Sylvester80, do you really believe that or are you just responding in kind to similar posts directed at you? Sometimes it's good to take a step back and enjoy a second look.
The Bush people are hard to understand given their many actions that seem to contradict their stated goals. They clearly have a different agenda that peeks through but they're not sharing that agenda with the American public, and certainly not with the world. They don't identify with those of us who have, or are, or may be, called upon to suffer, kill, become shattered, or die in pursuit of their goals. They don't appear to believe in the concept that a democracy requires open and honest debate, based on truth, in order for it to succeed. They think they know what's best for us and they treat us like stupid children who don't have a need to know.
When that happens and the Congress is impotent, you end up with a system that's run like a dictatorship. In some cases that works out just fine for a while. It depends on the wisdom and effectiveness of the goals and actions taken by the man, or men, in power. In this case the Bush administration seems to bumble quite often in ways that are very costly to America and Americans. That doesn't mean that their motives are all bad, or that they are insane, or that they are vicious criminals.
I give them the benefit of the doubt. I think that they're dogmatic thinkers that tend to reject any thoughts or people that don't share their views. I think that they generally have little "real world" experience with the kind of people that live in hard times and tough places, like many of us have, and like the Iraqis. As a result, I think their judgements on the mallability of real people in real situations are uniformly poor. I think that based sometimes on an accident of birth, they have an unrealistic sense that they are somehow "destined to lead" and that their way is the "right way," even for those that would choose another path. I think they tend to lack empathy. I think that unless and until hardships strike them personally, they can dismiss the suffering of others with ease.
In their own minds, however, I believe that they think that their actions are in the interests of America. Of course they're not above rewarding those they see as their "friends," ie. those that are among their social and business circles, but that doesn't automatically mean that they PRIMARY reason for their actions is to create wealth for those they identify and do business with.
They're not oven-shoving nazis. They're not antiAmericans. They're aren't even evil people. They're just extremist thinkers that have a view of a new energy, political and economic world order that they WRONGLY BELIEVE they can create through the exertion of American military might. And they're not even very clever in their strategies about how to employ that power to achieve their ends. I think of them as bumblers like "Dr. Evil," only not quite as cute and without that little "mini me."
The real blame lies with us and our Congressional representatives. We sell out to glib assertions, succumb to the fear of standing alone against a rising tide of destructive nationalism and follow the lure of lustful power, and we forget that this nations greatness was generated by the power of freedom and principles more than by the power of arms.
So, bottom line, it's possible to disagree without hating. It's possible to hate the actions but to understand that the actors are not thoroughly evil. It's possible to oppose those that are harming America without harming America by becoming like those we oppose. We are, after all, one family. We just have to get the keys from that arrogant, stubborn, kid that thinks the traffic rules don't apply to him so we can drive ourselves.
Posts like yours, even if written sarcastically and defensively, won't help. |
