Advocate wrote:Conservative humor, a definite oxymoron!
I don't believe in mindless optimism. I see a real shift in the country's fortune, especially with the Republicans in control. Look, Bush has done nothing about the energy, health insurance, global-warming, governmental-ethics, and foreign-affairs crises, not to mention the things mentioned earlier.
Hopefully, there will soon be new leadership that will address these issues. But I am not mindlessly optimistic. As Mencken said, no one ever lost money overestimating the intelligence of the American public.
I've accepted that you hate George Bush. You've made that abundantly clear. I do not accept that he 'has done nothing' about any of these things. There is a limit to how many things can go on a President's plate on any given day, and there is a definite limit to how much power a President has in implementing anything. Consider Bill Clinton's first two years in office with a Democrat controlled Congress. What did he accomplish those first two years? Zilch.
What got accomplished after those first two years? Quite a bit with a GOP controlled Congress under the leadership of the hated Trent Lott and the hated Newt Gingrich. You can despise these two gentlemen all you want but they got things done and some very good things were done. President Clinton, to his credit, signed off on most of it.
I have also been disappointed in the current President's approach or non approach to some things; have been proud of him in others. I have been disappointed in the current Congress's performance on several fronts; proud of them in a few.
But since Pearl Harbor, no U.S. Congress has chosen to deal with deliberate attacks on the USA and its people until 9/11 that changed everything. The response to 9/11 had overwhelming support from the American people in the beginning. But the people tend to have short memories and are often fickle when it comes to sustained conviction in the face of anything that is truly difficult to do or that includes disappointments and setbacks. Americans didn't used to be that way but they have become fat, lazy, apathetic, and unrealistic after decades of relative peace and prosperity.
But the underlying strength and appreciation of who and what we are is still there. Mindless optimism? Never. But reasoned optimism and belief in a people who will always rise to the occasion when the chips are down is the only way to go.
Consider that since Bush's tax cuts kicked in, I heard this week that just the INCREASE in the U.S. economy exceeds the whole GDP of China with five times the workers plus several other countries. Government revenues have never been higher. We have never had more people working or benefiting in many other ways. Now we have to find ways to not spend it all plus a lot more. But that's a problem that can be solved. We just have to have the will to solve it.
There is much to be optimistic about. Don't believe the negativity of the Krugmans and his ilk. They're wrong. They've always been wrong. And there is no reason to think they'll be right so long as we Americans continue to believe in ourselves.
