Liberals and Democrats, who think of the nation as a family led by nurturant parents, are against Bush and his Republican cronies because they believe all Americans are part of one big community. As a community, we are against preemptive war. Yes, we must defend ourselves, but we should not seek wars of choice. Instead of tax cuts and other goodies for the rich, we should concentrate on helping all our citizens with a minimum wage people could live on, a healthcare system to keep all of us in good shape and a Social Security system to keep us above water in old age. We should not be required to give up our civil liberties. We definitely oppose secrecy, torture and spying without a warrant.
Conservatives and Republicans, who think of the nation as a family led by a strict father, believe that each individual must learn to fend for himself. They like Bush's militaristic approach to our enemies, his eagerness for tax cuts for the rich, his subsidies to Big Business, his try to gut Social Security so that each worker would be "free" to accept risk, even the torture and warrantless spying that would (they think) keep them safer.
I say that even if you believe in the strict-father frame, Bush and the current Republican leadership don't meet the test of leadership.
Wrong-Way Corrigan
Back in 1938, Douglas Corrigan became famous when he misread his compass and flew from New York to Ireland - when he was supposed to be flying from New York to California. They called him "Wrong Way Corrigan." Bush is another "Wrong Way Corrigan."
Bush likes to repeat that we should "stay the course." He says this over and over, ad nauseum. Yet, he is the one that has changed course. We were on the right course when we attacked the Taliban after 9/11. Then, suddenly Bush changed course by pulling the troops out of Afghanistan where we were fighting the "war on terror" and sending them to Iraq, which was not related to the "war on terror" in any way. What sort of leader (strict or otherwise) is it who does not know where he is going?
Power by Division
Bush likes to claim he is a "war president." It seems to me that one of the most important things for a commander-in-chief or other leader to do in time of war is to unify the country. This is what FDR did during World War II. This is what Churchill did during that awful war.
What did Bush do? He labeled all those who disagree with what he says as disloyal. Some of his henchmen called them traitors. Five years later, this is still going on. Bush and the Republicans have managed to divide the public so well that now 60% disagree with them - they say that the Iraq war was a mistake. Bush and the Republicans are doing this in order to gain power. Not power to win the war, but power to win elections. Would any true leader seek power by division in this way?
Neglect of Threats
While keeping our armed forces tied down in Iraq, threats have been multiplying. North Korea had a missile test and our response was nothing. Pakistan tested a nuclear bomb - the so-called Islamic bomb - and we embraced them as friends. Kahn, the Pakistani guy who ran the nuclear weapons program, and who supplies both Iran and North Korea with WMD, is free to spread weapons while we do nothing. Pakistan as well as Saudi Arabia run madrasas where they instill students with hate for America and train violent jihadists, and we welcome them as allies.
Bush has completely neglected the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the horrible results we just witnessed. Some leader.
Neglect of Protection
Republican idea of protection: Throw away your toothpase, your makeup and your laptop before getting on an airplane. Now, don't you feel safer? If we knew about these dangerous liquid explosives before - and we did - why was nothing done before? Why don't we pay more attention to cargo? Why aren't our train systems and our busses protected? Why is nothing done to safeguard our ports?
What is our strict father doing? He is leading us to catastrophe. Instead of fighting terrorists, "Wrong Way Corrigan" has thrust us into the middle of a civil war in Iraq and iredeemably divided our country, while neglecting to protect the homeland against real threats. This is false leadership. Even those who believe in a strict-father frame should not put up with it.
Vote for new leadership this fall.
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