And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself well, how did I get here?
-"Once in a Lifetime," The Talking Heads
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself well, how did I get here?
-"Once in a Lifetime," The Talking Heads
As has been commented on numerously and to the point of exhaustion, we at YesButNoButYes have a slight left-leaning bent. Though many of our frequent commentors are decidedly conservative. Despite which side you've stuck yourself in on the political canyon, you can rest assured that political articles will surely disappear from these fair environs once the Obama presidency kicks into full swing. The hullabaloo is over, let's see what this new office can really do. And as I sat on my couch last night, watching the inauguration on DVR, I thought to myself, "How did I get here?" Because, you see, I wasn't always a Democrat. In fact, I'm technically not one now. (My voter registration card has me falling into the "unaffiliated camp") No, my political leanings start with a house divided.
My mother is a Republican and my father a Democrat, thus creating an effective "canceling out" when it came to the voting booth. They claim the only reason they had children was to fill their childrens' heads with praise for their supported parties and (mostly) made-up lies about the opposition and thus sway our household to the red or the blue. Also, my brother and I were born to shovel the driveway on snow days, and were replaced by a snow blower the first year we went to college. (The snow blower now lives in my old room and was given a PS3 for Christmas this year.) While we're all free to choose, we aren't free to choose our parents and, more directly, what our parents' political leanings happen to be. So we were forced to crawl through the muck and make our own decisions despite copies of the National Review and The Daily Worker being left on our pillows at night.
My mother grew up in an upper-class household with fancy cars, country clubs, and vacations in the south of France. Her father, a high-ranking naval officer in both WWII and the Korean War, became a titan of industry and spent his career fighting labor unions while building aeronautical weapons companies. As such, he became the measuring stick to which everyone in the family was measured. We sought his approval, and wanted to emulate him at every step. My grandfather was a conservative through and through. And my mother followed - unquestioningly - in his large footsteps.
My father was born into a poor immigrant farming family in Connecticut. He pulled a bad number during the draft and enlisted in the Army in attempt to stay stateside. (He didn't and served several tours of duty in Vietnam). He managed to put himself through college with the money he earned in the service, and worked as the treasurer on several Democratic Senatorial campaigns in the 80's. He is an avid outdoorsman, more content climbing a mountain than sitting behind a desk and works with local environmental groups to protect the wilderness he loves so very much.
How these two were able to make their marriage work (rather successfully) for 30+ years still amazes me.
My mom got to us first. We were children of the 80's and, in the shadow of Regan, we were told that consumerism was king. "Most democrats are poor," she said disdainfully, watching my father put more duct tape on his beat-up Celica as she pulled out of the driveway in her well-polished BMW. We knew Dad's car was a piece of shit. And if his car sucked, and mom's car was not only pretty but fast, then she had obviously made the right choices in life and we were right to follow her lead. And so, as she told us how Republicans worked hard for their money and Democrats sat at home all day waiting for the government to give their lazy asses some cheese to chew on, my brother and I began chanting "Four more years!" in the back of that car in 1984. If we knew one thing, it was that we didn't want to be poor and Ronald Regan was the answer to our prayers.
My devotion to all things Repubican continued into the 90's. I cheered as night-vision video poured in of the US hurling rockets at Iraq. I made Pro-Bush signs in crayon and plastered them around my house. All the while, my father sat in silence with a look upon his face like "just wait." My mother was gleeful. She'd created a veritable Alex P. Keaton, a child who never questioned why he thought the way he did, just that he thought the way he did.
Even in college, as I pursued my degree in communications, I'd heard rumblings that Tipper Gore was pushing for legislation for increased censorship. And as a man who likes to say "fuck" and talk about boobs, I didn't want some vice-president's wife telling me what I could and couldn't say. This, along with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which I enjoyed for all the wrong reasons, namely so I could pull some erotic non-fiction out of the Starr report, convinced me of my choice to be a conservative.
