Rewriting History

Bush’s Brain is at it again. Karl Rove is trying to rewrite history. He is pushing the message that the Bush Administration did not want to move as quickly toward war with Iraq, if at all, it was Congress’ fault. Congress passed the bills to give President Bush great latitude in the war on terror too fast. The administration was forced into war.

Can you believe this!? Regardless of how stupid the American polity has been over the years, surely the blinders have come off by now. Karl Rove has never met a lie that he didn’t like and why not. He has made his reputation on telling lies and repeating them so often that they take on a life of their own. Where there’s smoke there’s fire, right? So, lets buy what he is selling.

Look what he sold us in the past. What makes anyone think he would be selling anything but a lie now? We have got to stop buying what this pusher man is selling. It’s time to go cold turkey. Preferably a frozen turkey to the side of Roves’ head.

I declare, I’m embarrassed to be a member of the baby-boomer generation

In the past baby boomers held great ideals.  And as such, we marched and fought to enact changes in civil rights and protections for the environment.  We helped bring down a corrupt and Constitution-prostituting administration.  Today we help elect a corrupt and Constitution prostituting administration, twice.  What went wrong?

Baby boomers don’t like to sacrifice.  Early on it was easy to fight against the establishment when we could rely on our parents to feed, cloth, and pamper us.  Our sacrifices came at a minimum.   As a result, as we became the establishment our avoidance of shared sacrifice has become entrenched.

In the late 70’s President Carter said that we are facing the “moral equivalency of war” in our need to end our dependency on foreign oil.  Drive 55, set your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and a few degrees lower in the winter, conserve natural resources and seek new energy technologies.  He was reviled and made fun of.  It was easier to accept Reagan’s rosy platitudes and slogans.  “It’s the dawning of a new America”, “Don’t worry, be happy”.  There is no need to sacrifice, we can have it all because we are Americans and we deserve it.    Don’t worry about exploding deficits.  Don’t worry that we support corrupt dictators all over the world, don’t worry that clear cutting is happening in National Forests and water and air qualities are deteriorating.  Look how comfortable you are.

Now we have the embodiment of our baby boomer generation as President.  When 9/11 occurred Bush’s requested us to “go shopping”.    If we quit shopping then the terrorist win.   Here, take this tax break and buy a Hummer and why not reduce all taxes especially the ones on those who really don’t like to sacrifice, the super wealthy.  Let’s attack Iraq.  They have lots of targets to hit and they have oil and we want it, we deserve it.  Run away deficits are not a problem it’s just an accounting thing. Again, no sacrifices have to be made to fight terrorism except those to our basic rights and that pesky Constitution.

While not all baby boomers fall into the above categories, the great trend of our generation has been to avoid the heavy lifting.  As a result, we have come full circle.  We now have an administration that is corrupt, war mongering, and Constitution-prostituting and we put it in power.  Where is our outrage and idealism? Where would we be now if we had accepted President Carter’s call to sacrifice?  When do we accept the fact that a shared sacrifice is needed?  Oh, we have, we have sacrificed our children’s futures and replaced our idealism with fear.   Fear is a whole new topic.