To those who voted for Bush twice and now hate him:

[unpossibles]

You all had no problem electing this man out of hate and spite and ruining the country and other countries because you refused to admit you may have been wrong.

I think it's more bullshit. I have no sympathy for people who took 5+ years to figure out they're being lied to. I can see voting for the man once and then later learning how awful of a leader he is changing your mind, but to turn around and decide he does in fact suck, after it's too late to matter, well, screw you.

Sure, take the safe route and decry a lame duck. It sure takes guts to vow to never vote for a man who can't run again.

Act like you've learned a lesson, when in fact you will turn around and vote for McLame, Flip Romney, or Ghouliani (or worse) with no thought to the fact that you're still being lied to.

Be smug about how you don't support Bush now, even though you called anyone who paid attention for these years liars, traitors, and worse.

Go ahead and talk the talk about how you're a Libertarian now, or you're Independent, and that all politicians need to go, even though you know you won't have the guts to actually vote for your Independent candidates; you'll knuckle under to the GOP and continue to lie down and take it.

Continue to be a coward and vote for people who are ruining everything that makes this country great and who have had a continuing foreign policy to turn the world into their own version of a Corporatist/Fascist State.

You speak of being for Freedom, yet support the idea that not all people deserve equal rights, that wide-spread spying on citizens is okay, and that the very Freedoms you so allegedly love and praise the military in badly written email forwards for securing those Rights are being shredded.

Congratulations on being a tool of the man. Good for you for being an "original thinker" who just happens to repeat the exact propaganda spewed by the likes of Rush, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, Gibson, Dobson, and Snow.

So I am being "intolerant" for refusing to lie down and take it like you do? For loving my country so much that I refuse to willingly give up those Rights that so many fought and died to keep? For not wanting the next generation to live in a cesspool created by short-sighted greed, for thinking that taxes are a reasonable price for living in a great society, and for wanting all of my fellow people to have health care, equal rights, and security from a rampant Military Industrial Machine? For refusing to ignore small minded racist, sexist, and otherwise bigoted crap spewed by people on the TeeVee and somehow lauded as Great Public Opinion?

Well then I suppose I am intolerant then. Fuck you. As much as I honestly hate the "love it or leave it" crap, if you want to live in a theocratic fascist Big Brother state so badly, maybe you should try starting your own country and quit ruining ours, because I am mad as hell and am not going to take it any more. I've tried to ignore you for the past 20+ years, and frankly I am sick of you peeing in the pool and blaming it on everyone else.

[BikeWriter]

1. Good rant!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Amen. The problem I have with these people, as you've said, is that they will STILL vote Republican.

They won't see that it's not just Bush, the disease infects their whole party.

If they just said they won't vote Republican anymore I might take a little more notice.

But they're just looking for their next Fred Thompson/Reagan/Governator. No insight whatsoever into the nature of their (and the nation's) problem.

[11 Bravo]

3. Damned well said!

:toast:

[EstimatedProphet]

4. K& A BIG R!

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

5. Sums my feelings up perfectly.

:applause: :applause:

Kicked and another big R. :woohoo:

[loyalkydem]

8. What's so sad is

I was warning my friends ever since this man got elected that something bad was going to happen to us. It's funny, we can impeach a guy for getting some on the side but we can't impeach this buffoon.

[Dammit Ann]

6. Amen.

K&R!

[Jackpine Radical]

7. The little guy sitting on my left shoulder & whispering into that ear

agrees with you. The one on the other shoulder says this might be a teachable moment, that when a crack appears in the denial-armor, it's time to stick a wedge in, not a sword. Our best chance to crack the ice is during the winter of their discontent. We need to lure them out to the light and warmth of liberalism, not drive them back into their cold and lightless caves.

[unpossibles]

10. I agree. I suppose that rant was mostly for some people I know

who are beyond help it seems, who deny everything I say and still blame Clinton for everything.

I do agree there are folks out there who legitimately experience an Epiphany of sorts and want to change, but we also can't force change on anyone. The sorts who are brainwashed by Drudge & Fox will seldom listen to us because they've been conditioned to distrust everything we say. I wish it were otherwise, but it's true.

This rant was brought on by friends and family who - like the caller on Glenn Beck's show who expressed disgust at Bush for his immigration bill - have not really had a change of heart, just a change of candidate.

