Bush-Bashing
I was at a party the other day. The topic turned to Bush-bashing. I found it passe, and even more, boorrrring!!
I didn't vote for him; either time: in 2000 nor in 2004. I agree that his was a failed Presidency: Iraq, financial regulation, immigration...but come on now... George Bush II wasn't the problem: he was the symptom of the problem. In a democracy, the leaders are simply a reflection of the led...the voters were deficient. (And don't give me the BS about Florida in 2000. If I remember right, a majority of Americans voted for him in 2004; and the opposition failed to excite the crowd in either election.)
Bashing Bush is a convenient way to avoid our own collective responsibility: it's time we stop bashing Bush and accept that for decades we liked the low prices, the reduced taxes, the cheap mortgages, the nannies we didn't have to pay taxes for. We were a greedy society; and we 'average working folk' were no less greedy than the derivative people on Wall Street. The latter were just more successful at greed.
Bashing Bush, at a party or in general, is a party-goer's (it was a thirty-year American party, by the way) attempt of avoiding collective responsibility, and thereby sadly delaying the necesary national and personal self-correctives.
Face it: the last thirty years have been a CULTURAL--meaning ALL OF US--rejection of the old fashioned American traditions of sacrifice, community, financial carefulness and pay-as-you-go. Bush was merely the oozing pimple at the head of our collective, social, American greedy pus pocket.
The corrective? Well, kiddies...are we ready to take our medicine?
I didn't vote for him; either time: in 2000 nor in 2004. I agree that his was a failed Presidency: Iraq, financial regulation, immigration...but come on now... George Bush II wasn't the problem: he was the symptom of the problem. In a democracy, the leaders are simply a reflection of the led...the voters were deficient. (And don't give me the BS about Florida in 2000. If I remember right, a majority of Americans voted for him in 2004; and the opposition failed to excite the crowd in either election.)
Bashing Bush is a convenient way to avoid our own collective responsibility: it's time we stop bashing Bush and accept that for decades we liked the low prices, the reduced taxes, the cheap mortgages, the nannies we didn't have to pay taxes for. We were a greedy society; and we 'average working folk' were no less greedy than the derivative people on Wall Street. The latter were just more successful at greed.
Bashing Bush, at a party or in general, is a party-goer's (it was a thirty-year American party, by the way) attempt of avoiding collective responsibility, and thereby sadly delaying the necesary national and personal self-correctives.
Face it: the last thirty years have been a CULTURAL--meaning ALL OF US--rejection of the old fashioned American traditions of sacrifice, community, financial carefulness and pay-as-you-go. Bush was merely the oozing pimple at the head of our collective, social, American greedy pus pocket.
The corrective? Well, kiddies...are we ready to take our medicine?
posted by Cliff Osmond at 4:53 PM
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