign reform (again), raising the minimum wage, raise taxes, cut student loan interest rates, extend embryonic stem cell research. It's all domestic issues, like 9/11 never happened. Yes, there's a nod to 9/11 in the form of enacting all the recommendations of the 9/11 commission, which did nothing to address the fact that the terrorist threat comes from abroad. It's reactive rather than proactive.
But that 100 hour plan and it's underlying assumptions were the centerpiece of the Democratic campaign strategy.
And it resonated with the American voter.
According to the American voters, the world did not change on 9/11. We shouldn't be in Iraq. Islamofascism is not a credible threat to the US. It's far more important to raise the minimum wage and raise taxes on the wealthy and approve embryonic stem cell research than it is to fight terrorism or secure our borders.
So be it.
Hey, maybe they're even right. Maybe terrorism isn't a big deal, and losing a few thousand citizens every few years is an acceptable loss for avoiding war. After all, as some lefty bloggers have pointed out, the actual risk of any one American getting killed by terrorists is far less than risks we accept every day, like driving to work, or smoking, or eating too much junk food. Maybe the Islamic fundamentalists will realize that we are too weak to be a threat to them, and they'll leave us alone while they torture, rape, and repress their own people. It will suck for the people trapped by terror, but as long as they aren't Americans, it's not our problem anymore. We can let the UN handle it; that's what they are there for.
And the UN has such a stellar record!
And just think, Germany and France will like us again! I can't count the nights I've laid awake in bed, worrying that the French don't like us. Our social safety net may collapse under the weight of rampant immigration because we opened our borders in the name of human rights; we may tax ourselves into poverty in the name of compassion for the unfortunate; we may muzzle ourselves in the name of fairness; and we may weaken ourselves in the name of peace, but the French will like us.
It's a fair trade, don't you think?
I've rewritten this post three times, trying to let the anger fade, and it hasn't worked. I have to call it like I see it, or I can't write.
Americans copped out on Nov. 7th.
I don't buy the argument that the electorate has been hoodwinked by a liberal media, or has been mislead by liberal propaganda. We have too many sources of information that make the truth easy to find. Shortly before the election, my son complained, saying that he hated all the negative advertising. When I pointed out that when one candidate ran an ad that wasn't true, the other candidate needed some way to respond, his argument boiled down to "Well, it's 'he said, she said.' How do you know who is telling the truth?"
This from a kid who was sitting next to me on the couch using a laptop computer connected via wifi to the internet, where the facts are readily available. The problem is not a lack of information; the problem is that most people are too damned lazy to find out the facts for themselves. If they have been mislead, they have been willing accomplices to the process.
I don't blame the media; I don't blame the liberals; I don't blame the politicians. Heck, I don't blame anybody.
But I do recognize the simple fact that the American people of today never would have left British rule for independence.
They're no longer citizens; they're subjects.
And they want it that way.
Posted by Rich at November 8, 2006 8:10 AM | TrackBackI hear your frustration. I share it. I am truly concerned about the future of this country. I don't know, maybe if it gets to the point where our backs are against the wall, we will finally come out swinging and defend our way of life. But, I am not that optimistic anymore.
It is probably time for me to get over my irrational fear of guns and learn how to use one, because I no longer trust the government to protect me the way they should ...
It's not frustration really, more resignation. One of the dark truths about democracy is that the government you get reflects the general population.
If the general population is involved and informed, you get good government, but if the population is apathetic and uninterested, you get mediocrity. The problem with that is it forms a positive feedback loop, which is unstable because it reinforces the trend, rather than damps it. A mediocre government leads to greater apathy, which means government responds less to the majority and more to the vocal minorities.
What that means that every decision that comes out of Washington will be good for a minority of the people, and bad for everybody else.
The numbers don't lie. When a high turnout means that just over half the people vote, that means that by definition, the winner represents a small minority of eligible voters, no more than 20% or so. While the views of that 20% rarely reflect the views of the majority, those 20 percenters drive the agenda.
This is why special interest groups now dominate our government. They take advantage of the apathy of the people.
Posted by: Rich on November 9, 2006 5:43 PM