A major epiphany by a writer and former Republican

[pnwmom]

http://www.lakeexpo.com/articles/2007/07/07/lake_news/02.txt

When the New Orleans levees gave way, so did my belief in the Republican Party. This was an American city, pulverized by nature - though with plenty of notice, unlike an earthquake - and although the local and state authorities (which were Democrats) reacted with monumental ineptitude, I had confidence that a Republican administration would get the situation under control and lead a swift rebuilding.

That hasn’t happened. Instead, a great American city has been left to pull itself out of the mess while thousands of American citizens haven’t been able get decent housing or assistance from the federal government, which is firmly in the hands of the Republicans. Maybe the Republicans were grossly incompetent or simply indifferent because most of the hardest-hit victims were poor or non-white or both. No matter what, a Republican administration showed itself to be either monumentally inept or cruelly, methodically callous.

Either way, I didn’t want anything more to do with the Republicans. So I declared myself an Independent and have been so since. It was hard for me to walk away from a party that had been my political home since my youth.

Now Bush has commuted the jail sentence of former aide Scooter Libby. . . . Now, George Bush and his cronies are showing America in the worst possible light. They are illuminating the chasm between the weak and the powerful, the rich and the poor, the connected and the disconnected. They are doing all they can to find a death row cell for the American Dream and when crunch time comes, giving none of us hope for a commutation of that sentence.

I guess it’s no surprise. This administration has found comfort in secret courts, domestic spying, defying Congressional subpoenas, smudging the protective line between church and state, developing policies behind closed doors, ignoring corruption and treating compromise with contempt. When it comes to the big things, they have learned all the wrong lessons from the past. When it comes to getting away with things, they have learned how to succeed on a grand scale.

SNIP

[Skittles]

1. he still has blood on his hands

and lots of it, for ever supporting an incompetent piece of shit like bush

[pnwmom]

2. I hope his change of heart is representative of millions of

people across the country.

I'm going to forward this to my mother, a Democrat who will have lots of Republican friends to send this to. It will mean more to them than anything written by a Democrat.

[venable]

16. as an aside - i think the 'blood on the hands' accusation is overused

(edited to add: I don't excuse this guy, or anyone, from their past stupidity or cruelty or indifference or blind, aggressive jingoism - I'm just try to salvage some force in the language, at least as it hits my ears)


yes, many have been complicit to various degrees in this war, but complicity with a genuine intention to do what one thinks is right (however stupid they might have been, or uncritical, or gullible) is not the same as willfully dragging a country into an illegal and tragic war using lies and fear.

Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Perle, Wolfie, Chalabi, and Feith - these are the bloody hands.

Tenet, even Powell, and more than half the country to boot - these are the unwitting, even sheep-like, accomodators, but they did not seek to lie our way into this unholy maelstrom.

I don't want any blame diluted or deflected from the truly bloody, murderous, avaricious ones. Their place in hell is secured.

(for the record, I was vehemently opposed to both the Afghan and Iraq campaigns)

[Skittles]

17. LOL

anyone - ANYONE - who thought giving a lying, thieving, incompetent, warmongering PIECE OF SHIT the authorization TO GO TO WAR was a SWELL IDEA and anyone who SUPPORTED THAT BASTARD has BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS - PERIOD. I hope they all ROT IN HELL.

[Colobo]

18. I voted for Bush in 04 and my hands are quite clean

I believe in rectification and redemption. Most people do as well.

[Skittles]

19. not me

It will forever boggle my mind how anyone could think that bastard was ever a viable candidate to be president of the United States.

[venable]

20. wonderful, intelligenct, astute response.

yeah, we know you think that. I was proposing that you consider something of history, real human process and dynamic, nuance of language, and some suppleness of thought ...but clearly you think bloody screams are the civilization you find lacking in others. I never understand someone speaking savagely and oversimplistically about savage, oversimplifying people.

That's what you think. Me? I'm not interested in speaking with a screaming holier-than-thou absolutist.

I see my efforts were not wisely spent.

ciao.

[pnwmom]

21. You are being way too reasonable here.

That always drives people nuts.

