“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
-- George Santayana
I write these words just one day after the eighth anniversary of September 11, 2001, a day like so many others lately when the fracture between political ideologies in America seems to grow exponentially with each passing hour.
I see. We should only be civil sometimes. Come on, really. Don’t ever forget that some animals are more equal than other animals.
And that about wraps it up for this installment of Double Standards and Impaired Memories. In the meantime be wary of space debris and the concept that a two-party political system can do anything more than cast aspersions and doubts about people on the “other side.”
.
-- George Santayana
I write these words just one day after the eighth anniversary of September 11, 2001, a day like so many others lately when the fracture between political ideologies in America seems to grow exponentially with each passing hour.
The only plausible theory for this situation involves a chain of events that transpired in a galaxy far, far away…a long time ago and was thus missed by NASA.
Perhaps so many of us were so enraptured with the election of Barack Obama that we failed to notice the giant meteor that was racing toward planet earth on November 6, 2008.
Perhaps so many of us were so enraptured with the election of Barack Obama that we failed to notice the giant meteor that was racing toward planet earth on November 6, 2008.
That meteor seemingly collided with something much larger in outer space. The fallout from the collision resulted in an explosion that sent millions and millions of tiny meteor fragments streaming into our atmosphere virtually unnoticed.
Strangely, these pieces of galactic shrapnel landed mostly in the United States, causing significant brain damage to millions of unsuspecting victims who now cannot seem to remember much of what happened before President Obama’s election except to say that it was bad… very bad.
Frankly, I think George W. Bush was – in many ways – the worst president in recent memory. In 2004, I held my nose and voted for John Kerry. Four years later, I held my nose again and voted for John McCain. This piece is important information.
Undoubtedly, many people will dismiss the entirety of this rant simply because its author did not vote for President Obama.
Why would I make such an ignorant, cold-hearted decision? There are plenty of theories out there to explain people like me. Let’s start with some of the most popular.
Theory 1: I am a racist. Hmmm.
Does this mean that Democrats who chose Obama over Clinton during the 2008 primaries were misogynists?
What about all the people who opposed the appointment of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991? Did the meteor shower impair our memories to the extent that we cannot remember the vitriol which surrounded those hearings just 18 years ago?
Frankly, my own memory seems a bit fuzzy because I don’t recall the charge of racism being leveled at then members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Joe Biden or Ted Kennedy. I don’t think they are racists. Do you?
Theory 2: I am a right-wing nut job. We’re getting warmer.
Yes. I am a registered Republican. If you listen to the likes of Chris Matthews, John Stewart or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you may believe that people like me are uneducated, gun-toting, homophobic, Bible-thumpin’ bigots with big hedge funds and even bigger SUVs.
We don’t care about the environment, civil rights or the plight of the working poor. We fantasize about “Nailin’ Palin” and search the night skies for UFOs that are likely government spy planes. We are angry white men who shoot kittens for sport and chant “Drill, baby drill” while stocking up on ammunition, bottled water and canned goods.
Hmmm. We’ll get back to this a little later, but let’s get back to this apparent loss of our national memory before I forget why I decided to pen this rant.
Earlier this week, President Obama delivered a thought-provoking and inspiring speech to our nation’s school children. In my opinion, it was one of the best speeches to ever come out of the White House, right up there with JFK’s inaugural address and FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech in December 1941.
Some people got upset about the prospect of President Obama using his bully pulpit to somehow “indoctrinate” our nation’s youth about the value of hard work, perseverance and the concept of personal responsibility. They invoked Orwellian images of Big Brother and likened the concept to Hitler’s “brown-shirt” strategy.
We heard about all this because our national media is becoming very adept at downloading YouTube videos and surfing internet blogs. It was, in a single word, nonsense.
But Democrats would never attempt to stifle speech, would they?
Please join me and step into the “Way Back Machine” and set the dials to October 1991. Back then, Republican George Bush Sr. (41) was the president and Congress was controlled by Democrats.
The recent objections to Obama’s speech pale in comparison to what happened in 1991.
Congress called for an investigation and asked the Government Accounting Office (GAO) to determine how much public money was used to deliver the president’s speech. The National Education Association roundly criticized the president. The media went nuts as best evidenced by a front-page story in the Washington Post.