But I started to look around. I dove in deeper. I asked questions. Everyone I looked up to was essentially a liberal. I was in college and realized that, at the first inkling of a plus-sign showing up on a birth control strip, I'd march down to the clinic and get everything fixed. I also loved the environment and cringed when I saw loggers taking their chainsaws to the Rainforests. And, through a period of reflection and study, I decided that religion was not for me. (Not against it, but I sure didn't want its tenants to be applied to my daily life if I didn't want it to.) So there I was, a person with liberal tendencies, who wanted to live a very liberal lifestyle, but with a voter registration card that said "Republican". I knew who I was and it was time to come out.
The second hardest call I ever had to make was telling my mother I was no longer a Republican. She took it well. I was still invited home for Thanksgiving. But she never looked at me the same way. She could have been disappointed in me, or herself, or the world at large, but our house was now weighted to the liberal side. (My brother takes an apathetic stance toward politics and hasn't voted since the Fourth Grade Whole/Skim Milk referendum of Stratfield School.)
The Bush presidency solidified my decision. While I watched the towers burn and crumble and I wanted nothing more than revenge, I remember thinking that we needed to learn from the horrors of 9/11. Something had happened to make these people take such an extreme action, and perhaps heading into a country with guns blazing wasn't the best answer. Though, I now feel we were and are right to go into Afghanistan to find Bin Laden. Iraq was a different matter entirely. It never made sense to me. Why fight when no one was attacking us? It didn't line up and the lack of WMDs confirmed this.
On election day, I stood in that booth and took a deep breath. My vote wasn't enough to get Gore elected, nor Kerry. But I really felt that with Obama, something was different. This was a man I could stand behind confidently. A man I could trust to uphold my ideals of what America is and should be. A man who could correct, in my opinion, the mistakes of the past administration. And I was happy to pull that lever and lock in my vote for him.
My father and I have long talks about world events and politics. We mostly agree, and give each other mental high-fives as we talk about the future of politics in America. He seems satisfied that he's raised a son who came up with his own conclusions on politics and world affairs, and it's icing on the cake that his son's ideals line up with his. My mother, who took down the faded McCain/Palin sign from their front yard last week, is quiet and plotting. There's a look of hunger in her eyes as she asks, "So, when can we expect some grandkids?"
My mother grew up in an upper-class household with fancy cars, country clubs, and vacations in the south of France. Her father, a high-ranking naval officer in both WWII and the Korean War, became a titan of industry and spent his career fighting labor unions while building aeronautical weapons companies. As such, he became the measuring stick to which everyone in the family was measured. We sought his approval, and wanted to emulate him at every step. My grandfather was a conservative through and through. And my mother followed - unquestioningly - in his large footsteps.
My father was born into a poor immigrant farming family in Connecticut. He pulled a bad number during the draft and enlisted in the Army in attempt to stay stateside. (He didn't and served several tours of duty in Vietnam). He managed to put himself through college with the money he earned in the service, and worked as the treasurer on several Democratic Senatorial campaigns in the 80's. He is an avid outdoorsman, more content climbing a mountain than sitting behind a desk and works with local environmental groups to protect the wilderness he loves so very much.
How these two were able to make their marriage work (rather successfully) for 30+ years still amazes me.
My mom got to us first. We were children of the 80's and, in the shadow of Regan, we were told that consumerism was king. "Most democrats are poor," she said disdainfully, watching my father put more duct tape on his beat-up Celica as she pulled out of the driveway in her well-polished BMW. We knew Dad's car was a piece of shit. And if his car sucked, and mom's car was not only pretty but fast, then she had obviously made the right choices in life and we were right to follow her lead. And so, as she told us how Republicans worked hard for their money and Democrats sat at home all day waiting for the government to give their lazy asses some cheese to chew on, my brother and I began chanting "Four more years!" in the back of that car in 1984. If we knew one thing, it was that we didn't want to be poor and Ronald Regan was the answer to our prayers.
My devotion to all things Repubican continued into the 90's. I cheered as night-vision video poured in of the US hurling rockets at Iraq. I made Pro-Bush signs in crayon and plastered them around my house. All the while, my father sat in silence with a look upon his face like "just wait." My mother was gleeful. She'd created a veritable Alex P. Keaton, a child who never questioned why he thought the way he did, just that he thought the way he did.
