Don’t Change Horses Mid Apocalypse
If you’re going to say something like “Do not question Dear Leader. The Leader is always right”, you tend to not just come out and say it — at least not in what is commonly referred to as a democracy. Instead, you say things like “Steady leadership in times of change”. Or you paint your opponent as a “flip-flopper”. As if having the mental acuity and guts to admit that you made a mistake is something to be ashamed of.
But then there’s stuff like the billboard I saw out on I-17 tonight. The upper two-thirds and entire width of the billboard is taken up by the word “STOP”. Underneath it, smaller, is “second guessing and doubting.” Still underneath that, even smaller, it says “Support President Bush and our troops.”
STOP second guessing and doubting. Support President Bush and our troops.
Riiiiiiiggggghhhht.
Cause we all know dissent is bad. Disagree? Shut your hole. As of today there are 1,000 Americans dead in Iraq. If I thought that supporting President Bush would keep that number from climbing higher, I would. But it’s not going to.
President Bush got us in this mess. It was his war — he went it alone. Whether or not he lied about the necessity for war (and I think he did), there’s no question that it was his decision. And there’s now 1,000+ reasons why that was the wrong one. More if you count Iraqi civilian casualties.
Sure, people make mistakes. But the President can’t. If he does, we replace him. There’s a higher standard here. No such thing as a do-over. Certainly in a country of 294 million we can find somebody every four to eight years who won’t make mistakes that cost the lives of thousands.
This year I think that person is John Kerry, so I’ll be voting for him in November. And when he wins, I will doubt and second guess every decision he makes until I’m satisfied that he’s right. And I hope you do too.
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