Democracy
Where the hell were you people in 2004? It would have been fine if Americans did not care about what happened in Iraq, or were willing to give up anything for the war on terrorism, but the current polls just make them look like dumb assholes. Bush has not changed his policies in the slightest since he was reelected. I find myself trusting the American public less and less as its opinions near mine.
posted by Austin 5-000 at 6:01 PM
3 Comments:
You've played enough Civ to realize that people in democracies, while perhaps expieriencing a degree of patriotism on entering a war, quickly get war-weary, and disapproval grows persistently.
In any case, why is it so wrong for people to change their minds?
Sheriff-
Thank you for your comment--I always enjoy hearing from intelligent readers. As to your question, I think you will agree with me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with people changing their minds. People should seek to improve their interpretation of the political situation so that they can make more moral and intelligent choices.
One could have thought after the last election that Americans reelected Bush based on their ideological preferences, such as their desire for pro-abortion Supreme Court justices. But Bush is doing well in this regard and getting what he wants. This political measure of success is fairly consistent: Bush’s preferred policies have been adopted across the board. The problem is that these policies are not succeeding, and Bush is not changing them.
That this would happen was clear, at least to me, during the 2004 election. I think most members of the Washav community felt the same way. My complaint about democracy is thus that voters did not change their minds fast enough. I think that if they had more adeptly evaluated the political situation at the time, they would have gotten something closer to what they actually wanted. They did not, and now we are all paying for it.
One last thing: a second question you could ask about my post is why I wrote it at all. Simply complaining about a situation is annoying. But I am a burgeoning student of politics, as are many here, and Bush’s tenure has set the scene for my political education. While I believe democracy is the best system, I also believe that voters’ lag in learning political lessons is too long. That’s why we need a Washav Huffy Crew and the greater intellectual community: to disseminate the reality to lesser minds. Hooray for us.
Sincerely,
Austin 5000
Austin-5000,
Your well reasoned response is simply an affirmation of your genteel upbringing and accomplished education. I am humbly appreciative that you took the time to respond. I think that you should not be afraid, yet you should not be afraid of complaining a bit. I appreciate your posts and comments always, even when I fail to agree with you (ho ho ho!)
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