A Rare Political Post
When I started this blog, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't waste everyone's time with my political opinions. I don't follow politics as rabidly as some of my friends do, and I hate to be one of those people that rant and rave about things without actually knowing very much about the issues. But ever since hearing a sound bite on the news last night, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Dubya said something after this weekend's worldwide war protests, and it really hacked me off.
I've cut some basic info out of a Newsday article to set up the quote:
Facing growing international resistance to a war in Iraq, President George W. Bush Tuesday shrugged off massive worldwide demonstrations against his policies, saying the millions who marched on Saturday failed to understand the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
Bush told reporters at the White House that formulating policy based on "size of protests is like deciding, ‘Well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group.' The role of a leader is to decide policy based upon the security ... of the people.”
Excuse Me? Didn't Dubya get into office by listening to focus groups, then telling people what he knew they wanted to hear? Don't politicians formulate entire political platforms based on feedback from focus groups? Suddenly, focus groups aren't good enough for him?
But that's not my only problem with this statement. As an elected official, he is a representative of the people... not just the people who voted for him. He works for us. Now, I'm not expecting him to completely change his stance based on a few million protesters. I do, however, expect him to at least pretend to give a shit about the protesters' concerns. Placate us, for God's sake. The closest he came was:
"...Democracy's a beautiful thing, and people are allowed to express their opinion, and I welcome people's right to say what they believe. Evidently, some in the world don't view Saddam Hussein as a risk to peace. I respectfully disagree."
The fact that he was so quick to brush off the protester's concerns leads me to my final concern. I wish you could have heard the entire quote, with the actual vocal inflection that he used to understand this. It honestly sounded to me like the protests made him more determined to bomb Iraq... like some kind of teenager who's so desparate to gain approval that he'll say or do anything just to piss off his parents. It sounded like, "you don't think I'm smart enough to do the right thing, and I'm going to prove to you that I am."
Ok, enough of my political rant. I promise to keep the rants to one per month or fewer.
When I started this blog, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't waste everyone's time with my political opinions. I don't follow politics as rabidly as some of my friends do, and I hate to be one of those people that rant and rave about things without actually knowing very much about the issues. But ever since hearing a sound bite on the news last night, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Dubya said something after this weekend's worldwide war protests, and it really hacked me off.
I've cut some basic info out of a Newsday article to set up the quote:
Facing growing international resistance to a war in Iraq, President George W. Bush Tuesday shrugged off massive worldwide demonstrations against his policies, saying the millions who marched on Saturday failed to understand the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
Bush told reporters at the White House that formulating policy based on "size of protests is like deciding, ‘Well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group.' The role of a leader is to decide policy based upon the security ... of the people.”
Excuse Me? Didn't Dubya get into office by listening to focus groups, then telling people what he knew they wanted to hear? Don't politicians formulate entire political platforms based on feedback from focus groups? Suddenly, focus groups aren't good enough for him?
But that's not my only problem with this statement. As an elected official, he is a representative of the people... not just the people who voted for him. He works for us. Now, I'm not expecting him to completely change his stance based on a few million protesters. I do, however, expect him to at least pretend to give a shit about the protesters' concerns. Placate us, for God's sake. The closest he came was:
"...Democracy's a beautiful thing, and people are allowed to express their opinion, and I welcome people's right to say what they believe. Evidently, some in the world don't view Saddam Hussein as a risk to peace. I respectfully disagree."
The fact that he was so quick to brush off the protester's concerns leads me to my final concern. I wish you could have heard the entire quote, with the actual vocal inflection that he used to understand this. It honestly sounded to me like the protests made him more determined to bomb Iraq... like some kind of teenager who's so desparate to gain approval that he'll say or do anything just to piss off his parents. It sounded like, "you don't think I'm smart enough to do the right thing, and I'm going to prove to you that I am."
Ok, enough of my political rant. I promise to keep the rants to one per month or fewer.
Stumble It!
<< Home