From an article this week in the Washington Examiner, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html
“ Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.”
And finally, there seems to be a growing call for civility and decorum these days, especially with regard to the President and respect for the office.
That’s a good thing. But let’s again step into the “Way Back Machine” and set the dials for December 2008.
Do you even have a vague sense of the unbridled joy Democratic activists and the media expressed when shoes were thrown at President George W. Bush? What about the angry and hate-filled outbursts that happened all over the country by “Code Pink” members?
Strangely, these pieces of galactic shrapnel landed mostly in the United States, causing significant brain damage to millions of unsuspecting victims who now cannot seem to remember much of what happened before President Obama’s election except to say that it was bad… very bad.
Frankly, I think George W. Bush was – in many ways – the worst president in recent memory. In 2004, I held my nose and voted for John Kerry. Four years later, I held my nose again and voted for John McCain. This piece is important information.
Undoubtedly, many people will dismiss the entirety of this rant simply because its author did not vote for President Obama.
Why would I make such an ignorant, cold-hearted decision? There are plenty of theories out there to explain people like me. Let’s start with some of the most popular.
Theory 1: I am a racist. Hmmm.
Does this mean that Democrats who chose Obama over Clinton during the 2008 primaries were misogynists?
What about all the people who opposed the appointment of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991? Did the meteor shower impair our memories to the extent that we cannot remember the vitriol which surrounded those hearings just 18 years ago?
Frankly, my own memory seems a bit fuzzy because I don’t recall the charge of racism being leveled at then members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Joe Biden or Ted Kennedy. I don’t think they are racists. Do you?
Theory 2: I am a right-wing nut job. We’re getting warmer.
Yes. I am a registered Republican. If you listen to the likes of Chris Matthews, John Stewart or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you may believe that people like me are uneducated, gun-toting, homophobic, Bible-thumpin’ bigots with big hedge funds and even bigger SUVs.
We don’t care about the environment, civil rights or the plight of the working poor. We fantasize about “Nailin’ Palin” and search the night skies for UFOs that are likely government spy planes. We are angry white men who shoot kittens for sport and chant “Drill, baby drill” while stocking up on ammunition, bottled water and canned goods.
Hmmm. We’ll get back to this a little later, but let’s get back to this apparent loss of our national memory before I forget why I decided to pen this rant.
Earlier this week, President Obama delivered a thought-provoking and inspiring speech to our nation’s school children. In my opinion, it was one of the best speeches to ever come out of the White House, right up there with JFK’s inaugural address and FDR’s “Day of Infamy” speech in December 1941.
Some people got upset about the prospect of President Obama using his bully pulpit to somehow “indoctrinate” our nation’s youth about the value of hard work, perseverance and the concept of personal responsibility. They invoked Orwellian images of Big Brother and likened the concept to Hitler’s “brown-shirt” strategy.
We heard about all this because our national media is becoming very adept at downloading YouTube videos and surfing internet blogs. It was, in a single word, nonsense.
But Democrats would never attempt to stifle speech, would they?
Please join me and step into the “Way Back Machine” and set the dials to October 1991. Back then, Republican George Bush Sr. (41) was the president and Congress was controlled by Democrats.
The recent objections to Obama’s speech pale in comparison to what happened in 1991.
Congress called for an investigation and asked the Government Accounting Office (GAO) to determine how much public money was used to deliver the president’s speech. The National Education Association roundly criticized the president. The media went nuts as best evidenced by a front-page story in the Washington Post.
From an article this week in the Washington Examiner, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html
“ Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.”
And finally, there seems to be a growing call for civility and decorum these days, especially with regard to the President and respect for the office.
That’s a good thing. But let’s again step into the “Way Back Machine” and set the dials for December 2008.
Do you even have a vague sense of the unbridled joy Democratic activists and the media expressed when shoes were thrown at President George W. Bush? What about the angry and hate-filled outbursts that happened all over the country by “Code Pink” members?
I see. We should only be civil sometimes. Come on, really. Don’t ever forget that some animals are more equal than other animals.
And that about wraps it up for this installment of Double Standards and Impaired Memories. In the meantime be wary of space debris and the concept that a two-party political system can do anything more than cast aspersions and doubts about people on the “other side.”
.
No comments:
Post a Comment