Tagline: "Because nobody ever asked for a piece of elephant..." This blog offers a compendium of defecting D's, including the blog's author:
I started this site after talking with a former college friend and classmate, Josh from BushBlog2004, about how I've just been dismayed at how my party swayed from the ideals I hold so dear. He set up the site at my request, and when I see a story in the news or on the internet that proves my point again, I bring it here to share with a small corner of the world. I'm an avowed Democrat, I voted for Clinton twice as well as Gore. If some of my fellow Democrats could get passed their absolute hatred, they would be surprised to see how central Bush's agenda really is. Do I agree with the President on every issue? No - I'm pro-choice, and I'm not happy at many of the environmental restrictions that have been rolled back, and the fiscal mismanagement is reason to be angry. But are we better off with him at the helm, are we a safer nation because of his actions in Iraq and the war on Terror. You bet your ass we are. The next time you want to shout AWOL - remember that merely 12 years ago we were screaming at Republicans for attacking our candidate for avoiding the draft. The next time you want to scream about the War in Iraq being an act of unilateralism, remember how we backed our Democratic President for going to NATO, not the UN, to oust Milosevic in the Bosnia.Posted by jk at February 12, 2004 04:26 PMAnd I'd also like to thank the deluge of hate mail I've received in my inbox today. I'm sure that when my parents immigrated to the US from India a mere 30 years ago, they must have had dreams one day that I would be called a racist.
Hating Bush
You are correct to say that an element of hatred towards President Bush has manifested. Sadly it is not just Democrats.
Most people around the world now hate, not only Mr. Bush, but the entire American system.
Soccer players in Mexico are cheering for Osama.
Canadians hope no longer care what Americans do anymore. Sometimes friends just drift apart.
And those are the Allies most. Allies you need to help secure the Borders.
As terrorists make plans from neutral countries, how motivated are the locals going to be if it is aimed at America.
Some Americans say, who needs the rest of the world, we have a great country to visit right here. But the truth is that we now have a global economic system. You Yanks should not hide behind the Patriot Act and the Continent is a fortress. We must work together and that is one thing that Mr. Bush has failed to encourage.
Furthermore, he has made matters worse.
After 9/11, he had the whole planet as an alley, but he squandered it by trying to be John freaking Wayne.
The worst part is, most Americans, consciously or unconsciously, hope, pray or think he is John Freaking Wayne.
Truth is, he is an operator.
He has never done a selfless act in his life.
He is proud of his military service but can’t remember any details.
He talks like a cowboy and evades the fact that he was a pampered, spoiled silver spoon college cheerleader.
He has spent a lifetime as an oil man.
A snake-oil salesman.
Always has been, always will be.
He plays a shell game.
He is good at it.
He gets tax Payers to pay for Ball Parks while telling them that Governments should send Tax money back to the people.
He borrows, spends to excess and once those trillions hit the economy, he declares his economic theories as genius.
Sadly, the Gun lovers, Gas Guzzlers, and Gods own chosen hippocits buy into it on blind faith.
Please elect him President (again?).
We love the material he gives the world, proving that Americans are not perfect either.
Posted by: Bob Tudor at February 12, 2004 04:58 PMThanks for your comment. I don't agree with much that you say, but I enjoy dialogue and debate.
I will agree that much of the world is alienated from President Bush and the US (You are Canadian?). I travel to England and Ireland and have been surprised by the opposition to Bush and the war that I have encountered.
That saddens me but I believe that sometimes you have to do what you believe is right, and your friends may or may not go along. If it really is the right thing and your friends disagree, maybe they are not your friends.
If that's John Wayne-ism, so be it. I think that we did the right thing. I respect those who disagree but I am quite comfortable that the liberation of Iraq was good for the world and certainly good for the security of the United States.
Posted by: jk at February 13, 2004 09:16 AMThank you Mr. Tudor, for adding an international element to our little blog. We're happy to have principled discussions with others, presuming they are rational people. I surmise that you are from the land of the Guardian and the BBC. (I make those references with a purpose.)
No there are no Democrats outside America, but the principle that has guided them since the Vietnam war and still has a stranglehold on public thought in Europe causes hatred toward anyone who dares to achieve something by himself, for himself. That principle is multi-(fill in the blank)-ism. They mire themselves and their view of the world in never-ending shades of gray. Those of us who call it by its real name use terms like anti-reason, anti-individual, anti-liberty.
