In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
What does "Republican" mean? Pt. 2
Conservatism (n.) 1 cap a: the principles and policies of a Conservative party b: the Conservative party 2 a: disposition in politics to preserve what is established b: a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change 3: the tendency to prefer an existing or traditional situation to change
--from Webster's 10th
I ask again, how exactly does the present administration fit the description of conservative Republican? A quick laundry list of the accomplishments of the past four years tells me that America threw out 50 years of foreign policy without asking anyone, abandoned our allies, threatened the world with ultimatums, waged two wars concurrently, simultaneously cutting taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations and spending hundreds of billions of your dollars with no end in sight, and no promise of an end in sight; refusing to initiate the draft to fight said wars; expanding the reach and breadth and scope of the powers of the executive branch to an unprecedented degree; suspended the rule of law; breached civil liberties; relaxed all the laws guaranteeing your right to privacy, so that banks and hospitals and doctors and insurers all have access to your financial and medical history, including sealed court records, privatized health care so that now private insurers and HMOs can cherry pick their clients based on said privacy information; turned the Justice Dept. into a giant surveillance machine with no checks to its powers, which now involve domestic surveillance without a need to know basis or any evidence of criminal activity or wrongdoing; the suspension of due process; the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; and the methodical smashing of every institution guaranteed to prevent the excesses and collusion and corruption that resulted in the Great Depression, including the Glass-Steagall Act, the Sherman antitrust laws, and now, Social Security and Medicare, which have both been raided by successive administrations -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- and are on schedule to become insolvent by a carefully engineered fiscal train wreck, courtesy of this so-called conservative Republican administration.
As Bush says, it's your money -- we're just letting him do whatever he wants with it. Think about it this way: Right now we're a unilateralist hegemon begging with a tin cup. Most of our economy is owned by foreigners, who buy dollars. So in other words, we're digging our own graves if we continue to cut taxes and spend ourselves into trillion-dollar deficits, because one day China and Japan and Korea and Saudi Arabia etc. may find themselves in the position of not needing to buy any more dollars. And when that happens, nighty-night America. Sometimes tradition and social stability isn't such a bad thing. But I guess I'm too conservative to convince a Republican otherwise.
- Michael 10:43 AM - [PermaLink] -
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