Proud to be an American...(another failed post...)

The original title for this post was "I don't like him...", but I thought, "eh, too easy..."

Alright, so this weekend I was called "heartless" by my friend for not liking/respecting/being merciful towards (or a combination of all three) George W. Bush.

"How could you be so,
Cold as the winter wind when it breeze yo...
How could you be so heartless..."

Let me explain how...

I. Let's be fair - I do not talk politics with you (my friends) for a reason. I know that I am on an entirely different page politically than most of my friends, even if we voted the same, when it comes down to issues, I'm in my own little world (at least that's how I feel). However, I am not a Democrat that bleeds blue. I have not been proud of everything that the past Democratic presidents have done.

• Clinton - this is the first President that I paid any attention to. He was the President while I was growing up from 10 yrs. old and 18 yrs. old. And "oh my Gosh", guess what Republifans, I did not like him either. He made the United States a laughing stock in the world theater because he could not keep his zipper up. European citizens were mocking the U.S. public for being in an uproar about their President having multiple mistresses. Guess what Europe? America expects more from its leaders, we expect a pristine integrity from our President (and often times never get it). Other Presidents have had affairs, make no mistake about that, but they did not have to contend with the internet, a gossip hungry media and paparazzi. I do not give Clinton a "hall pass" because he had an ugly wife and biological needs or because of his amazing economic policies. It was embarrassing to be an American under Clinton. A hilarious time for SNL, but embarrassing for the common man.
• Obama - I was gonna write a whole post on Obama awhile ago, but I kept falling asleep while trying to write it. I do like Obama, but I am disenchanted with him. Disenchanted because of his economic practices. The majority of his economic policy makers were former employees of the same companies that played apart in our economic downturn and therefore were pushing for the Wall Street "bailouts". Can you say "conflict in interest". Change to me is not continuing the "cronyism" which plagued American politics throughout the 1900s. If you cannot run a company's economics, chances are you can't run a countries or make decisions for it. Disenchanted because I do not think he will be able to practice his much ballyhooed "bipartisanship" and get anything productive done over the next two years. I won't take the easy way out and complain about how the Republicans openly display their disdain for him. I will instead blame it on the volatile political landscape of the United States in which the two parties (that nobody wants to vote for, but what choice do we have right fellow yokels?) bicker back and forth and play blame games about who fucked up more instead of wanting to see either side or both sides in unity be successful in providing for their constituents, i.e., THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. I think Obama has potential to pull out a win in the second half, but only if he get the whole team on board.

II. On to Bush - I have three reasons why I do not like George W. Bush. Three is unneccessary, my number one reason is enough, but to strengthen an argument you need multiple points. Ask any great philosopher, debate team member or Adam Robertson. Present multiple points and you kill the competition. A multi-front attack, is what military strategists would say.

*(01/25/11) Sigh. Alas, I do not remember what my three points were...gosh...but I can give you my first one off the cuff...

1. My number one point, and the only point that I think you need to make against Bush, is:
1. The Iraq War, Gulf War II, Operation Iraqi Freedom
1. This war, unlike the Afghanistan War, was not necessary. OH, but Tony we liberated those poor Iraqis from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein (who was rivaling James Brown for craziest ass beard in his last days). Really Americans? You buy that? What about all the treacherous war criminals in Sudan and Uganda? What about the highly publicized female infanticide in China? Why don't we go bomb the hell out of Ireland until the North and the South can stop killing each other over an interpretation of the Bible? I'm sorry I cannot buy the shallow-ass argument that the U.S. government cared so much about the human rights violations going on in Iraq that we had to fight a war there and kill that bastard that was Hussein. If we want to be cops, then we need to cop every jackass around the world, not just the ones that can benefit us economically. And our government lied to our fucking faces and got re-elected for a second term. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Yet 4,000 men and women died in that war. Now I did support them. I supported the troops and do still today. I do not understand the kind of strength it takes to be a soldier and die for either an ideal or 300 million people you don't know. However until wars are organized and initiated by soldiers and not old men sitting in chairs arguing and filibustering, I cannot get behind them. And have you heard about all the men who have come back completely destroyed psychologically. My generation does not need a Vietnam. Thanks W.!
2. Afghanistan was started in order to track down Osama Bin (Hidin') Laden. It was necessary. Even as a Christian who does not believe in wars, I believe it was necessary for Bush to order this war, because the state that 9/11 put the nation in -- he could have risked being lynched like Mussolini if he had not. I do not think that Bush is less of a Christian for Afghanistan, he was the President, a leader of a country, and that unfortunately (and much in support of Adam's apolitical arguments from college) came in conflict with Christian beliefs about/against war. The country needed Afghanistan, we needed to fight, otherwise we would have lost ourselves entirely.
2. I do not remember what my other points would have been...so I will not try. I was disappointed almost everytime he publicly spoke. He made up words and used so many grammatical errors, I wondered if there was anybody writing speeches for him or if he was just unable to read from his cards and found himself in need of improvisation way too many times. Iraq is enough for me though to not like him, to not be merciful about his legacy, and to not respect him at all. If Jesus holds that against me, well that is between him and I. If you do, well keep it to yourself and I will continue to not talk about it as much as I can.