Originally published by Town Hall 11-18-06
The election did not go well. The democrats took back congress and the implications for our country and the war on terror are enormous. Our country made a very stupid, possibly fatal mistake, the same mistake they made when Bush Senior went back on his pledge to not raise taxes. Conservatives bailed on him and voted for Ross Perot. Voting for Ross Perott gave us Bill Clinton for 4 years and he managed to hang on for 8 years.
Now, did Bush Senior deserve to be voted out of office for waffling on his campaign promises? Of course he did. And I understood the anger. And I understood the desire to exhibit that anger in the voting booth. But here’s the question our country asked for 8 years after: Was it worth it? Was it worth it to have a man who stood for nothing other than the fact that he wanted to be President? A man who offered nothing but hollow talk when Alchida attacked and led them to believe that they could get away with 9/11? And here we go again.
Look, I was angry at the Republicans too. I was bothered watching our senators and congressmen desert Bush and publically challenge his policies just because they knew that 2008 was coming up and some idiot pollster told them that to the degree they distanced themselves from Bush they might get their own shot at the White House. We didn’t elect the Republicans to do posturing. We elected them to do what can rarely be done when one party has the Legislative and Executive branches: Work together !!!!!! And when they did work together they voted on Hate Crime Legislation which is code for “No More Free Speech in the Horizon”.
As for making illegal aliens legitimate, Do I even need to comment on what these virtually open boarders do for our country when our country is at war with Middle Easterners who know enough geography that they can figure out how to travel to Mexico first before hop scotching across the boarder?
And when Bush tells Israel to make deals with Palestine, something he said the United States would never do, interact with a country that harbors terrorism, and when we tie one hand behind the back of our soldiers in Iraq so that they can fight a more sensitive, more politically correct war, not allowing them to shoot at Mosques even though the enemy will shoot from Mosques, when our soldiers are accused of war crimes and when the only witnesses are the enemy, and we take the word of our enemy as opposed to the word of our men and women who volunteered to do what most of us do not have the guts to do, well yes, there was much hypocrisy, and it does bother me, and if asked the question, “Do the republicans deserve to be driven out of office?” my answer is yes. In fact, my answer is a resounding yes. But if asked the question, “Is this worth it?”, the answer is no.
You have to be savvy when dealing with politics. Politics is not where the conscience lives. Free speech is where the conscience lives. Politics is the means to preserving the free speech, thus preserving the conscience. Because I have my freedom of speech I speak out against the Republicans if I don’t like what they do. But with the Democrats in power I may not be able to do that much longer. And that means that all of us should have been free to speak our conscience, but not so naïve as to think that on a ballot you can vote your conscience. They don’t have a box to check called “conscience”. They have a box that says “Republican” or “Democrat”. No matter how much Republicans may disappoint us, the difference between the philosophy of a Republican and a Democrat is light years apart. If you don’t see the difference you are dangerously naïve. But even if you see them both as evil, you must vote the lesser of two evils. If I have a choice only between Hitler and Mussolini, I’m going to go with Mussolini. It would have been nice if Mother Teresa was also on the ballot. But if it’s only Hitler and Mussolini you go with Mussolini. It’s called thinking from the head even if the heart hurts.
As I mentioned, there were many reasons for Republicans to punish Republicans, Iraq being only one of them, but let’s look at Iraq for a moment. The frustrations that most Republicans had with Iraq was that Bush was not letting us be tough enough. I was all for removing Hussein. After that happened I would have rather seen us go into Iran and Syria (where Husseins’WMD’s are, incidentally) instead of turning Iraq into a democracy. We have only to look at Muslim populations in democracies like Canada, Germany, France and England to see how well democracy mixes with theocracy, the theocracy of Militant Islam. We have only to see the Palestinians elect Hamas to see how democracy mixes with the theocracy of Militant Islam. Still, it was a noble idea the President had, and when Democrats say it has nothing to do with Al-Quaeda, they need to explain why Al-Quaeda is the group we are fighting there and why Al-Quaeda says it is about Al-Quaeda.