Even in college, as I pursued my degree in communications, I'd heard rumblings that Tipper Gore was pushing for legislation for increased censorship. And as a man who likes to say "fuck" and talk about boobs, I didn't want some vice-president's wife telling me what I could and couldn't say. This, along with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which I enjoyed for all the wrong reasons, namely so I could pull some erotic non-fiction out of the Starr report, convinced me of my choice to be a conservative.
But I started to look around. I dove in deeper. I asked questions. Everyone I looked up to was essentially a liberal. I was in college and realized that, at the first inkling of a plus-sign showing up on a birth control strip, I'd march down to the clinic and get everything fixed. I also loved the environment and cringed when I saw loggers taking their chainsaws to the Rainforests. And, through a period of reflection and study, I decided that religion was not for me. (Not against it, but I sure didn't want its tenants to be applied to my daily life if I didn't want it to.) So there I was, a person with liberal tendencies, who wanted to live a very liberal lifestyle, but with a voter registration card that said "Republican". I knew who I was and it was time to come out.
The second hardest call I ever had to make was telling my mother I was no longer a Republican. She took it well. I was still invited home for Thanksgiving. But she never looked at me the same way. She could have been disappointed in me, or herself, or the world at large, but our house was now weighted to the liberal side. (My brother takes an apathetic stance toward politics and hasn't voted since the Fourth Grade Whole/Skim Milk referendum of Stratfield School.)
The Bush presidency solidified my decision. While I watched the towers burn and crumble and I wanted nothing more than revenge, I remember thinking that we needed to learn from the horrors of 9/11. Something had happened to make these people take such an extreme action, and perhaps heading into a country with guns blazing wasn't the best answer. Though, I now feel we were and are right to go into Afghanistan to find Bin Laden. Iraq was a different matter entirely. It never made sense to me. Why fight when no one was attacking us? It didn't line up and the lack of WMDs confirmed this.
On election day, I stood in that booth and took a deep breath. My vote wasn't enough to get Gore elected, nor Kerry. But I really felt that with Obama, something was different. This was a man I could stand behind confidently. A man I could trust to uphold my ideals of what America is and should be. A man who could correct, in my opinion, the mistakes of the past administration. And I was happy to pull that lever and lock in my vote for him.
My father and I have long talks about world events and politics. We mostly agree, and give each other mental high-fives as we talk about the future of politics in America. He seems satisfied that he's raised a son who came up with his own conclusions on politics and world affairs, and it's icing on the cake that his son's ideals line up with his. My mother, who took down the faded McCain/Palin sign from their front yard last week, is quiet and plotting. There's a look of hunger in her eyes as she asks, "So, when can we expect some grandkids?"
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Something is different. Obama is the first President to skip the Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball in more than a half-century. He also mentioned veterans of "historic" wars in his address, but not a word about Iraq or Afghanistan, a fairly obvious (and embarrassing) oversight.
You indicate that you are politically liberal in order to atone for your personal guilt (i.e. You wanted to sleep with girls and were willing to abort any inconveniences). Very interesting.
Sounds likes the WMD meme gave you permission to harmonize.
I still find it remarkable that there are people who "wonder" what, exactly, it was that "we did" to terrorists to make them such bad people.
I can answer that question very easily:
We live.
Pearl Harbor elicited no handwringing. Foreign attacks on our country are unacceptable. A beaten wife doesn't need to psychoanalyze and sympathize with her husband: she, barring the assistance of others, needs to stop him.
There is no need to get inside the heads of your attackers, except to better understand how to defeat them.
"Democrats sat at home all day waiting for the government to give their lazy asses some cheese to chew on."
I haven't had any good government cheese in years. :(
*moves over on the couch and makes room between she and dave for dont swayze bro ... lights another cig*
Sorry, Echo. I'm not buying it, man. What I see here is not someone that has a burning desire to be a Democrat as much as someone that has a burning desire to not be in the same party as George Bush.
That's good ... it means that you are just one disillusionment away from the next phase: total political bewilderment.
Momma's waiting by the phone, baby. Come on back to the promised land.
Tim, do you think, overall, GW did much to help the Republican party?
