Two Benefits of a Democratic President
Politics
| May 13, 2009
| Tim
During the campaign, I remarked to a Democrat friend that one nice thing about having a Democrat in office is that the press stops their relentless screed about how evil the US is, and how bad everything is. For example, during the Clinton years, I remember more than one member of an NPR panel suggesting that perhaps the stock market would (I kid you not) only go up from now on. In contrast, all through the Bush years I kept hearing the the economy was weak and would crash someday. (Which it did -- just as it did at the end of Clinton's tenure.)
Tonight, I realized another plus: My Democrat co-workers used to frequently inject politics into every discussion or even meeting: How bad Bush is, how he supports "torture", how corrupt Republicans are, how Bush was engaged in "illegal" (which it wasn't) communication interceptions, how we're over-spending, how bad the war is going, etc. Or how Bush mangled some word. I didn't even disagree with some of those points, but more I was amazed at their lack of perspective: Oh, do you think most Iraqis are wishing we'd left Saddam in power? Don't you remember the Echelon (domestic intel) program under Clinton? Do you think Democrats are less corrupt, or more thrifty?
Now that Obama's in office? I'd *love* for some of them to bring up those subjects. Let's compare deficits, shall we? Or corruption indictments. Or intelligence gathering. I notice that Obama hasn't said a peep about "extreme rendition", which is far worse than anything which happened at Gitmo. And if we're all concerned about apparent stupidity, shouldn't they shocked by a guy who thinks "Austrian" is a language, and apparently wasn't even aware that British DVD players had a different "region code" than domestic ones?
Ah, but they're suddenly very interested, apparently, in keeping political discussions out of the workplace!
Peace at last, anyway.
You are lucky if political talk has died at your work. I am not so lucky
Maybe it is because I work in Boulder, or maybe it is the guy that talked my company to install a charging port for his electric car. He works onsite but does not work for my company yet we pay for the electricity to charge his car. He was a delegate to the DNC for Obama. He takes credit for Obama’s policies. I don’t think he owns clothing that does not have an Obama logo on it.
Now I get to hear how evil corporations are (don’t we work for a corporation?). How unions save people for the evil corporations that just want to exploit everyone (yet we are not union, where is our protection form our corporation?). How much better things are now that the government is spending money to help the economy. How if Bush did not screw up we would not need to spend so much. How evil people who own stock are (what about the money in your 401k?). How we should all drive electric cars to save the planet. Most plasma TV use more power then an electric car (Our 106” plasma in the lobby here at work takes less power in 16 hours then his car does charging for 2 hours, and the 106” is a beast for power use). How Iran has peaceful intents if we leave them alone. All we need is more government regulations.
William: I feel for you, man. Sounds like you've got a fairly hostile work environment. I'm in CO also, we also had several delegates to the DNC convention last year. But none of them were as rabid as the guy you describe.
Electric cars are a nice idea, but they're hardly practical for most people, and without the government subsidies they're be well beyond range for most people. And I suspect, when all is said and done, they probably consume more power and generate more toxic pollution than regular cars. But electrics and hybrids serve as a kind of badge of superior morality for some, I suspect.
Many of the hypocrisies you mention sound familiar: so many people are so deeply into capitalism and consumerism and yet pretend they're so deeply against it. Every day they go into work and fill their pockets and pantries with the "greed" of others and then pretend they're somehow not part of it. (I don't think work and trade is usually based on greed -- wanting to provide for your future and family, and give to the poor, is anything but "greed" -- but that's how many such people frame it.)
And when the ruling party changes, the tune changes quickly. That which was just a called a despicable violation of civil liberties suddenly becomes a necessary precaution for keeping us safe. I read somewhere that Mussolini used to say "The issue isn't the issue!" -- admitting that the issues raised by Fascists were mere pretexts for increasing their own power.
The comment rules will apply. Please post only once.
« Time to Play: The Unpatriotic / Treason Game! |
Front Page |
Page Two
| Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote »
|
You are lucky if political talk has died at your work. I am not so lucky
Maybe it is because I work in Boulder, or maybe it is the guy that talked my company to install a charging port for his electric car. He works onsite but does not work for my company yet we pay for the electricity to charge his car. He was a delegate to the DNC for Obama. He takes credit for Obama’s policies. I don’t think he owns clothing that does not have an Obama logo on it.
Now I get to hear how evil corporations are (don’t we work for a corporation?). How unions save people for the evil corporations that just want to exploit everyone (yet we are not union, where is our protection form our corporation?). How much better things are now that the government is spending money to help the economy. How if Bush did not screw up we would not need to spend so much. How evil people who own stock are (what about the money in your 401k?). How we should all drive electric cars to save the planet. Most plasma TV use more power then an electric car (Our 106” plasma in the lobby here at work takes less power in 16 hours then his car does charging for 2 hours, and the 106” is a beast for power use). How Iran has peaceful intents if we leave them alone. All we need is more government regulations.
Posted by: William Nelson on May 14, 2009 09:12 AM