NYT, Friedman: "Two Nations Under God" ("we disagree on what America is")

[DeepModem Mom]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Two Nations Under God
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: November 4, 2004

Well, as Grandma used to say, at least I still have my health.

I often begin writing columns by interviewing myself. I did that yesterday, asking myself this: Why didn't I feel totally depressed after George H. W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis, or even when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore? Why did I wake up feeling deeply troubled yesterday?

Answer: whatever differences I felt with the elder Bush were over what was the right policy. There was much he ultimately did that I ended up admiring. And when George W. Bush was elected four years ago on a platform of compassionate conservatism, after running from the middle, I assumed the same would be true with him. (Wrong.) But what troubled me yesterday was my feeling that this election was tipped because of an outpouring of support for George Bush by people who don't just favor different policies than I do - they favor a whole different kind of America. We don't just disagree on what America should be doing; we disagree on what America is.

Is it a country that does not intrude into people's sexual preferences and the marriage unions they want to make? Is it a country that allows a woman to have control over her body? Is it a country where the line between church and state bequeathed to us by our Founding Fathers should be inviolate? Is it a country where religion doesn't trump science? And, most important, is it a country whose president mobilizes its deep moral energies to unite us - instead of dividing us from one another and from the world?.

At one level this election was about nothing. None of the real problems facing the nation were really discussed. But at another level, without warning, it actually became about everything. Partly that happened because so many Supreme Court seats are at stake, and partly because Mr. Bush's base is pushing so hard to legislate social issues and extend the boundaries of religion that it felt as if we were rewriting the Constitution, not electing a president. I felt as if I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional Convention broke out....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/opinion/04friedman.html?hp

[Loki]

1. Mr. Friedman sounds like he has buyer's remorse.

Sorry Mr. F. you were part of that cheering section, echo chamber, for months and nay the last 3 years of this mis-administration. Lost your receipt? You broke it, you just bought it.

[izzie]

2. I read it this morning and it was good.

I think it is our big worry. They are right so they want it in laws you do it their way. Hard to take. I lived under the old birth control laws. I recall Blue laws. Good luck.