Seems this nation has had a meanness to it since Bush catered to extremists to win. [View all]

[madfloridian]

Last edited Sat Dec 15, 2012, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

In my opinion the election of 2000 raised up a new brand of American, the kind who disrupted loudly, the kind who did not hesitate to politically treat others with contempt.

Today 20 young children were shot close up with powerful guns in the hands of a man who should never have had them at all. That brought out a lot of emotion in everyone. For decades I taught students barely older than that, and I kept seeing their faces as we had our lock-downs or crises happen. My daughter called tonight knowing I would be having some kind of reaction. I appreciated that so much.

That is a very short time frame for a nation to change so drastically. I live in a conservative area of Florida, and I could see how suddenly George Bush started using right wing extremists to get himself elected.

I wrote some words a few years ago about how difficult it was to understand and adapt to this new nation with people yelling at others. I learned that even those who came to our home would explode with anger over any kind of criticism of Bush or the Iraq War. One neighbor screamed at me that the bible said we were not to criticize our country's leaders, that God was leading them.

I asked her what she thought about the fact that we were invading Iraq though they had not attacked us. She screamed in anger, and we finally had to ask her to leave our home.

I still have a nice email from a then manager of WFLA in Tampa. I had asked him why they did not write the truth as they knew it. I knew a reporter there then, and I knew they had access to the truth about the war. He was very nice when he wrote. He said quite frankly that if they printed any criticism of Bush, they were attacked viciously for days. He said it bothered him, but there was nothing he could do.

A few thoughts of mine from several years ago....they show deep frustration.

There has been a movement by our party to continue the education policies of George Bush which amount to turning our schools over to private companies...while giving them our taxpayer money to make them richer. Teachers have spoken out, but they are not being heard, not even being listened to by this administration.

I used to feel safe and secure that Americans would fight back when certain things like Social Security and Medicare were threatened. I always felt comfortable that things would not get too bad here, that our leaders would step in and stop things from going too far in any directions.

I never thought our nation would get to the point that teachers were made to feel ashamed, that seniors would be called "the greediest generation" by a man appointed by our Democratic president. Or worse, that not a single Democratic leader would speak up for them and point out how they had paid into the system during their lifetimes. I never thought that two men who had such contempt for seniors would be put in charge of a commission to "fix" Social Security.

I always felt that our senior safety nets were untouchable. Now I realize they are not. I always felt our country would have the public school system that helped make it great...but we won't. It never occurred to me that the unions who helped build the middle class in this country would be treated badly by a Democratic administration.

..."It just shows how what was once the right, a normal fairly moderate right....has kept moving to the extremes. And our party, instead of standing with its so-called liberals...has denounced them and moved right as well. They have twisted meanings and words until there is no longer any understanding of them.

I think the congressional losses by our party in 2010 should have been a wake-up call for our Democrats to act like Democrats again.

The part about education hasn't changed. We are still installing Bush's policies. I write about the new reforms as do many other bloggers, and we are mostly ignored or even told to back off the criticism.

I am seeing signs of people having less fear of speaking out. Today the voices have been loud and clear when those precious children were murdered close up in cold blood.

I think Obama is ready to fight on this, it sounded that way. I hope other Democrats will join. If they push hard, the extremists on the right will have to come around....or simply look petty and foolish.