Did Bush have some secret plan beyond the stated goal of democracy, to lure terrorists out of the wood work into open conflict in a theater of overseas war, instead of a theater of New York City War? I don’t know if that was his secret plan or not. I know that if it was, it’s working. And if that wasn’t the original plan, it’s still working as a nice default plan or at least it works when we let our soldiers do their job.
I know that idea is a better idea than trying to spread democracy. You see, Militant Islam does not respect democracy. It respects strength. And know this: The interpretation of this election on AL-Jazeera will not be that Republicans deserted Bush because Bush was not strong enough. The interpretation will be that Americans are spineless. Do you think prolonged war emboldens terrorism? Then you need to brush up on Miltant Islam 101. The weakness and gutlessness of a nation unwilling to take a stand, emboldens terrorism. And this election breathed new life into an evil more ambitious than Nero and Adolph Eichman put together.
Two years ago, when Bush was re-elected and the Republicans held on to both the House and Senate, the Democrats whined and whined and whined. There was so much of a wine, they were ready to ferment. Naturally we heard the usual song and dance, claims of voter fraud. Notice how when the Republicans lose, they ask themselves what they did wrong. When the Democrats lose they also ask themselves what the Republicans did wrong. So we heard all that from the Democrats last time after the 2004 election. But there was more. The Democrats were also claiming that they being the minority party was of importance to the American people, that the Republicans owed it to them to listen to their voices. They had a right to filibuster. They had a right to block the nomination of judges. The American people put them in there for check and balance. And it was unfair of those nasty Republicans to hold both the House and the Senate without listening to the few Democrats who were also there.
“The American people want us to listen to the minority party.”
Hmmm….Yes, can’t you see the logic? It was a brilliant and fascinating interpretation of democracy. Of course, now that the Democrats are in the majority they seem to be re-acquainted with the more standard definition of democracy. Now that they are in power, Nancy Polosi tells us on election night that the people have spoken. Well this time she might have something. This time I am forced to agree. I don’t think I have ever agreed with her about anything else except possibly on the existence of oxygen. But much as I hate to admit it, this time the people really have put the Democrats in power. That was a harder line to buy in 2004 when the Republicans won and the Democrats wanted us to think that they won. But now, let’s face facts. They really did win. You asked for it. You got it. Let’s see how you like it. You conservatives who wanted to teach the Republicans a lesson, Let’s see if it was worth it.
When Bush deals with investigative committees and motions for impeachment the next two years distracting his time from the war on terror, let’s see how you like it.
When our enemies, unaware that you were punishing Bush for not being strong enough come to the conclusion that our country is too weak to fight,and when Islamo Nazi terrorism is emboldened all over the world, let’s see how you like it.
Oh, and when they bring back the Fairness Doctrine which they promised to do….you know, the Fairness Doctrine: For every hour of conservative programming on the radio there must be an equal hour of liberal programming, even if liberal talk radio gets zero ratings, even if we already have Public Radio funded by your tax dollars, let’s see how you like it.
Originally published on Town Hall 11-8-06
And speaking of your dollars…What dollars? Your dollars will now go to others, a mandatory redistribution of wealth. Don’t bother to complain. They’ll shut you up by calling you a racist and accusing you of Hate Speech.
But hey! You taught Bush and the Republicans a lesson! Yes Sir ! You voted your conscience. You voted with your heart. You kind of ignored the head. But you and your heart can sleep well, while free speech sleeps permanently, or at least runs the risk of sleeping permanently. And remember, free speech was the real home of the conscience. But you wanted the conscience to have a new home, the voting booth. That’s how you chose to speak. And speak you did. Good job. Fine job.
So yes, Mrs. Polosi, you are absolutely right. Yes, the people have spoken. They really have. And I admit it. The people have spoken. God save the people.
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