Idiot Right Winger says...

[Democracy Died]

Why would you want to fight and sacrifice for those things when you don't even have a proper understanding of why the US was created, by whom, and what the consequences of the US being absent from the world scene? Without a solid understanding of history and civics, I don't know how you expect anyone to appreciate those threats and what it could mean if the US falters.


How would you care to comment to that idiot?

[bryant69]

1. Well I'd respond by saying that

it's conservatives who believe in a mythologized version of American history and Liberals who have their heads on straight.

Liberals appreciate America as it is, with it's triumphs and its warts--Conservatives just see it as perfect.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[fob]

2. Little more info needed. What are "those things" that are referred to

in the first sentence? What are "those threats" in the last sentence?

[Book Lover]

3. I would direct him to

this article from that bastion of left-leaning media, the Financial Times: http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/lind-ft.html

How the U.S. Became the World's Dispensable Nation

In a second inaugural address tinged with evangelical zeal, George W. Bush declared: "Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world." The peoples of the world, however, do not seem to be listening. A new world order is indeed emerging - but its architecture is being drafted in Asia and Europe, at meetings to which Americans have not been invited.

<snip>

The US is being sidelined even in the area that Mr Bush identified in last week's address as America's mission: the promotion of democracy and human rights. The EU has devoted far more resources to consolidating democracy in post-communist Europe than has the US. By contrast, under Mr Bush, the US hypocritically uses the promotion of democracy as the rationale for campaigns against states it opposes for strategic reasons. Washington denounces tyranny in Iran but tolerates it in Pakistan. In Iraq, the goal of democratisation was invoked only after the invasion, which was justified earlier by claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was collaborating with al-Qaeda.

Nor is American democracy a shining example to mankind. The present one-party rule in the US has been produced in part by the artificial redrawing of political districts to favour Republicans, reinforcing the domination of money in American politics. America's judges -- many of whom will be appointed by Mr Bush -- increasingly behave as partisan political activists in black robes. America's antiquated winner-take-all electoral system has been abandoned by most other democracies for more inclusive versions of proportional representation.

[skypilot]

4. What???

Is he saying that the young men who graduate from high school and then join the military need to have a degree in history before they can fight in a war? I don't know that I understand what he is saying. Anyone?

[bloom]

5. The poor and middle class

do the fighting and the wealthy reap the benefits.

That's how the country was started and that is how it is today.

[maxudargo]

6. I don't get it either

I mean, I would agree an important part of being a good citizen is having an understanding of history and civics.

I think you need to provide more context.

[skypilot]

8. Seems like kind of a waste.

Learn all this stuff and then go get your ass shot off. Someone else will just have to come along and learn it all over again.

[maxudargo]

11. Well, you're making some assumptions about the context, I think

I'm not sure what he's talking about. If he's talking about American soldiers fighting in foreign lands, then I'm not sure what his point is.

[Mz Pip]

7. The US should not be

absent from the world scene. How it handles its presence on the world scene is the issue. There is nothing wrong with instilling hope and democracy and freedom around the world. It's the method of the current administration that I find fault with. Instilling democracy and freedom by turning a country into kitty litter and shooting at everything that moves seems counterproductive to our cause.

People and nations do learn by example and it's a pretty scary example we are setting. This administration may see the US as freedom loving and democracy minded. Those we invade probably have a different take on it. We sure don't come across as a system woth emulating.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[MasonJar]

9. I understand exactly what is being said. In America we are not

teaching respect for other cultures and for the peoples who came before and brought us great art and literature and architecture and mathematics and etc. Before Bush and Rummy and that crew sent soldiers to Iraq, they were cautioned in detail and numerous times of the importance of the icons of history in the country. Yet these allegedly educated buffoons did nothing to protect the museum, the ruins, etc.; they only cared about the oil ministry and the oil fields. With leaders of such crassness it is no "shock and awe" leap to know that the common soldier will not understand or care. US citizens need a new reality, and the chances are mounting that they are going to get it.

[skypilot]

10. But...

...the original poster says that a "idiot right-winger" said this. If what you say in your post is what he actually meant, why would that be idiotic?

[dave123williams]

12. So, when are you leaving for Iraq?

[jdots]

13. by telling him I wouldn't use him for shade.

he reads his history books and knows about his civics because they cater to his dim little mindless comfort zone.Tell the fool that if he wants to play grown up he should grow up and use his imagination,like trying to make believe he isn't the only person on earth.

[Nadienne]

14. They sell us those myths of the US's creation

and purpose because otherwise they can't convince us to die in their wars. You notice they (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a long list of others) haven't fought or died for the US's noble purpose.

What is meant by "proper" and "solid" understanding of history and civics, anyway? I'll tell you: Proper understanding of solid propaganda that will inspire you to give up your life for some Holy Crusade.

If someone asked you to hop into a wood chipper so they could grind money out of your corpse, you wouldn't do it. If someone asked you to hop into a wood chipper so they could "save the world" with your dead body, why not answer, "You first"?