[blm]

9. Casual news watchers make up most of the country - they don't know the newsmedia lied

them through the last few elections and did so DELIBEARTELY.

It took UNSPINNABLE events like the 2004 debates, Schiavo, Katrina and the worsening civil war in Iraq to even BEGIN to open their eyes.

[WI_DEM]

11. I could excuse folks who were deceived in 2000 but not in 2004

we already knew enough about him then that to vote for him and now regret it is just a joke!

[Bjorn Against]

31. I could even excuse those who voted for him in 2004

If a person comes around and realizes that they were wrong we should try to win them over not chase them away and rub their face in it. Remember there was a huge amount of propaganda before the 2004 election and maybe I didn't buy it, maybe you didn't buy it but a lot of well meaning people did buy it. They were wrong, and if they realize that now and will change their voting habits in the future we should not hold their past votes against them. We need converts on our side.

As far as the ones who turned against Bush as an individual the moment his popularity dropped, yet continue to support the very Republican Party that endorsed every single one of Bush's actions, well I have no time for them. If a person supports the Republican Party then they support Bush. Period.

[GOTV]

12. .. I ask "What are you willing to do to compensate the nation for the damage you caused?" n/t

[underpants]

13. BRAVO!

recommended.

The tax issue is a hoot- they get next to no tax cut but they keep voting for tax cuts for the already extremely wealthy.

ON EDIT
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=915405&mesg_id=915405

[unpossibles]

23. that's the exact thread which inspired me.

thanks!

[Philosoraptor]

14. Pree Cisely!

[lazyriver]

15. This is a great rant.

I could have used some of this thunder in a discussion I had on Sunday with an old acquaintance about our hopes for the next POTUS. He is exactly the person to whom you wrote this. His exact quote to me: "Bush betrayed the real conservatives and he fucked up Iraq. There's only one guy who can fix this whole mess. I'm ready for change and McCain sounds ready to bring it".

I stood there speechless for a second (rare for me but I couldn't process that much ignorance at one time), then wished him "good luck with that" and walked away.

[Jim Warren]

16. Good stuff

Keep it coming. It so sums up how I have felt with people I know, and some are relatives, who have discretely been removing the W04 stickers from their bulgemobiles.
Almost without exception, they approached the 04 election with similar seriousness they would an NFL playoff game, and now waken to their folly.

That said, I think Jackpine makes a very good point above if we are to come together and put this country back on track and not devolve into a civil war ourselves.

[Firepit 462]

17. What a fantasically ignorant way push as many people away as possible,

So is DU simply a place for closed circle chats? What is your point in joining a site dedicated to furthering progressive goals, and declaring that anybody who wasn't with you before can go "fuck themselves"?

The Democratically controlled Congress and Senate are currently accomplishing squat, except providing cover for the bush administration corrupt agenda, via bullshit, half assed, inconclusive farts in the wind.

Some of us really haven't done that bad under this administration personally, but have come to the realization that the end does not justify the means. Thanks for the "Fuck You Welcome".

I'm still waiting to see some results from the "change" I did vote for this past election. Rove-squat, election fraud-squat, Plame-squat, stop the war-squat. I find your "screw you" declaration as insulting, and impotent as the bullshit promises the Democrats convinced me were true.

Regardless of what your response to me is, (nothing , banning etc) I'm not hurting, my home value is up, my business is steadily growing and even though I think gas at 3.40 a gallon is criminal, I can still afford to pay it. Your little self rightous spew got a lot of pats on the back, hope it helps you because it sure as hell won't advance the agenda you think you are helping. So far I see no difference in the Democrats of now and the Republicans of last year, so you tell me who is getting "fucked". I think you might be to young to understand exactly what I meant here.

[BlooInBloo]

20. Um, they're *already* away, tiger.

[unpossibles]

24. in other words, you expect results after 4 months

but are willing to let 6 years slide?

I agree things need to happen, and they are starting off rather well quite frankly. Sure, we have possible Obstruction of justice from Gonzales, Cheney, and Rice and some other things coming down the line, but I'm confident that something good will happen, even if it's not as good as I would like.

Mr. Hominem - if that is your name (;)) - I am old enough to know exactly what I am talking about. You can thank your President's father for interesting me in politics in the first place when he decided it was a good idea to trade arms to Iran and the Contras, and drugs to America. Read my lips, indeed.