"Pearl Harbor elicited no handwringing." True. But Iraq isn't Japan. They didn't bomb us. Even if it was, what are we getting out of being there right now? Iraq has internal conflicts that I don't see being helped having US soldiers in their country. If we are staying till our troops bring that country to peace, we will never leave.
If I ever hear an Iraq war supporter make a case without resorting to WW2 as an analogy, I'd find it more convincing. Every situation is unique.
E - I can't say that he did much to further the Republican cause, if that's what you're asking. Honestly, though, I could care less about the party ... I care about the country.
As far as the Iraq war is concerned, I have my own theory about it's true purpose. I wrote about it in Dave's forum post from about a week or so ago. I didn't get much feedback, so I suspect few agree with what was said.
I hear you Tim. I'm not sure I buy the theory, but it strikes me as more honest that what Bush was telling us. Plus no analogies. Straight Talk as McCain would say.
That said, I part ways with you in that I think Obama is better for the US than McCain would be. I admit thats speculation.
E - I am hopeful as well. He is a good man. Hopefully, he can keep the radicals under control.
Yeah. I know what you mean. We shall see how it goes. I can see the Dem's fucking things up plenty. I remember Carter. Thought Clinton went well...
There may be a cycle to things. Now that I'm getting older I see patterns in this stuff. Obama is kind of a reaction to Bush. There'll be some reaction to Obama eventually.
Note to Republicans - Feel free to nominate Palin. She's very telegenic.
or bobby jindal ...
I think we're seeing the ushering in of a new wave of political animals .. the younger set is poised to take the places of the old .. which will make for an interesting dynamic in the push and pull world of politics .. pandering to special interest groups will be the continuing challenge for the newbies .. the story of greed is old and well read .. but it's a brave new internet world out there where accountability is measured in clicks .. perhaps this new check and balance will keep the idealists ideal long enough to pass legislation that has "right" at it's core ..
and tim .. the iraq war was about establishing a foothold of democracy in the middle east within an arab country .. how you gonna keep em down on the farm once they've visited paris .. people change from within .. or least lasting and permanent change comes from within .. I say give every iraqi an ipod and load it up with rock and roll .. spark a revolution of change that at its core comes from people looking over the fence and seeing the greener grass on the other side .. every mother on this planet wants better for her child .. and the hand that rocks the cradle does rule the world .. every american soldier that bent down to give a kid a candy bar made more of an impression that the latest terrible bomb .. and ya can't hand out candy bars from thousands of miles away .. yeah .. and it was about oil too .. saddam was just the easiest guy to knock down over there .. the softest part of an apple is the rotten center
I'm not saying that there weren't numerous reasons/benefits to taking on Saddam, knocking him out and trying the instill the power of democracy in a people that may very well enjoy having it ... I'm just saying that we had to know that the insurgency was going to happen and, in fact, counted on it to happen so that we could pull the rats out of hiding places in other countries and fight them in an arena that we could (or thought we could) control.
tim .. if I wanted someone to cover my ass you can be damn sure it would be the US military .. I'm sure as I can be that our guys in uniform understood about the coming insurgency even if we at home in front of our TV's did not... it may been a crap shoot in terms of how many how long and where .. the breakdown comes when the media reports misinformation given to them by a less than transparent government .. I would not give my hail mary play away either but the process needs to look legit and to that end we were all left in the dark ... sometimes you just have to close your eyes and hold on to the hand that feeds you and trust .. and therein lies this administrations downfall .. they weren't very big on trusting us or themselves ..
tim .. if I wanted someone to cover my ass you can be damn sure it would be the US military .. I'm sure as I can be that our guys in uniform understood about the coming insurgency even if we at home in front of our TV's did not... it may been a crap shoot in terms of how many how long and where .. the breakdown comes when the media reports misinformation given to them by a less than transparent government .. I would not give my hail mary play away either but the process needs to look legit and to that end we were all left in the dark ... sometimes you just have to close your eyes and hold on to the hand that feeds you and trust .. and therein lies this administrations downfall .. they weren't very big on trusting us or themselves ..
I would agree with that ... too many people in this country think that we are entitled to know everything that is going on all the time.
... and media has become nothing but big business.