an important election?
Published October 29, 2004
I received this in an email this morning and it is a MUST READ!!!
Written by Mathew Manweller... Central Washington University political science professor...
"In that this will be my last column before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high.
This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication and a reign of ambivalence. Down the other lies a nation that is aware of its past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands. If we choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and ourselves will be two-fold.
First, we will reject the notion that America can do big things.
Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood down the Nazis and stood upon the moon, we will announce to the world that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big of a task for us. But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized other civilizations. The defeat of President Bush will send a chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult, yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn away from that legacy, we turn away from who we are.
Second, we inform every terrorist organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well learned. In Somalia we showed terrorists that you don't need to defeat America on the battlefield when you can defeat them in the newsroom. They learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America.
- an important election?
- Published: October 29, 2004
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- Section: Politics
- Writer: Andy Marsh
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If you haven't already figured iyt out, here you are either preaching to the choir or spitting into the wind.
While most people here agree that this election is tremendously important, and even agree tat the GWOT is a key point in choosing, almost all of us have our made our choices, and won't be swayed by the above post. Those who agree say "Amen brother !" and go to the polls, those who disagree will offer up all of their pro forma responses that we have already beaten to death. I, for one, have voted, and will be glad when this election is over, hopefully moving on to the real matters at hand. This has been the ugliest campaign season that I can remember in my voting life.
I agree with you Ski. This has been a pretty ugly election season. I also agree that no one seems to be swayed by anything either side has to say, be it facts or inuendo!
I don't know, maybe I was hoping some poor undecided voter might read it and...ah the hell with it!
Ski---I couldn't have said it better myself. I can't wait to start talking to my conservatives friends about things other than why the hell I'm voting for Kerry.
Hmmm. A verbatim reproduction of someone's (rather vapid an embarassingly inacurrate) material passing as someone's blog entry. Those who can't, fake.
Is Manweller saying he'd leave the country if Kerry wins?
Perhaps he didn't want to say that part out loud, but this is certainly one of the more overwrought pieces of electioneering I've seen this year, and that's saying something.
This election is certainly important enough to vote in, but I highly doubt it has the potential to be "the end of America" no matter what way it goes.
This country may be in a time of crisis, but is it really that much worse than the crisis of the Civil War? We may be failing to live up to some of our values and responsibilities as a culture, but are we now failing in any way that is really so much worse than the systematic denial of rights to black people for more than a century after the Civil War? Or worse than our systematic attempt to wipe out red people?
The terrorists of al-Qaida and their cohorts may be a resolute and deadly enemy, but are they really so much more resolute and deadly than the Soviets and their allies in the Cold War?
What is needed now is not the panicky haste of crisis thinking, but the steady endurance of long-term thinking. We must build our confidence that the core values of America are universal human values. We must build our conviction that we can prevail in the end, by seeking to becoming better at adhering to those values, no matter who may win any particular election.
If I saw any prominent public figures saying things like that, they are the ones I'd consider deeply patriotic.
This is wrong on so many levels. Re-electing Bush is accepting our obligations? Bush has arrogantly and foolishly taken on debts (financial and otherwise) for this country that will be paid for by generations of hard-working (not wealthy Republican) American workers. Retreat, abdication and ambivalence? Please, let's not be so dramatic. It's the Democrats who are typically mocked by Republicans for undertaking big, ambitious (often worthwhile) projects like REDUCING poverty and inequality. The fact is that the Bush administation has not only gone against core Republican and conservative principles, but has simply done a really poor job of running this country. Manweller is completely backwards - if we don't get Bush out of office, the damage done in the next four years will dwarf what has been done in the previous four (not easy to do) and may turn out to be the beginning of the end of this country's greatness. Rhetoric like "rise to the demands of history" neglects the reality that the Bush administration (led by the half-wit himself) has learned nothing from history.
This is nothing more than the bleating of a conservative lamening the inevitable Kerry victory but who should actually realize that Bush is no friend to him. What's unfortunate is that this type of thinking has grown stronger in the last four years and will certaininly rear it's ugly head in years to come, with no benefit to anyone.
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(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/21580)
what a load of total propaganda.
try reading some facts instead:
http://tinyurl.com/6p4dq