Reply #14: It Intensified My Hatred For Those Destroying Our Country

[GiovanniC]

I became a Democrat during the Clinton impeachment. Prior to that, I had no political leanings one way or the other.

My beliefs intensified during the 2000 election as I found that I agreed with almost every plank of the liberal/Democratic platform. During the primaries, I rooted for Gore and for McCain. I hated Bush with a passion and determined early that he was a moron. The selection of Cheney as running mate proved to me that he was evil (or controlled by evil people), also.

The 2000 election fiasco solidified my passion about the Democratic party. Prior to that, I thought that Dems and Pubs were just two political parties who disagreed. But when Democrats wanted the votes counted and the Republicans used courts and riots to block votes from being counted, it cleared up any confusion I might have had.

For about a week after 9/11, I was Rah-Rah America red-white-and-blue all over my car, "United We Stand" written in car chalk on my back window, American flags from both rear windows. The right moves on the part of the Bush administration could have won me over to their side. But instead, they came out with idiotic rhetoric and half-cocked, vaguely justified plans to blow the shit out of another country. My suspicions were raised and they lost their chance with me as soon as Afghanistan said they'd turn over bin Laden if the US would produce evidence that he was responsible, and the US refused. If Afghanistan wanted the US to hand over Ken Lay for a "trial" and execution, you can be damn sure we'd AT LEAST demand evidence. Their request was reasonable, but we blew the living shit out of that country.

Four years later, they are still using the attacks on our soil as a political weapon, while doing NOTHING to decrease the chances it will happen again, doing TONS to INCREASE the chances it will happen again, and doing NOTHING to bin Laden or the Saudi government... Yeah, that changed me. Before 9/11 I just thought they had intolerant ideas and bad economic policies that were bad for America. After 9/11, I realized that they were also a danger to the safety of Americans.