Bush supportors should tag this as their mottoe for the re-election campaign

[skibunnyme]

Calvin When I grow up, I'm not going to read the newspaper and I'm not going to follow complex issues and I'm not going to vote. That way I can complain when the government doesn't represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn't work and justify my further lack of participation

Comments

Hey

[skibunnyme]

Listen, I don't hate Republicans, and I don't love Democrats. Both parties, as far as I am concerned, are sending this country straight to hell with their quibbling, ridiculous rhetoric, and asinine agendas. However, I also know that this is politics, and this is the way politics work. I'm not fan of Bush, in fact, I despise the man, and nothing is going to change my opinion of him. I think he's spectacularly incompetent, ignorant, deceptive, manipulative, and lets just saw not the brightest bulb in the White House. I know we've had presidents like him in the past, and that the Democrats aren't stellar example of virtue or intellect either, but I think Bush gets the gold star as the most incompetent President we've ever had. Not only is he stupid, but he thinks he's smart, and that makes him very dangerous.

As pertains to the quote from Calvin and Hobbes, most people are ignorant, and if not ignorant, than ignorant fanatics, and so are dangerously susceptible to rhetoric, dogma, and making blind commitment just b.c. something/someone sounds or looks good without really investigating or considering what people are really saying, evaluating what their motives really are, without really _thinking_ about what is said, and refuse to consider what anyone else may have to say. Thus, a jab at the American public, which largely does not read any newspaper except maybe U.S.A. Today, makes political decisions and judgements based largely only on political affiliation, that does not follow complex issues, and does not vote, and then complains that the government doesn't represent them, and when everything goes FUBAR cries that the system doesn't work and uses that as a means to justify further lack of participation. People love to kvetch, but very few actually step up to the plate to find a solution. I'm trying to find a solution. You believe what you believe, and thats just fine, just don't proselytize to me (I'm not saying you are, but most of the time when I discuss stuff like this with people whom I disagree with, they revert to rhetoric and thus stop listening and exchaging ideas and the discussion ceases to be a discussions and becomes an argument that goes nowhere).

If I may, I suggest you look into this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743255453/qid=1074007319/sr=12-2/002-1154397-7995202?v=glance&s=books

Re: Hey

[kimpire]

You should read the political discussions I end up having on my LiveJournal (most of my posts are friends-only but I can add you if you want to see them). They go into twenty, thirty comments -- none of them proselytizing, all completely logical arguments in which I debate with friends of mine the merits of Iraq, the economy, the religious/secular debate, etc. Most of them start with some absurd jab I post against the Democrats and then people protest and I defend the jab ;)

As for ignorance, idiocy, and the Bush Administration, it really all depends on your opinion about these things. As a staunch Republican, I basically approve of most of the things he's done and feel that they were intelligent approaches to solve the various problems we've been facing. You obviously feel otherwise; that's okay, it's your opinion. I'm firmly of the belief that we did the right thing going into Iraq whether or not the WMDs existed (I believe they were smuggled into Syria), and I believe that the key to handling the economy is that we'll be better equipped to handle a large deficit when tax cuts put more money into the marketplace.

There are things I disagree with Bush on: amnesty for illegal immigrants, for example, and I only think the new space initiative is worth it *if* we get the economy fully restored over the next year or two (before we start spending real money on the program). But overall I believe the man is a lot more intelligent than he lets on. Not the best public speaker, perhaps, but certainly not incompetent: even if you believe that he lies about nearly everything, it's still rather incredible how he manages to get the American public to follow him. And yes, the American public is made up of idiots, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is president.

Re: Hey

[lumberjackvt]

I don't know about anyone else, but honesty is as important, if not more important than competency in my book. I don't give a damn about the President's intelligence if he's lying through his teeth about why he's sending my comrades into war. (Yes I am in the military, no, I do not consider myself conservative by any means) There is clear, categorical evidence that Bush has purposely lied in order to deceive the public. I guess we have to ask ourselves if integrity really counts for anything anymore.

Re: Hey

[kimpire]

I'd like to see this evidence. So far as I'm aware, everything that's been reported to us by the president was verified by intelligence that may or may not have been correct -- but was certainly not fabricated. The whole Niger incident, for example, is still supported by the British government as being entirely true, even though the American govt has, due to negative media coverage, withdrawn their support of that intelligence. And we got it from the British in the first place.

If you can tell me where and when Bush lied, I'd appreciate it.