Sunday, March 8, 2009

Amnesia


When Bush first pushed for war as a reaction to the attacks of 9-11 I lived in Florissant, MO. I was totally distraught at the public enthusiasm for it.

Bush kept saying war was a last resort. People that were old enough to remember Vietnam knew it wasn’t true. In spite of the fact that we keep hearing boomers are aging and we’re the majority demographic I knew these slightly younger folks were our national conscience.

 Let’s not kid ourselves that it was about a terror threat. Bush was taking advantage of our collective outrage to push for a totally unrelated war.

We really need to expose the crimes of his administration. Unfortunately accountability looks like partisan retribution so we have to let it go. It’s doomed to happen again!

I have mixed feelings about our collective amnesia. On the one hand war, instead of diplomacy, seems to be our answer to every dispute. On the other hand a younger public will vote in a black president without a thought to how extraordinary this is.

Younger voters aren’t carrying the same mental baggage. It appears reason might finally set in. But you know war will always come back.

I’ve been listening to Republican strategists all week on the radio. They’ve been reacting to Rush Limbaugh’s rants and Obama’s huge stimulus. It still sounds like a bunch of aging white men to me and this demographic is growing smaller.

They kept using the word socialism like it will stir fear in our souls. The younger demographic doesn’t share their fear. Big government is the other catch phrase. I think people realize government means us. Of course we have to pay attention to our actions but big government is reality.

It’s really just a matter of what kind of big government you want. If we had the collective memory we should, we’d see their alternative to socialism is fascism defined by corporate control, a huge military, religious paranoia, and xenophobia.

What defines the Republican Party? Fiscal conservatism, social morality, military strength. Nice, simple qualities that are easy to manipulate a group with.

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