Honestly, i thought he did a good job.
Jan. 28th, 2003 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hermionesviolinI was tempted to clap a couple of times near the end (though good God i was tired of people clapping every two minutes) because i thought he did a really good job of explaining why we should go to war on Saddam. Starting with all the ways he hasn't disarmed, that that was a condition of the U.N. was really good. And i loved the bit about how the inspectors aren't supposed to be going on a scaveneger hunt, they are supposed to just verify that Saddam is indeed disarming. Then, of course, Saddam is an evil man. Regardless of whether you think war is the answer, he is not someone to support. And i thought the tying together of the terrorism associated with September 11th and Saddam's weapons production -- having weapons of mass destruction not only means that you can use them but that you can sell them to other people to use. And look, we mentioned all of the "axis of evil" (though no mention of Osama bin Laden). One thing he didn't mention is that while we hate North Korea and they're evil and all, because they have nuclear weapons (which they, like Saddam, claimed to not be building) we can't just all out war on them. We have to be more timid, and we don't want to get to that place with Iraq. I've heard that we've left Afghanistan in the lurch as far as rebuilding goes, which if true (Bush's speech implied otherwise) is a shame, and definitely something we should not do with Iraq. Overthrowing evil regimes is not the only work a superpower has.
Another main point of mine is that i really hated watching the State of the Union address in the TV room with about a half a dozen other Smithies. I really do not want to hear anyone bitch about how stupid and everything the President is. Do i care that he looks like a monkey and some people claim he used to snort coke? No, i really fucking don't. (Okay, so the latter point, while farfetched, is important if true in the context of the "war on drugs," but otherwise....) I do not want to hear you laugh every time he stumbles over something in his speech (which happened rarely, and really people, have you never stumbled in a speech?). Was i cynical about a lot of the stuff he proposed? Yes, of course i am. I would be regardless of who was talking. I think the tax cuts are problematic because taxes pay for important services. I think that even if he does follow through on the good sounding stuff he proposed (fuel efficiency, mentors, etc.) it's potentially problematic because money for programs has to come from somewhere and sometimes programs are only bandaid solutions and so on and so forth, but i'm not going to write off everything he says as b.s. just because i happen to not like him. Did the religious references make me twitch? Yes. But i respect the tradition of compassion and justice and all that in Christianity. I still identify as a Christian. I don't think it was problematic enough to be cut out of his speech (i'm fairly certain he didn't attribute a belief in God or anything to the American people as a whole). My weirdest moment was "there's power, wonderworking power, in the" strength or compassion or whatever of the American people. Bev's favorite song much, mom? I'm sure there's some other nitpicky stuff i'm leaving out, but honestly, i thought it was good.
[Okay, now to see what everyone else has to say.]
Another main point of mine is that i really hated watching the State of the Union address in the TV room with about a half a dozen other Smithies. I really do not want to hear anyone bitch about how stupid and everything the President is. Do i care that he looks like a monkey and some people claim he used to snort coke? No, i really fucking don't. (Okay, so the latter point, while farfetched, is important if true in the context of the "war on drugs," but otherwise....) I do not want to hear you laugh every time he stumbles over something in his speech (which happened rarely, and really people, have you never stumbled in a speech?). Was i cynical about a lot of the stuff he proposed? Yes, of course i am. I would be regardless of who was talking. I think the tax cuts are problematic because taxes pay for important services. I think that even if he does follow through on the good sounding stuff he proposed (fuel efficiency, mentors, etc.) it's potentially problematic because money for programs has to come from somewhere and sometimes programs are only bandaid solutions and so on and so forth, but i'm not going to write off everything he says as b.s. just because i happen to not like him. Did the religious references make me twitch? Yes. But i respect the tradition of compassion and justice and all that in Christianity. I still identify as a Christian. I don't think it was problematic enough to be cut out of his speech (i'm fairly certain he didn't attribute a belief in God or anything to the American people as a whole). My weirdest moment was "there's power, wonderworking power, in the" strength or compassion or whatever of the American people. Bev's favorite song much, mom? I'm sure there's some other nitpicky stuff i'm leaving out, but honestly, i thought it was good.
[Okay, now to see what everyone else has to say.]
no subject
Date: 2003-01-29 07:51 am (UTC)I'm not a big fan of war either. But if the UN is satisfied by the evidence presented by Powell on the 5th, then I'm satisfied. What bothers me the most is that the people who are yelling at Bush for being hasty are the SAME assholes that whine and complain about how nothing was done if (Powers forbid) something DID happen. I have never believed that this was only about oil.
And I really want to praise you and thank you (for what that may be worth), for saying this: i'm not going to write off everything he says as b.s. just because i happen to not like him. The presidency is more than just one man. The government is more than just one person. It's degenerated to a lot of finger-pointing, sulking and tantrum-throwing on some people's parts lately, but I don't know if that's due to me being more aware or if that's really happened. *sigh* But thank you for at the very least, keeping an open mind.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-29 05:24 pm (UTC)Can i even tell you how much i appreciate hearing from you that you appreciate that i keep an open mind and all that? It means so much. And i think one reason there's more personal attacks "recently" is that (1) Bush is much less charismatic than Clinton and (2) you/we are around more Leftists than Rightists (i'm not sure how accurate it is to say merely that the right is less prone to personal attacks, because really one can't generalize about an entire political population -- many on both sides are more or less inclined to personal attacks).