patriotic dissent?

First, I am going to do something unusual and explain why I haven’t been blogging as much as I was before.  It’s quite simple — there’s just too much wrong with what’s been going on in this country under the Obama administration and I just don’t have the energy to fight all those bad ideas and post on each and every one of them.  It needs to be done, because once we implement national health care, there’s no turning back the clock on that policy.

Our President gave a speech to the Muslim world today.  He gets an unfavorable review from me on that speech, for reasons I will elaborate on in future posts.   One quick thought on it — he still doesn’t seem to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys, and there is a difference.

7 thoughts on “patriotic dissent?

  1. The answer is — it depends on the nature of the argument. I think it’s possible to separate the policy arguments from the personal attacks. That’s what I try to do. The Democrats made the Bush criticisms personal, and some Republicans have decided to adopt this strategy in their opposition to President Obama. There’s legit criticisms to be made on policy issues and that’s where our focus should be.

  2. So if one were to say that George Bush grew the size of government faster than at any time since FDR, that Bush more than tripled the national deficit, instituted 8 government bailouts, socialized AIG, Lehman bros, Fannie and Freddie along with 13 other private banks, all of which never brought you (and many, many other conservative/Repubs) to speak out against, or to say “there’s just too much wrong with what’s been going on in this country,” that would be a legitimate policy criticism?

    If so, why now is it all just so wrong? And considering Bush’s socialism, the government takeover of GM is small.

  3. True, but nothing quite like Bush’s socialization was so wrong that it took your energy away like Obama’s now has. That only leads people to believe that things are worse now under Obama but in reality Obama hasn’t done 1/10 of what Bush did.

  4. Right now my mindset is – a pox on all their houses (Republicans and Dems alike). I see President Obama charting a course and implementing policies that aren’t easily reversible, like national health care (which of course really isn’t reversible). With Bush, many of the things he did Obama has already changed or he will change soon. President Obama is taking the failed economic policies of the previous administration, and instead of changing direction and implementing more fiscal discipline, he continues to spend, spend, spend money we don’t have. Not even increased taxes, getting out of all foreign wars, or any other reversal of Bush policy can completely finance a potential national health care system.

    Meanwhile, there’s serious stuff happening with North Korea and Iran, as well as the serious domestic concerns we have, and there is zero Republican leadership. We argue constantly about petty issues, and fail to provide solutions to all these problems people care about. Wouldn’t you be somewhat depressed if you were a conservative, and the Republican Party treated you and those like you like dirt and pandered to those who have no idea what it is exactly that they believe?

  5. I do like that first line 🙂

    Absolutely right, once the public option is created it won’t be reversed, unless members of Congress want to be painted as refusing health care to sick people. Just like Social Security, the public option will be untouchable. That’s why Republicans hate it. It’s a legacy, and one that won’t be theirs. It really has nothing to do with spending or fiscal restraint. The GOP has nothing to point to that suggests they care about fiscal responsibility once they are in power. They spent more money we don’t have than anyone in history.

    I don’t think Bush’s policies are so easily reversible as you might think. The needless war in Iraq, which is a trillion dollars down the drain, can come to an end but the effects of the war will be around for quite some time, probably at least a generation. His do-nothing approach to GM will linger at least a generation as well. The war in Iraq alone would pay for 10 years of Obama’s health care plan, so I do disagree that getting out of Bush’s war would not pay for the public option. It will.

    I used to call myself a conservative, but I really have no idea what a conservative is anymore. I know I’m certainly nothing like what is currently “leading” the GOP and think I’m much more moderate than what we constitute as conservative these days. I think if I were to stay true to wanting to be a conservative I would have to look seriously at Ron Paul and what he’s doing. But then again I still think it’s possible to be conservative and progressive at the same time. I don’t believe any Party has a monopoly on either of those labels. But depressed is exactly how I would feel if I were a Republican I do know that.

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