The corruption of this government is sadly pretty deep right now, and while I will say both sides have their problems, right now what I am seeing is a rather large group of unscrupulous people on the Right side of the aisle who are profiteering off the backs of the vast majority of Americans, with a good number of them apparently glad to bend over for them.

Frankly I don't care that you expect 4 months of progress to erase 6 years of bad Statesmanship, and are whining about how the Dems are soft because they've done nothing. In case you had not noticed, they don't have a vast majority in the Senate and have met little more than smear attacks from the press and quite a bit of stonewalling partisanship from the Right since they got in. But don't worry - I'm sure that people will continue to wake up and we'll get rid of some more rotten deadwood for the next several elections.

As for being angry at my "welcome" perhaps if more people had started holding their own party's politicians accountable, stopped bashing the people who were trying to show you what was going on, and stopped bashing people like myself who honestly would like to see a more civil discourse all around, I would not be so "angry" - which coincidentally is a nice use of talking points.

You might say I am a hypocrite next, and perhaps that I am being disingenuous, but I really would prefer people to be able to get along, and I really do enjoy the fact that America is made up of all kinds of people with all kinds of ideas, but don't get upset that the people who have been pushed into a corner for the past few years are not taking it anymore.

I'm glad you're doing well. Frankly I am doing all right myself, but I would rather be able to say that about the whole country. Call me crazy, but I actually care about that and am not sorry.

Have a good day. Welcome to DU. :hi:

[Richard Steele]

26. Very well put. nm

[NewYorkerfromMass]

32. High fives mr unpossibles

not only was this great, but I am heartliy laughing. These twice Bush voters really rub me the wrong way, and lead me to wonder how they could possibly think Kerry was in any way a risk not worth changing for.

[Kingofalldems]

33. Oh please Mr. repub, please don't be mean

:rofl:

[gatorboy]

34. "Progressive goals"?

Coming from you that's fucking hilarious.

But I love hilarious so keep'em coming! :hi:

[StarryNite]

18. Well said.

There is a strip mall where I go to do my grocery shopping. Almost every time I'm there I see a pickup truck with a W sticker in the back window. The truck is parked in the very same spot every time. The person must work in one of the shops. I had to laugh this week because now instead of a truck sitting there, there was an old Honda dirt bike. I can only wonder if it belongs to the same idiot and if that said idiot is happy he voted for bush and now has to take measures to cut back on his gas consumption. I would be tempted to stick a W sticker on that dirt bike if I knew for sure.

[BlooInBloo]

19. "Fuck you" was really all you needed to say.

[StarryNite]

21. Works for me.

[StefanX]

22. Amen

nt

[Pharaoh]

25. Most excellent rant!

K&R

[Geek_Girl]

27. I have no faith in most Americans

I suspect if he ran for re-election, most would probably vote for him again once the media spin machine got going.

And if you look at most polls for '08, looks like those same idiots will vote for the next GOP asshat. Lets face it these people are just dumb.

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. Right on!

:applause:

[Bjorn Against]

29. But let us praise the ones who truly have changed...

I see where you are coming from as I have no time for the people who dump Bush right when he becomes unpopular but still continue to prop up the Republicans who marched lockstep with Bush.

There are a number of Bush voters however who are waking up and realizing they were lied to. Many of them voted Democratic in 2006. We have all been misled at one time or another and we should not hold anyone's past voting record against them if they have truly seen the light and are ready to embrace real change.

[MindPilot]

37. I don't buy it, and I don't trust those who say they were "fooled".

Especially a second time.

I ain't no intellectual, no policy wonk, no insider. Dumb as I am, I knew I was being lied to. I also knew it was very likely my vote was not being counted.

[rucky]

30. To those who voted for * twice & now hate him...

Put your money where your mouth is. Take a stand and call for impeachment and expedient withdrawl from Iraq! Write your Congresscritter and tell 'em your story. They've been brushing-off those of us who never voted Bush, maybe your word will carry more weight.

[MindPilot]

35. Great rant to which I would add a hearty "I TOLD YOU SO!"

Mindpilot to Bush voter: I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN, BUT YOU DIDN'T LISTEN DID YOU, YOU STUPID FUCKING FUCK!?

I want to be able to walk up to any Bush-voter and make them do push-ups. Actually I want to be able to bust their empty heads open with a baseball bat, but push-ups is probably the more progressive method.

[ComerPerro]

36. problem is, they won't learn their lesson. Its why I think the asshole actor will do so well