Those
Who Do Not Remember History
Are
Doomed To Repeat It
As
I watched with a combination of dismay and amusement the grand
opening of the George “Dubya” Bush presidential library this past
week, a number of things occurred to me while I viewed the newsreel.
We are at a point in our history now where the party that’s still
clinging to its former power is refusing to move on. Hey Republicans,
or conservatives or whatever, you lost the election. Get over it. Get
a life already! But instead many are still reveling in one of
military history’s most colossal mistakes, basking in the glory of
the act, while forgetting the bitter irony of the event. I'm talking
about the war in Iraq. Never mind Afghanistan, at least for the
moment. The Republicans want glory. They want credit for being the
heroes, for saving civilization. The irony is, their
narrow-mindedness and their superficial perspective on world events
dooms them to be a curse upon their own land. Nothing is getting
done, because of the Conservatives of this land. And what are
Conservatives fighting to defend? Only one of the worst situations
this country has been in for a long time.
Want
reform of the financial markets? Screw you, we're filibustering. Want
Healthcare Reform? Screw you, forty thousand people a year can die so
the rest can be charged twice as much as the rest of the world for
inferior care. Of course, resisting this is painted as resisting big
government and the evil overspending liberals. Never mind that we're
basically doing most of our healthcare spending in budget neutral
ways, or that the Republican's own conduct speaks poorly to their
skills as fiscal guardians. The Republicans need their dark enemies
to highlight their glorious crusades. The Public Option has to be
this great evil, healthcare reform has to be government taking
decisions from your doctors hands. Never mind the facts.
They
did this all along during the Bush Administration. Everything was
about defending what Bush and his Congress was doing, everything was
about justifying colossal mistakes. Whether turning a soldier's
request for more armor into another chapter in the epic of the evil
liberal media, or blaming Katrina's death toll and the subsequent
humanitarian disaster on the victims themselves, or coming up with a
million different justifications for outing Valerie Wilson, the
Republicans devoted themselves to the task of rationalizing failure
on a massive scale. If I sound angry here, that is only to be
expected. This government-by-rationalization is what I've fought
against for the last several years. I don't want to live in a country
where the government exists in an alternate universe, where the
politicians are so oblivious to reality. And I'm not freaking done,
not by a long shot. Since I don't have plans to leave this country
that I love, I have plans to be part of a movement, whether it's me
by myself, or millions answering the call around my nation, to make
the government that runs this country a part of the reality-based
community. Rather than jump the gun and jump to conclusions as it
suits some ideology, I'm in favor of a government that is constantly
on the move, doing objective good for this country.
I'm
in favor of the Republicans, and more importantly the US
military-industrial complex and its conservative minions, finally
coming to grips with the fact that their policies didn't work. They
can remain conservatives, keep on favoring conservative ideas, but
what gives them the right to let things go to hell to prove
ideological points? They are more out of the majority than they've
been in years in no small part due to their failure to put politics
aside and deal with an emergency with the fortunes of the nation,
rather than the fortunes of their party first and foremost. Failure
is not an option for me. A government that lets things fail to prove
political points is violating its oath of office by failing to uphold
the Constitution of the United States. It is tantamount to an
abdication of the throne. A government that justifies failure by
making political points, is not worthy of governing this country.
For
the last decade, America has been the victim of unwise policies,
policies that presupposed a willingness for restraint from the
financial sector, policies that presupposed that perseverance on a
military strategy and distraction from a critical theater of battle
would somehow lead to success. These are people who looked at
America's economy in the summer of 2008 and said the fundamentals of
our economy were sound. That, right up until the point where the
crashes made the obvious truth unavoidable. I don't want more
government by people who are simply persisting in their policies
until events overtake them and make it impossible for them to
maintain the status quo. I want people who are adapting to our
problems in advance, and allowing the government that flexibility.
The last thing this country needs is another decade or decades worth
of governance from a party that cannot tell the difference between a
defeat and a victory, and resists all efforts to bring its attentions
to these problems.
The
Democrats aren't perfect, like Obama might say, but they are
“perfectable”. There is at least a recognition among the rank and
file that the current situation is not to be tolerated, or continued.
The charge of the Republican light brigade should end, and this
country should be allowed to get back to deciding what the wise thing
is, not what is politically convenient to an unwilling, undignified
minority.
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