[Mojambo]

3. Some of those comments are fucked up.

Conservatives are mentally ill.

[Skittles]

4. yes

they cannot help getting in their snippy digs, can they? :puke:

[Old and In the Way]

5. "although the local and state authorities (which were Democrats) reacted with monumental ineptitude"

When a Cat. 5 Hurricane hits a city and state like Katrina, it doesn't matter which party happens to be in office. It can't be expected to work. That's where the Federal Government has to step in and provide the emergency management resources. Republicans fail miserably because their primary reason for existance is to do private service, not public service.

[alfredo]

6. They couldn't do much, their Nat Guard was in Iraq.

[pnwmom]

10. You're right. This situation is exactly why FEMA is necessary.

[anitar1]

7. Horse Puck--n/t

[hatrack]

8. Same assclown as on Editorials - slow, SLOW fucking learner here.

Oh, but when it's YOUR city, that's a big fucking deal, huh?

Fallujah, Baghdad, Al Basra, whatever.

:eyes:

[rufus dog]

9. This is callous

But New Orleans is the biggest wedge issue for 2008. I believe this was the start of the Bush/Republican downfall. Fear worked great for Bush but everyone could relate to a natural disaster, an earthquake, fire, tornado, flood, could happen to everyone and it makes people afraid of the gov't reaction. Sure they tried to blame the Govenor and Mayor, but the average Joe/Jane didn't fall for it. They saw how a city was written off because they didn't vote for Republicans and that hit a lot of people at the core. My initial reaction was this is how the USSR treated the Chernobyl meltdown, what heartless bastards. (The USSR and Bush admin. both)

Whoever is the Dem. nominee should use fear of abandonment against the Repubs.

[pnwmom]

11. I think the Dems should pass some more bills regarding

New Orlean's reconstruction -- and watch Bush veto them.

[sellitman]

12. *DING*DING We have a winner!

Just Do It!

[tblue37]

13. Best line in the whole piece:

"Mob bosses will admire Bush’s loyalty to a closed-mouth soldier. . . ."

[pnwmom]

14. Yes! I loved that line. n/t

[TalkingDog]

15. So let me get this straight, Sparky.....

Somehow, before Katrina, it was OKAY that "thousands of American citizens haven’t been able get decent housing or assistance from the federal government, which is firmly in the hands of the Republicans"?!

And that the Conservative MANTRA of "a government so small you could drown it when the levees break...OH, EXCUSE ME....in a bathtub...." was alright with you until it showed your good ol' boys there, to be grossly incompetent or monumentally inept?!!!

That the last couple of decades in which the Republican controlled Congress stripped the poor and disenfranchised (of whatever color) of their ability to maintain the most meager standard of living and in which every shred of public assistance was pared down until it became essentially meaningless was somehow ACCEPTABLE until it became overwhelmingly clear that the people who represented YOU were not only inept, but "simply indifferent" or "cruelly, methodically callous" to the suffering of those least in control of their fate, the least able to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" and somehow embarrassed you?!!!!


WELL CRY ME A BIG OL' FUCKING RIVER, SPARKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You and your ilk make me want to puke. And, trust me, I don't mean that in a manly, machismo, look-at-me-power-hurl, sort of way. I mean you and the bottom dwelling, self-interested, egotistic scum pool you share kinship with are utterly repugnant. If I stepped on you, I wouldn't even bother to scrape you off. I'd simply pull off my shoes and throw them in the nearest garbage can.

When you get past your "embarrassment" over the idiots you used to call your friends, take a clue....The reason we hate you, the reason there is a special circle of Hell waiting for you, is that you still don't care about the poor and disenfranchised. You only care that your buds got caught out on it and made you look like the heartless bastard you are.

When you start actually caring about "those" people, you will understand that the reason the Government is better equipped to put programs into place and give them real assistance is that 1) tax dollars can go farther when they are pooled and used to purchase and manage resources, rather than have 10 thousand separate entities trying to duplicate the same processes. And 2) we are a society, a culture...and what defines us best is how we treat the least among us.

When you "get it" let me know. I'll gladly welcome you into the fold of humanity.





My favorite Future Famous Dead Artist: KarenParker