Friday, October 14, 2005
Europeans vs. Bush
When I am not in Iraq I am stationed in Germany. Germans are very polite and don't ask objectionable or personal questions until the feel that they know you a little bit. But by the third or fourth time I meet a new person they almost always ask "Why did people in your country vote for Bush again? Are they really that stupid?" Any responses from the generally conservative minded readers of this blog? In all fairness, not all of them were Germans. It is actually just about everyone from any country besides the US.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
they almost always ask "Why did people in your country vote for Bush again? Are they really that stupid?"
"No, we've got a populist politician riding on emotionally charged issues with weak, disunified opposition and a powerful propaganda machine. Germans should know."
I had pretty well defined reasons for voting for bush (though I may not be getting what I want).
1) Social security - he said he would do somthing about that. Eventhough he has done nothing but talk, that was more than the other guy would have done. I will blame bush along with other GOP's for not getting this done.
1) Supreme court - Eventhough Kelo was well after the election, it is an example of what is wrong with the court. Bush has got his nominees for the court, we will see how that turns out. I will lay failure of the new justices at the feet of bush.
3) tax reform - a big thing he mentioned during the campaing - i wanted a flat tax on income or a national sales tax, it looks like i will be getting neither of those things. Though honestly, a very small percentage of people want the tax code to change, so i had high hopes for this change, but once things got rolling i realized that nothing was going to change.
4) tax cuts - I firmly belive in tax cuts. I would like some more, but I doubt that we will get them.
5) war on terrorism - bush has a less than perfect track record, but he was better than kerry.
6) North korea - Kerry wanted to follow the clinton approcah (been there done that and it did not work).
7) Guns - while bush may not have my view on guns, his views are better than kerry's
I usually answer that, in broad terms, one candidate wanted to take us down the path of socialism and slow growth. The other, Bush, wanted to restore the pith of American character -
(which Europeans have always hated)
- and reinforce individual rights.
Define "American character". And also could you be more specific about what you mean with slow growth and socialism? This is not an attack, just a request for clarification.
Sandcastle: "Define "American character".
American character is the Aristotelian philosophical belief that the individual can know right and wrong, and that truth is immutable - knowable by the individual. As Americans, we refer to this as "rugged individualism," and use it in the sense that we are smart enough to know what is right for each of us and we don't need a nanny-state to tell us how to think.
"also could you be more specific about what you mean with slow growth and socialism?"
Recent Democratic presidential hopefuls (the last 20 years) have made plenty of noise about attacking corporations under the pretense of concern for the children (it's always the children) and nationalizing various sectors or at least taxing (penalizing as in tobacco) them to the point of bankruptcy. These are very socialist designs. Also, the welfare state is constantly touted as the most needy for federal expansion. As we approach Europe's level of strangling socialism, we can only prepare ourselves for a Europe-like stagnation of little or no-growth.
Post a Comment