John Edwards Was Not Exactly Correct

[Joe Fields]

As I said a few days ago, John Edwards was wrong. There are many Americas, not just two. But I want to focus on one America, in particular. And that is the America that enables a president and his cronies to rape and pillage this great land of ours.

They call themselves good Americans - patriots. You know the America I'm talking about. The half of the voting population who wrap themselves tightly in the flag and proudly proclaim "My country right or wrong." These are the people who make excuses for the maltreatment of foreign prisoners. These are the people who are willfully ignorant of the gross misdeads of the most corrupt administration in our history. These are the people who, in the face of reams of evidence to the contrary, still believe that the president has their best interests at heart. These are the people who can look you in the eye and tell you that they have compassion for others, yet in the same breath deny gays, blacks and women their constitutional rights. These are the people whom to whom tax cuts are more important than the real security of our nation. These are the people who call anyone un-American who dare to question what our leaders do.

Many of these people lead comfortable lives. They have achieved a comfortable living and do not want to be bothered about minute details of our government, like misleading us into a war that is destroying thousands of lives for the most suspect of reasons. And many of these people in an America that I see are struggling to make ends meet. But they all choose to be ignorant of the rollback by this administration of over 400 environmental regulations, which allow corporations to pollute at will. Many really are ignorant of what is happening in Washington. They have their heads buried in the sand, maybe hearing a soundbite every now and then on the news and spouting word for word what they hear some biased talking head saying. And many people just don't care. They may know what is going on, but because the president is the leader of their party, and not from the opposition, then that is all they care about.

This is the enabling America - the co-conspirator America. Just like a family who chooses to ignore or put up with the unpleasantness that a father causes because of his chronic alcoholic behavior, which in turn allows for even greater unpleasantness, so are the "Americans" who for a number of reasons turn a blind eye to the wholly corrupt behavior of the Bush administration.
This is the America that scares me more than any other of the Americas that I see.

Joe Fields

[belladonna]

1. Great post

The America that scares me is the one filled with people who just can't be bothered to educate themselves and really understand what our so called leaders are up to. The ones who, when you bring up politics, roll their eyes and say "Oh, politics is so boring!! I'll leave that to the people who get paid to think about it."

Somebody actually said that to me not long ago and it took every ounce of willpower I had to walk away without strangling her. :grr:

[rkc3]

2. Or worse - politics does not affect my daily life. No need to join in.

[belladonna]

4. Exactly

They have no friggin' clue as to how it DOES affect every single aspect of their daily life, and worse, they just don't want to hear it when you try to explain it to them. THEY are the people who scare me the most when it comes to November, because they are the ones most likely to vote for Bush just because... no other reason, he's the Prez, so hey, why not? :eyes:

[Joe Fields]

6. Unfortunately, too many people feel that way.

[Joe Fields]

5. My sisters refuse to be bothered by the "unpleasantness"

of the Bush administration. They are registered as Democrats, but have told me on more than one occasion that they don't think Bush is doing too bad of a job. Come again? And every time I try and educate them, they cut me off. They really DON'T want to hear anything unpleasant about our leaders.

I have to say that I come from four generations of proud Democrats. If my grandfather were alive, he would be spitting fire at what Bush has done to this country. I do not understand how four of my brothers and sisters could be so ambivalent.


Joe Fields

[sui generis]

3. I've been saying this for a while too

But at it's root, isn't the problem with these guys "status quo", apathy, and determined selfishness?

They do typically align themselves with "conservatives" because they don't want anything to change that might impact their comfortabe little coccoons, and so they are against change in general.

They are guilty of voting by whether or not they like the candidate rather than whether they agree with the candidate's issues, and they allow themselves to be informed by "talking points" instead of facts. They have lousy attention spans, avoid conflict and socially uncomfortable positions, and really really despise anything that might make them change their mind about an idea that they've adopted, no matter how outrageous or false.

I'll do you one better: they are closer to the so-called "loving" family members who "look the other way" while their children are getting fucked and beaten by the drunken stepdad or uncle, rather than confront the issues. Just as guilty.