Press Release October 11, 2009
After the election in 2004 I decided I needed to take a break from my reflections on politics. At that time I was really disappointed with the election results and the direction the country was moving. The general direction of the country did not start to really change until 2008 despite the democratic victories in the House and Senate in 2006. The country was still helmed by George W. Bush but the tide was definitely starting to turn. For the 8 years Bush was in office I must admit that I was demoralized and at times actually angry about the behavior of our country. I started to wonder if the incarnation of the United States I was experiencing is something I could be proud of. Through that time however, I always still loved America, what it represents and the promise it could achieve.So now it is 2009 and the Executive and Legislative branches are both under the control of Democrats. I have never been a huge fan of the Democratic Party but compared to the path that the Republican Party took us on, anything would be a vast improvement. I do have a particular love for certain politicians including Barack Obama and I am just thrilled that he was elected President. I know that both the liberals and the conservatives have been unhappy with his performance so far, but to me he is almost exactly what I have been looking for in a politician. His policies in general are centrist with a few more socially liberal aspects which reflect my views quite well. In response to this my political mood and outlook for America has improved substantially even in spite of the terrible situations the previous administrations left us in.
This brings me to the state conservatism today, it is in the situation I found myself in 8 years ago. They are in the minority and are almost bystanders watching the policies unfold. There are however extreme differences in the reaction of conservatives of today and the liberals from 8 years ago, which is the subject of this post. 8 years ago liberals who opposed the war in Iraq and the Patriot act were called anti-American by conservatives. Yet today those same conservative people are in opposition to health care reform and essentially any program pushed by the Obama administration and they see their opposition as being pro-American. Going so far as to even cheer for America to lose in seemingly just about everything. For the economy to fail, for the jobless numbers to rise, for Chicago to lose the Olympic bid, and to decry Obama for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.
I personally was against the war in Iraq, but for the war in Afghanistan. I protested prior to the invasion of Iraq and am quite proud of it because it is very American to stand up for what you believe in. After the invasion I hoped that they would not find weapons of mass destruction so my opposition to the war would be justified (and it was) but I never once hoped that we would fail. I was opposed to the troop surge in Iraq and didn't think it would have worked as well as it did (although there were several other important factors and it may not have worked without them) however I was thrilled that it did work so well even though it was advocated by Republicans.
It is my opinion from the behavior of my conservative friends and conservatives in the media that their reactions would be and are very different in reversed roles. There are certain situations in my opinion where there is just no justification for hoping for America to fail. Repeatedly in the 9 months since Obama's election many conservatives have been cheering for America to fail for nothing more than to score political points. This is in my opinion un-American. I understand the general frustration conservatives are feeling, because I was there for the past 8 years, but their behavior in response to it is absolutely unacceptable.
It is kind of frightening to me how widespread this behavior is becoming. I have been noticing it in acquaintances who in the past 8 years I didn't even know what their political ideology was. However today these previously seemingly reasonable people are emailing me distasteful political “satires” (some of them probably wouldn't even qualify as satires but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt) and cheering for America to fail. The election of Barack Obama seems to have unleashed a wave of conservative insanity that I did not think was possible.
I am going to end this post with a plea to conservatives to stop for a moment and think about what you are doing. This obstructionist, reflexive anti-Obama-ism is hurting America, it is hurting the conservative image and it is causing even more political polarization. Please for the sake of the country, for the sake of yourselves.... get a grip and start contributing productively to the debate and stop displaying your anti-Obama-ism as Anti-Americanism.