You claim the one thing that W has failed to encourage is working together. I conclude that you are either blind or hopelessly vain to believe that "working together" must entail US doing things YOUR way, and contending that your refusal to support (politically) our defense of ourselves and our allies in the way we choose is not unilateralism on your part.
Nobody in America says "who needs the rest of the world." (Well, maybe the fringes of the Libertarian Party but nobody listens to them.) Instead we say, "A job needs to be done... who will help us do it?" We don't need the rest of the world to help us do the job, nor do we need the rest of the world to give us permission to do what is, in the concrete terms of individual liberty, right.
George W. Bush may not be John Wayne, but they both embody many of America's greatest values. You may consider it an insult, be we're proud to be Cowboys.
Posted by: johngalt at February 13, 2004 10:31 AMWithout trying to put words in Bob Tudor's mouth, or even feeling it is all that relevant from where he hails, here is my take on his comments:
Fighting terrorism is a global challenge, especially if we hope to root them out before they act rather than just capture them after the fact. This challenge will require all the friends and allies we can get. Friends and allies in turn require a bit of diplomacy because you have to be realistic that independent nations are always a bit selfish, especially when it comes to commiting their men and wealth to a cause. Here is where our current administration gets it wrong, liberalism, socialism, and diplomacy are not the secondary axis of evil. I know they hate talk of gray areas and that in their view it is high time for some black and white. But are we really so quick to forget that Saddam and Iraq were the good guys 20 years ago when we were after the evil Iranians? And how about our "friends" the Saudis with their much more direct and damning ties to terrorists? Our friends and allies did back us when we went after the Taliban and Al Quaeda, but they disagreed with our assesment that invading Iraq was essential to our national security and by implication, theirs too.
Imagine if you will that on 9/11/01 the terrorists crashed their aircraft into the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, killing American tourists as well as French citizens. The French then drove the Taliban from power and commenced a world wide hunt for Al Quaeda. But this was not enough for the outraged French, they demanded an invasion of Saudi Arabia whoose citizens piloted the aircraft and financied the operation of the terrorist cells. With our ties to the Saudi's what would our position have been?
Sadly there is also a balance of power issue at work in the world today that we will have to recognize and come to grips with. With the fall of the Soviet Union the US is the sole remaining super power. This leaves the world with an unbalanced power, and many nations, including our European allies are a bit afraid of this power. As much as this power gives us the ability to thumb our nose at them, it might behoove us to wield the power a bit more gently lest we end up alone. For as great is our power, we could end up discovering as many empires before us in history have that it is no match for a world united against us.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at February 16, 2004 03:03 PMSilence, there are so many problems with your hypothetical scenario that I can't succinctly respond to it. The point is that terrorists DIDN'T crash airplanes into French targets, they crashed into American, secular capitalist ones. They didn't do this because we are "cowboys" who go around invading other countries and telling them what to do. They did it because we are prosperous despite our flagrant disregard for their theological totalitarian beliefs. And it's also important to recognize that in the era prior to 9/11 we acted not like cowboys but like Frenchmen.
Americans and our principles of individual liberty are victims of terrorism, not its cause.
I have no fear of a "world united against us." The closest that George W. Bush has ever gotten to the heart of this, the greatest issue of our lifetimes, was when he said that liberty and freedom are the power that can free all the people of the world. Those who get a taste of it become... cowboys.
Posted by: johngalt at February 19, 2004 02:33 PM"Liberty and freedom are the power that can free all the people of the world" Hmm, freedom is the power that makes people free, guess you can't argue with that, just as "darkness is the power that makes it dark". Heady philosopher that George W.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at February 23, 2004 11:48 AMOops. Poor paraphrasing on my part. I was referring to statements he made in high-profile speeches, like:
2003 State of the Union Address: "Americans are a free people, who know that freedom is the right of every person and the future of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's [NED's] gift to humanity." (Applause.)
2004 State of the Union Address: "We also hear doubts that democracy is a realistic goal for the greater Middle East, where freedom is rare. Yet it is mistaken, and condescending, to assume that whole cultures and great religions are incompatible with liberty and self-government. I believe that God [NED] has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again." (Applause.)
In other words, liberty and freedom are the power that can inspire all the people of the world to stand up against tyranny. Better?
Posted by: johngalt at February 23, 2004 05:19 PM