President Bush likes to charge Kerry with "Pre-911 thinking". I thought about that statement in relation to the President and here is what I came up with.
Democrats and Republicans compete furiously and animosity can get out of control sometimes. Sometimes the good of the country can take a back seat to politics.
After 911 that partisan bickering needed to stop. After 911 the politics of race, gender, sex, and morality needed to stop. It is pre-911 thinking to govern from the extremes, whether left or right.
After 911 my wife had to stand in line for an entire day to donate blood. After 911 Britain played the Star Spangled Banner. After 911 France's Le Monde declared "Today we are all Americans". After 911 the Red Cross was flooded with more disaster relief money than it needed for the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history".
George Bush, rather than seizing that historic moment, rather than calling upon a higher standard of conduct from Americans and asking us to put aside our partisan ways, came out and divided America like never before. George Bush came out and asked Congress to discriminate against gay people in our Constitution. George Bush ridiculed our allies. George Bush pushed through laws which spend public money on religious organizations. George Bush passed the Patriot Act, an act publicly denounced by hundreds of cities and several states as un-American. George Bush ignored moderate voices and fiscal conservatives in his own party, creating more government, more debt, and entangling our nation in an unjustifiable war.
"God, gays, and guns" is pre-911 thinking. Post-911 it needs to be about all of us. There should be no more Democrats and Repubilcans in Washington, only US legislatures doing what is right for the people.
NOTE: I'll be travelling and there may not be any posts until Wednesday. Keep the faith.
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