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Weeping & gnashing of teeth. As mentioned yesterday, this is the first time I've voted for a president who lost. As everyone expected, it was close (elected by the narrowist margin for a sitting president since 1916), but now I got a bad case of the blue-state blues. This election has given new meaning to the phrase shock & awe. First off, I don't feel comfortable with electronic voting machines. Anyone who knows anything about hacking, knows they can be programmed to generate any results you want. No verifiable paper-trail exists. And the code is secret. What kind of krap is that? ••• continued ••• Next, I feel concerned .. concerned the President doesn't have the sophistication & insight necessary to deal effectively with the complex state of affairs in the world today. And if you ask the rest of the world, you'll find they have the same concerns .. that the President's destabilization of the middle east has made the world less-safe, not more. One of his mantras during the election that rang most true for me was: "You may not agree with me, but you know where I stand." Every time I heard him say this, I said, "Yes." This is true for the Pres, and was one of Kerry's undoings, who was often unclear, especially on his stand on Iraq, in which he kept shifting political sails in an attempt to catch the prevailing popular winds. I agreed with Bush/Cheney that Kerry was guilty of this, but saw George's vices as worse (much worse). But the flip-side to the President's simplicity is a lack of sophistication. Exit polls revealed that a surprising number people claimed to vote primarily for "moral" reasons ("guns, God & gays"), but the marriage of a gay couple, no matter how you feel about it morally, will not lead to the end of the world. I mean, gay people are going to live their lives the way they want, whether or not they're "married". The Kerry campaign would've done well to send some its people into parts of the country they lost (red), and learned how these people think, and how strongly they feel strongly about moral issues such as gay marriage and abortion. It is relatively easy to address their concerns (which Dems failed to do). I've lived all around the country, so I have insights as to how people think in different parts of the country and what is most important to them. So, it's clear Dems do not understand the psychology of the "moral" voter (or do not care). What concerns me however, is that the person who votes primarily for moral reasons does not understand the level of sophistication necessary to operate politically in the world today, and the magnitude of the dangers involved. Granted, the president understands the straightforward simplicity of moral issues (either you're for gay marriage or you're not), but the flip-side is that he does not understand the complexity involved in other parts of the world. And we see evidence of his provincial mindset when we look at the mess in Iraq, where he obviously did not have the foresight to anticipate the situation there (remember when he stood on the USS Abraham Lincoln under the banner that declared Mission Accomplished? How many of our soldiers have died since?). This is why Colin Powell asked the President, "Dude, are you sure you know WTF you're getting the nation into?" (the Rad translation) You also see more evidence of this in the way he has alienated much of the world with his "My way or the highway" attitude. This is how a bully acts, not a leader. And this is why many nations refuse to follow him (many of the same nations who gladly followed his father into battle in Kuwait). If you look closely, you even see evidence of it on 9-11, when the administration didn't have a clue this was coming. So, my concerns today is that his provincial, ideological mind set, which appeals so much to the moral voter, is poorly suited to dealing with the sophisticated complexities around the world. Moreover, I am concerned that he does not know how to admit a mistake and adjust his course accordingly. Granted, it's not easy to admit a mistake, but what is the flip-side of continuing hell-bent down the wrong road? (anyone remember how high the bodies of our American boys piled up in Viet Nam?). 500 years ago, Erasmus said: "War is delightful to those who have no experience of it." Seems this still applies today to George W Bush, who chose to avoid serving his country in Viet Nam when he had the chance to go there and learn what its like to have bullets wizing by your head. This shouldn't surprise anybody, because he's always been a fortunate son of privilege. In short, I think it was his plain-talking provincial simplicity that got him re-elected, but this will also be his un-doing. As with most things, strengths and weakness are just flip-sides of the same coin. For example, we now know that North Korea has nukes. Iran will soon join them. I'm concerned that (without the necessary insight/foresight previously mentioned) this administration will do something that will have grave results. I hope I'm wrong, but I think the writing is already on the wall, characterized by an inability to deal with people who have a different mind set. And this is precisely where Kerry excels. In a chess game, you need to be able to think ahead. The president has demonstrated a lack of foresight, and our nation is paying for it in both dollars & lives. We also paid on September 11th. The optimist in me wants to give the President the benefit of the doubt. But the realist in me says: "He has already demonstrated what he is capable of. Give the President enough political rope and he will hang the entire nation". Let's hope I'm just being a sore loser. But I truly believe, I'll soon be saying, "Told ya." Like never before, I sense a genuine unsettledness about the direction our nation (and the world) is headed under the auspices of President Bush. His inclination to seek a military solution to every foreign problem is disturbing. Or maybe it's his inability to produce a political solution. I'm not sure, but there's actually a sense of dread about 4 more years of Bush. And I've never seen that before. Visit some of the politically-oriented blogs around the 'Net and you'll see I'm not alone. I mean, people (not me) actually want to MOVE to other countries, such as Canada, Australia & New Zealand. After considering the map of red/blue states, and comments from our neighbors around the globe, it seems that America has never been so divided at home -- at least not in my lifetime -- and so alienated from the rest of the world. I'm not sure what omens these developments portend, but it appears the man responsible is none other than George W. Bush, who in the 2000 election claimed he wanted to be a uniter, not a divider. Some civilizations had leaders such as Alexander the Great. Some had Vlad the Impaler. We happen to have George the Divider. =/ After considering the effects of decisions made by this administration, and the widening rich/poor gap, with more Americans falling into poverty, and our military stretched too thin, such that we need to expand stop-loss measures, and seeing the way Iraq is beginning to look like Viet Nam (we're getting bogged down), and the biggest federal deficit in history ... does anyone else see similarities with the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire? Hey, but at least we won't have any gays getting married .. gays who pay taxes, obey the law, employ people, and even served their country in combat, something the President chose to avoid doing. Give the President 4 more years and he'll make Kerry look like a godsend. I would vote for Kerry again. He just needs to spend a little time with Evangelical ministers, and dialogue with them, because they tell their congregations how to vote (even tho they're not supposed to do that). |
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You've created a very useful site. Lots of good information, nicely laid out and organized. I occasionally use it as a reference.
Regarding your posting this morning. Your article make it seem as if simplicity and sophistication are mutually exclusive. I don't believe that assumption is necessarily true. In fact, simplicity is sometimes the highest form of sophistication. Buddha and Mahatma Ghandi were both simple men, but I don't think anyone would consider them unsophisticated.
I'm not interested in getting into a debate over the current president's strengths and weaknesses, my comments were more of a philosophical nature. I'll leave the analysis of the President to others.
Cheers,
Posted by: Tim at November 3, 2004 12:19 PMTim