I should have known better. Sigh. I said that left-vs.right is a cosmically stupid way for immature political minds to identify themselves... and you guys rush right ahead and blare "me right and me proud!"
D'uh! In 20 years not one person I know has given a cogent explanation of what it's even supposed to mean except "MY SIDE!" Dig it, the only way we will get anywhere is by questioning assumptions... and that starts with YOUR OWN! Anyone who surrounds himself with yes-men or hews to an us-vs-them dichotomy is an enemy of our civilization's survival in the 21st Century. To that end I have given chiding, assumption-demolishing speeches to everybody from the Libertarians http://www.davidbrin.com/opinionarticles.html to the World Federalist society to the DLC. See http://www.davidbrin.com/progressparadoxarticle.html to go figure where I stand politically! But in fact, I do have one 'standard' political opinion. That the current GOP is dominated by kleptocratic frat boys with NO other agenda but stealing 4 TRILLION DOLLARS from our grandchildren. You will find NO policy of theirs that violates this fundamental principle. Not one. Don't give me the notion that they are the party of enterprise. SEVEN INDUSTRIES were de-regulated during the last 30 years. ONLY ONE of them at the behest of republicans. That was Energy. Though Bush's dad did oversee the Saving & Loan debacle. All the other attempts at DEEEEEEEE regulation in this century were done by democrats. Likewise balanced budgets under Clinton. Gore's reinventing govt program to cut paperwork by 1/3 and so on. The ONLY people pursuing help to small business were on the supposed left. Ideas? You actually claim these lazy bums have ideas? (GOP presidents used to take 3X as many vacation days as dem prexies. Till W. He has upped it to 4X, including the longest presidential vacation ever, that was rudely interrupted by 9/11.) Oooooooooh. School VOUCHERS! Wow! BIG IDEA! Huge! How magnificent. Why, it makes all of the following ideas pale in comparison. Containing communism public universities medical research exploring space exploring the oceans saving the bald eagle and other endangered species increasing basic literacy from 15% to 95% and college attendance from 2% to nearly 50% rural electrification fiber optics opposing fascism and defeating Hitler promoting democracy overseas antitrust rules to encourage market competition supporting Israel civil rights bringing women into echelons of power ensuring that all children go to school freedom of information & sunshine laws letting citizens view their own credit records the Internet increasing the number of engineers, doctors and scientists 1000 fold social security reducing or eliminating the lock on power and justice that local gentry had in every village, from the dawn of civilization nuclear power, solar power, modern wind and geothermal power professionalizing the police resisting Japanese imperial ambitions before & during WWII lifting both our allies & enemies back up after war NATO Yup. Those were pretty lame things... because every single one of them arose out of Democratic administrations. GOP big ideas? I have fought and struggled to find those that they not only preached but followed through on. I found two. Nixon to China The Interstate Highway system. (Though the latter was already under discussion under Roosevelt, I'll give Ike this one.) Dang, you DARE to call Condaleeza Rice bright? The advisor who let W drive Iran into the arms of the mullahs with that "axis of evil' stupidity, JUST when Khatami was gaining power and we were going to need Iran's help against Saddam? I might call her Kissinger level if she had done the OPPOSITE, persuaded W to fly to Teheran, make peace (over the mullah's spinning bodies but to the joy of average Iranians, and then use THEIR troops to do the heavy lifting while we paved the way to Basra with smart bombs. Instead, these 'friends of the military' (only Powell ever served anything but as a draft dodger) are putting our military under the worst strain in its history, hemhorraging losses from non-reinlistments, and creating a preparedness gap worse than before Pearl Harbor. Don't you DARE compare this Iraq War with Clinton! Clinton and Clark ran the most successful war in US history. A long, grinding struggle that was more than half diplomatic, patiently chivvying the Europeans until at last they gave up and let us lead. The result? 1) A Europe that is at peace, with law, everywhere for the first time in 4,000 years. 2) Not ONE American boy dead. Hell, I'm not against getting Saddam outta there. What I am against is doing it so damned stupidly. These bozos almost destroyed the Western Alliance, DELIBERATELY pissing in the faces of allies because it feels good to frat boys to piss in the faces of nerds. Note these are the SAME EXACT bozos (well, a different Bush) who MADE SADDAM. Who propped him up. coaxed and supported him, then felt SOOOO betrayed when he invaded Kuwait. These are the same bozos who had Saddam in their sights in 91, encouraged the Iraqi people to rebel, and then, against Gen Schwarzkopff's peading, stopped us 24 hours short of eliminating the bastard and getting our troops kissed in the streets. (The Iraqis will NEVER kiss us now, after that betrayal. They may be glad we finally paid off that betrayal, but now they want only to see our backsides.) No, these guys do not merit your loyalty. They are the very lowest things the GOP has ever, ever produced. W's C- from Yale was bought with tutors and nerd-written papers and bribed profs, and you dare to say Paul Nitze is so bright? W brags that he never, ever reads a newspaper. He has held fewer news conferences than any president. He's the first in this century who never wrote or co-wrote a book or even an article. Though we have good authority, I hear, that he once co-READ a book. At least that's what his mother says, and I believe her. But wait. Let me retract. There are two other republican ideas that were big and that everybody is now proud of. Back when they nominated men. AntiTrust legislation and National Parks. Guess when that was. Hey, no lefty me. I razz them easily as much as I have just razzed the right. I admired Barry Goldwater and Ike had his good points. But it is just plain crazy to try smugging up about GOP intellect when there is a HUGE de-correlation with education and GOP membership in this country. It peaks at a bachelor's degree (and from an average State U.) and plummets the more education people get after that. So don't even raise that issue. You'll lose. The only party running Rhodes Scholars is the donkeys. Oh, then there's the 'liar' effect. The only thing they ever had on BC was lying under oath, in answer to an illegal personal question. W was NOT under oath when he lied and lied and lied to us all about matters of public policy and war and peace and life and death. But it wasn't under oath. What dribbling drooling hypocrisy. Feh. Triple feh. A decent man would have come away from Flodida in 2000 chastened, admitting that a majority in America DID NOT WANT HIM OR HIS POLICIES. A man elected by a fluke (twenty flukes, ten of then smelling to high heaven) should have said "I'll appoint a coalition cabinet, be inclusive and listen to everybody." If he had said and done that, I would have paid him the respect that such a man would deserve. As is, I see only what's there. Frat boys. Nothing but silver spoon fed, smug, spoiled frat boys. ===== . . * Please note. My email address of many years is changing FROM [EMAIL PROTECTED] TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... (Or else use [EMAIL PROTECTED]) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
