A Rare Venting
There is something I have been holding in for awhile now while I was waiting for this problem to be fixed. It has not. Oddly enough, what I am about to say is going both please and annoy both my conservative and my liberal readers to varying degrees.
I have a problem with President Bush
It is not that I no longer like him. IT is not that I am against the war. And it is not that I no longer support him for the most part. I just have a problem right now that has not resolved itself yet.
President Bush seems to have lost the will to fight. He spent his first time fighting and getting things done in an admirable fashion. He was shaping up to be one of our greatest Presidents of all time. However, His second term is not progressing so well. I have two specific complaints.
The first is that he seems to have had his spirit broken by the failure of his attempt to bring some desperately needed reforms to Social Security. This failure, thanks entirely to the raw, hostile partisanship of the Democrats has doomed Social security to ultimate collapse. It will go bankrupt and it will leave our elderly starving and homeless as a result. Way to go Dems. Since this failure President Bush has gone from a strong and confident leader to a timid man who makes every step tentatively, always worried that his next move will meet the same fate as Social Security Reform. As a result not much is actually getting done right now as The Democrats continue their strategy of Screw America Over as Much as Possible and Blame the Republicans to Get Back Power for the Democrats. Such partisanship is probably the worst problem in US politics today. I, for one, am sick of it while also being driven deeper into it by the sheer insanity of the situation.
The second complaint I have is that President Bush is simply pathetic when it comes to border security. He is toeing the line of national self destruction every time he comes out in favor of illegal aliens. Don’t get me wrong, I am for LEGAL immigration. I think it should be easier, take less time, and be more affordable. I also think that there are some common sense reforms that are needed in order to improve the quality of our immigrants, such as restricting the family spillover to spouse and children only rather than allowing it to bring the entire extended family of an immigrant to the US. I think our Amnesty program should be extended to allow refugees from Communist nations to arrive here without having to worry about being sent back to their old country where they will assuredly be persecuted, and possibly imprisoned or even killed for running away. And I think that we need to provide strict enforcement of every anti-illegal immigration law on the books. Take away every incentive for sneaking in here and they will stop coming. President Bush apparently favors open borders and millions of illegals over doing what is actually in our best interests. On this issue he sounds just like a Democrat.
Well. That felt good to get out.
Oh, and for the record, I would still have President Bush over almost any Democrat I can think of. The only Democrat I can fully support is Zell Miller. Two others I may be able to support are Bill Richardson and Joe Lieberman. But with all of them I have serious concerns about their potential Judicial appointments.
I have a problem with President Bush
It is not that I no longer like him. IT is not that I am against the war. And it is not that I no longer support him for the most part. I just have a problem right now that has not resolved itself yet.
President Bush seems to have lost the will to fight. He spent his first time fighting and getting things done in an admirable fashion. He was shaping up to be one of our greatest Presidents of all time. However, His second term is not progressing so well. I have two specific complaints.
The first is that he seems to have had his spirit broken by the failure of his attempt to bring some desperately needed reforms to Social Security. This failure, thanks entirely to the raw, hostile partisanship of the Democrats has doomed Social security to ultimate collapse. It will go bankrupt and it will leave our elderly starving and homeless as a result. Way to go Dems. Since this failure President Bush has gone from a strong and confident leader to a timid man who makes every step tentatively, always worried that his next move will meet the same fate as Social Security Reform. As a result not much is actually getting done right now as The Democrats continue their strategy of Screw America Over as Much as Possible and Blame the Republicans to Get Back Power for the Democrats. Such partisanship is probably the worst problem in US politics today. I, for one, am sick of it while also being driven deeper into it by the sheer insanity of the situation.
The second complaint I have is that President Bush is simply pathetic when it comes to border security. He is toeing the line of national self destruction every time he comes out in favor of illegal aliens. Don’t get me wrong, I am for LEGAL immigration. I think it should be easier, take less time, and be more affordable. I also think that there are some common sense reforms that are needed in order to improve the quality of our immigrants, such as restricting the family spillover to spouse and children only rather than allowing it to bring the entire extended family of an immigrant to the US. I think our Amnesty program should be extended to allow refugees from Communist nations to arrive here without having to worry about being sent back to their old country where they will assuredly be persecuted, and possibly imprisoned or even killed for running away. And I think that we need to provide strict enforcement of every anti-illegal immigration law on the books. Take away every incentive for sneaking in here and they will stop coming. President Bush apparently favors open borders and millions of illegals over doing what is actually in our best interests. On this issue he sounds just like a Democrat.
Well. That felt good to get out.
Oh, and for the record, I would still have President Bush over almost any Democrat I can think of. The only Democrat I can fully support is Zell Miller. Two others I may be able to support are Bill Richardson and Joe Lieberman. But with all of them I have serious concerns about their potential Judicial appointments.
posted by Daniel Levesque at
9:24 AM
3 Comments:
daniel-i agree 100% on both points about bush, you just worded it better than i could have!!
By
Libby, at 8:15 PM
Hrm . . . at what point did the Reeps stop wanting to dismantle Social Security and start wanting to "save" it?
I'll give you a hint: it was around the time they realized they'd never get enough public support to dismantle the program, that they started announcing the program was nearing a "crisis" and needed to be "fixed". In reality, the looming crisis precipitated by the Medicare bill -- Medicare being another program the Reeps would gladly dismantle if they had a chance -- outweighs anything Social Security might have coming.
The Dems are pretty stupid, but they were at least savvy enough to side with the majority of Americans who understand that people who want to "fix" Social Security have their own ideas as to who deserves to pocket that huuuuuuuuge pile of money . . . and it's not our elderly.
The administration's whole idea was to give people the option of turning over their future income to any huckster who came along with a good sales pitch . . . exactly the sort of "retirement plan" that Social Security was invented to protect against. The whole friggin' idea is that no matter how bad your investment decisions have been, Social Security will provide a minimum level of support . . . allowing people to opt out of the program and turn their retirement over to the Enroneers or put their faith in a corporate pension defeats the purpose.
As to Gee-Dub's sudden timidity, I think that has more to do with the fact that his coattails are gone. Prior to the last election, an incumbent President was the best thing the Reep Party had going for it. Now, he's the only one who never has to worry about getting elected again. That's why he could go out there and stump for Social Security dismantling, for example, while the rest of his party had to walk a fine line to stay in the good graces of their constituency. That's why he's having trouble with all his programs . . . because he's not worried about getting elected ever again, but the people who he needs to support his policies will have to live with the consequences of those policies.
By
catastrophile, at 2:13 PM
As an afterthought, I must point out that there were plenty on both sides of the aisle who were willing to negotiate a Social Security bill -- but that the administration made "personal accounts" (the term that replaced "private accounts" after focus grouping demonstrated that "private" sounded too much like "privatize" for Americans to support it) a dealbreaker. When it became clear that they couldn't get their "personal accounts" in there, they dropped the subject entirely.
As to the notion of phasing out SS altogether -- because that is the real aim -- it deserves discussion. But it needs to be discussed on its own merits, not under the cover of "saving" the program.
By
catastrophile, at 2:29 PM
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