When I was a kid in the 70s and early 80s, all I knew about Democrats and Republicans is that my whole family was always Democrat, and the Republicans were, somehow, NOT GOOD. Mom never pushed us on this. Dad, well dad is an issue for another day.
But on the whole, there was very little indoctrination going on in my house. All I knew is FDR had helped saved the country from poverty and the world from the Nazis and Kennedy was remembered with teary eyes and regret for what could have been.
And Ford did something bad by letting some guy not go to jail. And Carter smiled and was nice. And Reagan got elected and somehow, took something away from all of us. I didn't know what. But seeing the transition of power, Carter leaving, Reagan entering the White House – well, somehow this was bad.
So, aside from occasionally paying attention to something during the Reagan years: revived nuclear threats, talk of the Evil Empire (dude, there's only ONE Evil Empire), KAL007, musical Soviet Premiers, and Miami Vice, I just assumed we'd get around to US winning the next time.
Well.
Mondale. Eh. Dukakis. Um, er, yeah: eh.
I'm sorry, that's how I felt back then. It wasn't in my bones.
Gulp….. I even voted for H.W. Bush in '88 – my first year I could vote for President. Well, actually I didn’t really. (My frieeends, he said "I voted for him before I didn't vote for him"!!!) See I was in college in Ohio, and filled in the NY absentee ballot for Bush and… never sent it in. I probably knew something.
Fast-forward, 1992, in grad-school. In Boston. Um, not so liberal as people outside of here seem to think. But anyways, here comes Clinton on the scene and POW-ZAM he offers me something so different from anyone before in my lifetime. No, not the jazz, the slickness, the charm… The ideas and the ideals. Aim high. We can do it. WE CAN DO BETTER.
No one ever did that for me, for my generation, before. Through everything, my vote for him was 100% assured – NEVER in jeopardy.
Meanwhile. 1994 – the Republican Takeover of Congress. Now why did that bother me so much? It wasn't just cuz it was the "other side" winning. It was because they said "We're Winning!" It was a game to many of them. It was dodgeball or something. For some reason they wanted to rub the "losing side's" face in the shit.
Why?
Weren't they supposed to be trying to make the country better, even if their views were different? In the end, aren't we all trying to make things work out?
Well, apparently, no.
All I sensed was cockiness in the air, of a team with a temporary advantage talking trash to the other team. But they never stopped talking trash. Ever. And they dragged every group with some chip on their shoulder into their midst to muddy the waters and keep trash-talking and confusing and lying JUST SO THEY COULD WIN. Who gave a shit about our country being safe, or financially secure and even prosperous, THEY JUST WANTED TO WIN. And if by invoking the evil sides of human nature, they could keep winning, then by God that was what they would do.
I won't make the obvious comparisons again.
You know I started this post to sort of give an overview of the earthshaking dramatic shifts that have occurred under the names "Democrat" and "Republican." To show that the Names, and what they once stood for, are meaningless – it is the Ideas and Ideals that those names represent NOW that matter.
But I digressed, so I'll do that thing another time.
Lemme finish.
THEIR SIDE decided they are against all things beneficial from the government, no matter how disciplined or reformed they can be made, because that is what OUR side if FOR. So for THEM to win, they must destroy those things. But they know how hard it will be to just slash everything but the Armed Forces away. Not enough support.
How to do it?
Bring us to the brink of bankruptcy. Drain the country of all its disposable income. Reduce our tax supply over and over again, but then spend and spend like we never did before. Start wars, anger the world, lose financial support, take out massive loans, and then cut taxes some more. Heath? Can't afford it. Highways? Just some wasteful entitlement program? Bleed
my beloved country until we're on our hands and knees begging to not be utterly destroyed – until there's just enough left that we can still save ourselves if we make one fateful choice:
"Pay for our armies or pay for your precious social programs. Choose one."
THIS is the plan. THIS is the way that "Their Side" is going for Victory.
I honestly don’t think that George H.W. Bush, or even Reagan, intended any of this. I really don't. I may be deluded, but I feel they was part of the Old Guard of the republican party. Their campaign advisers were of the New Slimy Guard, but not those two - not so much.
But Newt, Rove, Cheney, etc., and maybe, just maybe, George W. Bush – DID want it to be this way. To have our country slide into the dark abyss. To make Adams and Adams, Jefferson and Johnson, Franklin and Washington, fall to their knees and weep for ages.
Why should this be?
This is why I take very strongly the new vision shown by one I considered to be the most unlikely inspiration. I finally listened to many speeches and casual conversations by John Kerry, most importantly his convention speech.
He offers hope and strength and a BETTER WAY.
And I am convinced.
I am not AGAINST Bush. I am adamantly FOR Kerry.
