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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (697531)	2/6/2013 9:51:23 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1576376

>> Bush and AIDS huh? Bush's AIDS initiative saved more lives than any president in history has saved. The liberal to give credit for it, that I know of, has been Elton John. A truly great president. And one that history will remember very favorably.

To: steve harris who wrote (697531)

2/6/2013 11:21:33 AM

From: SilentZ

Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1576376


Gosh, I never could find any posts of you supporting Bush. Bush and AIDS huh?

I love it when you play "gotcha."

I wrote that post in 2004. It turns out the funds had started to go out right around then, and still do to this day. I had my facts wrong at the time -- I thought he had announced the program in 2001 but it wasn't even announced until 2003 and the money had just become available when I wrote that post. It has turned out to be a great program. Given the administration's record up to that point, I had good reason to be skeptical.

I supported him in 2000 over Gore, but I wasn't posting on this thread then. And of course I look back now and think I was an idiot for doing that. I started to separate myself from him after his stem cell decision in August 2001.

I was hugely (and very much mistakenly) supportive of him after 9/11. You'll probably find lots of posts in 2002 with me supporting his policies vis-a-vis Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel.

Bu I mentioned the two areas that I can think of where I agree with him today -- AIDS and immigration. I wasn't supportive of his immigration policies back then (or at least not his whole time in office), because my thoughts on immigration have very publicly changed over the years.

But why on earth do I have an obligation to support a President with whom I disagree 99% of the time? Of course you're not going to find me saying too many good things about him.

Does that make me partisan? Not really. We just live in a time which is, from what I can tell, exceptional in American history. The most right-wing high-level elected Democrats are to the left of the most left-wing high-level Republicans. I'm much more a liberal than I'm a Democrat. But without exception, because of the way the country is ideologically aligned, if you're liberal, supporting a Republican isn't a choice.

My party affiliation is based on what I believe are the right policies for America. Do I give Dems the benefit of the doubt more than Republicans? Sure. That's partially human nature, but it's mostly because most of the time I actually fact-check Republican attacks on Dems, they turn out to be wrong. Hell, you guys built an entire week-long convention on a few words taken totally out of context! Not a good track record...

But you got me. I jumped the gun on something in 2004.

-Z