Last week, I labeled many of you cavemen, citing your unapologetic reliance on violent methods to attain your aims, whether they are of a right or left agenda. I do not withdraw my criticism as it remains true this week as much as it did last week. Nonetheless, I will begin this article with soft, soothing words of compliment, noting credit where credit is due.
Let me point out, for example, that most on the left tend to entertain good and lofty ambitions. Many on the left are happy to claim exclusive ownership of high morals and consider this to be the chief distinction between their party and the right. The right, they believe, is infested with cruel and selfish people, people who love war and scorn the poor. The left enjoys membership of exactly the opposite sort, virtuous people who aspire to peace and take care of their needy neighbors.
I, for one, commend many of the sentiments on the left and certainly prefer them to the boorish belligerence which so frequently retards the higher faculties of neoconservatives. But we all recognize that there is a substantial difference between merely feeling the right thing and actually doing the right thing.
Consider the current president, for example. Here is a politician who worked hard during his campaign to appeal to a country’s better sentiments. He spoke fondly and devotedly of ending the wars in the Middle East, he reminded us all of our nation’s domestic needs, and he brilliantly aroused a sweeping patriotic fervor.
But lately, Obama is exposing himself as a two-faced phony of the most impressive variety, effortlessly displaying one image to the average populace (a message of “change we can believe in”) only to turn to the well-entrenched cronies of D.C. with a starkly contrasted reassurance of “more of the same.”
I recall how, before the election, it was common to hear people get red-faced about the terrible unfairness of spending billions to continue a pointless and unconstitutional war in the Middle East while our education system was in shambles. The contention that it is better to spend money preparing minds than armies has a great deal of resonance with most Americans who believe that the barren dessert sands of the Middle East have already been over-watered with the blood of their sons and daughters.
But where are the efforts to rein in the wars now? I do not condemn anyone for resenting the Bush leadership; there was much to resent. But at one time I actually entertained the false hope that the left’s protests against the Bush policies were about something more important and serious than a petty dislike for a single man. The left raised quite an uproar over the war, and rightly so, but it seems their fuss was mostly directed, not at the horrible and unconstitutional war, but rather at the man who was fighting the war, George Bush.
The left appears disturbingly placated and content now that the former commander in chief has been replaced. But is this complacency justified? Has the war machine been stopped? Has the military industrial complex been surrendered to the grave?
It is regrettable that many on the left have simply decided that since their man was elected, all’s well in the world. But while the left has folded its hands to take a nap, the world is spinning into a bloody and mad chaos.
Remember your affection for Obama when he suggested during his campaign that all the billions wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan could be better spent on education here at home? Of course, you do, that was one of the reasons you voted for him. I hope you are at a least a little surprised and somewhat disturbed to learn that Obama’s war budget is 4 percent larger than that of his predecessor, a whopping $20.4 billion increase.
There’s more unsettling news you may not have heard of, or may have heard but simply ignored. A new surge, the Af-Pak initiative, a commitment of upwards of 21,000 soldiers, is underway. You may recall that a similar movement aroused bitter resentment during Bush’s days. Today, there’s hardly a murmur. It seems that the war machine has magically become a vehicle of peace and goodwill since Obama assumed the wheel.
Who dares to recall any of the high morals the left was preaching only months earlier? By its silence, the left has loudly demonstrated that their primary objective was electing Obama, not making sure that he does the right thing.
Jeremy Hicks is a 2008 political science graduate, the founder of the Cal Poly Libertarian Club and a Mustang Daily political columnist.
You know months before Obama was elected I was very serious about joining the Marines to serve my country so I was paying pretty close attention.
It made me laugh when people would tell me "well its a good time since Obama is going to win so you’ll be safe."
First of all Obama never said anything about ENDING the war in Afghanistan. The problem with the general public who think they have a clue whats going on in the middle east is its all one desert, all one enemy, and all one war when that is miles from the truth.
The war in Afghanistan was started in October of 2001 in response to the Al Quaeda cells that were operating there who were directly responsible for the attacks in New York.
The War In Iraq didnt begin until 2003 to disarm Saddam and any potentially illegal weapons (chemical, biological, or WMD)
You cannot lump the wars together, you cannot lump all democrats aor all republicans together, doing so tells the world that you cant take the time to look at the details, form your own opinion and recognize the differences.
Instead you listen to what the news sources tell you, what the media who is here an not there tell you, they spin their own stories on situations that undermine our troops and the wars they are fighting.
Alot of times I think had in 2001 the terrorists had struck California people would see things differently, why have we forgotten? Why do we think that these people will simply leave us alone when when they have already killed thousands of our citizens?
I dont expect you to answer but how much of our nations dollars should we have spent to keep all of the people on 9/11 from dying? Can you put a price on that? The soldiers fighting over in the middle east right now are risking their lives, the ultimate price, to defend people like you an me, and they volunteered.
THANK YOU! Seriously.
I will admit that the governing idea of this article is one that I (and I must add unfortunately) agree to. The “left” has become disturbingly placated by the election of Obama, as if all problems will be solved by this one man. I, like many, was very angry to hear the cuts to the budget included a much needed stimulus to the education system. However, what this articles fails to mention (perhaps because of certain biases), the wheeling and dealing the occurs within the walls of the Capital State Building. I will admit to my lack of knowledge in certain political matters, but it doesn’t seem too far out of left field to say that perhaps Obama used the “war funding” as to tool to get congress moving on the Economic Bail outs, something that everyone has agreed (for different reasons) is necessary. This is what bothers me the most, “Washington Politics” at its best. How can we trust any president or politician to maintain their values when politics calls for certain sacrifices to be made?
All is not well in the world. The Republicans have not been relegated to the ash pits of archeological history. I want to hear a paleontologist say, “Hey look what I dug up!” And then hear his boss say, “Bury it, its not important.” Then all will be well with the world.
Our next exhibit is the libertarian ideology…
As you can see from the years 1980-1988 stamped in the ashes of the LIbertarian Party Ronald Reagan made totally irrelevent the LIbertarian Party. Ideologies merged under Ronald Reagan and he did more to make the United States a two party system than any other president in its history. The epitome of the Republican/LIbertarian ideology came crashing down during the pResidency of GW Bush. Arguably the worst thing to ever happen to the Republican/Libertarian Party yet strangely a wake up call to middle class and the poor of America.
“What?”
“No, we took their guns away from them before they could try. They couldn’t be trusted.”