You know Bush is bad when people wax philosophic about the Reagan era...

[Wetzelbill]

One of my best friends is a Republican, not really he just doesn't know anything so he calls himself one, but lately he's been apologizing to me a lot about supporting Republicans and about how bad Bush is etc. We've had some serious wars over e-mail and on the phone about politics in the last two and a half years, in which I regularly give him a serious beating. (I mean, I have been a columnist and eat, drink, sleep and breathe politics, so it isn't really a fair fight) He's a typical guy who watches Fox and eats propaganda like candy, pretty good person and all, but he just doesn't know much and what he does know is absolutely wrong. He repeats all the usual dumb rhetoric etc, which is sad because he's a pretty smart guy otherwise. I think, personally, he's like that from being raised by a father who was in the military, being in the military himself and working in law enforcement for the last 7 or 8 years. He's indoctrined to think a certain way. Anyway, besides apologizing to me a lot, lately he's been falling back onto one of his favorite political subjects, the "greatness" of John McCain. He loves McCain, almost as if the guy gave birth to him or something. Personally, I think McCain is ok, a bit of a shitheel, a major opportunist, totally shameless, but at least he's not as crazy as the rest of the Republican party. However, my friend thinks he walks on water. So in an e-mail I mentioned something about McCain and Bush having a difference of opinion when it came to torture and that I respect that some Republicans like McCain, Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and the like are decent people who you can at least work with and aren't completely looney like DeLay and his ilk. So this set my friend off.

He was totally beside himself that we agreed on something. He said that he likes all the more moderate Republicans too and that Democrats like Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer were really great as well. (we're both originally from MT, but now live in AZ) Plus, I know he likes Kerry and some of the other well known Dems. Then he went off the deep end on me. He started bragging about Ronald Reagan and how that McCain and the other moderates I mentioned, were Reagan Republicans and stood for doing things for the American people and not like Bush, Cheney, DeLay etc. I was floored. See we are both 30, so we are old enough to remember the Reagan era but not old enough to have really been all that well versed in politics at the time. But, I remember the Reagan years as very tough for my family. In fact, my dad and my friend's dad used to work together and lost government jobs that Reagan cut when he got into office. When you live on an Indian Reservation that trickle down shit doesn't exactly work to well for you, if you all get what I mean. But, my friend was downright delusional about how great Reagan was and how much different Bush and Co. are. I had to let him down gently though.

Bush is Reagan's ideological heir. Reagan started most of the shit that Bush is pushing that is ruining our country right now. The handful of moderate Republicans are nothing like Reagan, in all honesty. But, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all of the Bush Jr. hacks all were Reagan stalwarts. All of our economic and foreign policy problems are messes that Reagan created, some of them Clinton and - to an extent Bush Sr - were able to clean up or hold in check. Now that The Chimp has been around for 5 years though all of that old-school Reagan bullshit has been put into hyperdrive and we're seeing just how ugly and uncompassionate it all is. Reagan began all of this anti-government, elitist economic garbage and made talking tough and screwing up foreign policy an art form. So, if all of these people who are having second thoughts about Bush want to hearken back to the greatness of the Reagan era they might want to think again. Because, as I told my friend, Bush and Reagan aren't much different, if they are at all.

[whatever4]

1. and even Nixon, who "wasn't so bad" compared to Bush nm

[Wetzelbill]

2. oh yeah, I've heard that one too

Nixon looks pretty damn good compared to Bush, but that doesn't mean that he was. I like how Schwarzenegger got a huge ovation at the Republican Convention when he said he got into Republican politics because of Richard Nixon. Umm, so wanting to be like Nixon, that's supposed to be a good thing?

[reality based]

3. Nixon, Reagan, Bush

What a lineup! Germany feels it has to outlaw the Nazi Party to protect its Democracy.

[Wetzelbill]

4. haha, yeah and we feel like we need to embrace it.

:)

[400Years]

5. how did your friend respond to the reality check?

[Wetzelbill]

6. never got back to me on it yet....

I think he gets tired of me dissecting everything and using his own words against him, so usually he just ends up telling me I'm right when he gives me a call or something, lol. He gets back to his old ways pretty fast though. He'll admit that I'm right sometimes, then come back a few weeks later with some goofy story about something he heard from Sean Hannity. It's a never ending cycle. :)

One thing I am seriously trying to work with him on is convincing him not to vote Republican, because it hurts minorities, and we are both American Indian. He's very sensitive about helping our people and being an Indian, so I try to tell him that his voting record does more harm than any good that he tries to do in his regular life. He totally supports some of the biggest rats around like AZ Rep. JD Hayworth and MT Rep. Denny Rehberg, and if I can let him know how harmful those guys are I think I can turn him. It's a long process though, you can't just turn around decades of indoctrination in a few years unless the person really wants to learn, you know? I did tell him that being an Indian and voting Republican is sort of like being a chicken and voting for Colonel Sanders. So, we'll see what he says about that line, lol. :)

[400Years]

7. What do you guys both think about COINTELPRO and the FBI's

efforts to destroy AIM?

Just curious since you are both, as you said, American Indian.

[Wetzelbill]

8. well, as you may have figured out .....

I am not a big fan of COINTELPRO and I believe, gosh I can't even remember, that I am a member of AIM. Signed up on their website a few years ago. I should pay more attention to that. :)

I would bet my friend doesn't even know what COINTELPRO is.