Obviously the majority is satisfied with the leadership of the President, yet dissatisfied with its results! Not since Hoover, has a president shown more incompetence in managing the nation’s well-being, but unlike the election results of 1932, the people were bedazzled by the muscle flexing in war and the hysteria of cultural values.
Subliminally disappointed in the President’s pre-9/11 lackadaisical disposition on terrorism, the electorate ascribes most of the blame to Clinton, whose administration had eight years to confront terrorism, conveniently forgetting that any efforts Clinton did make were seen as the tail wagging the dog.
Happy with tax cuts as a stimulant to the economy — even though for most the cuts didn’t cover the rise in fuel bills — the majority reasoned that the sluggishness was reasonably attributed to the war on terrorism. The majority failed to note that the economy was holding its own precisely because of the war effort’s creation of employment in security and defense industries while the so-called private -sector entrpreneurial hot-shots went cold, owing to huge deficits.
The President’s incursion into Afghanistan was heroic but wimpish in conjuring up “shock and awe” on behalf of enduring freedom. On the other hand, the majority was thrilled over the “shock and awe” against one leg of the “axis of evil” harboring weapons of mass destruction and, when that proved wrong, was content with the rationalization that regime change was worth the sacrifice of our youth, and the cost of untold thousands of Iraqi lives, along with untold $ billions of decimated infrastructure for which the US taxpayer will be billed.
The great Christian value of forgiveness went down the tubes in the avenging reaction to the Gay movement’s stupidity of making an issue of “marriage” in an election year by manipulating a sympathetic supreme court of just not any liberal state, but the very state in which the presidential candidate resides and represents! State’s rights reared up proudly in several Red states voting for minimum wage and pre-K education while the candidate who promised to something about them nationally was rejected because of more relevant moral issues, such as stem-cell research and right to life.
The troops and electorate whitewashed the cry for body armor and armored humvees until the election was over. Also the troops in Iraq waved the flag for the President over the “backdoor draft” rather than protest it as they do now. The “second” incursion of Fallujah was delayed till after the election, lest casualty reports dampened some voters — so much for a decisive commander in chief .
Approval into law of the 9/11 commission report meandered until the Speaker could confirm a “majority of the majority” — God forbid it should pass with the overwhelming support of the Democrats! The darlings of the Bush campaign — Keric and the mayor of the nation — brilliantly played off the 9/11 twin tower tragedy but in the end showed their true color of petty, grasping politicians. Bremer and Tenet were bestowed Presidential medals for their failures. Rumsfeld refuted his stance on the greatest fighting forces ever by reprimanding them for not understanding that you go to war with what you have, not with what you want.
Who doesn’t like the indecipherable intrigue of paradoxes?
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: December 16, 2004.
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