I just can't help myself...
I try to avoid being overly political in most situations. It's not that I don't have any political opinions or viewpoints, just that I don't like it when people try to push their own politics on others, so I avoid trying to push my politics. But on a day like today, the Presidential Inauguration, I can't help but feel disgusted by the way some people act. For example, the company that has started catering lunch at our office, Stella Nonna, decided that instead of working today they were going to take the day off to protest the inauguration. Alright, so it's one thing to be unhappy with the president, but it's a completely other thing to shut down for the day to protest a political event over which you have no control, not to mention the fact that it's happening 3000 miles away in Washington, D.C. Four years ago, maybe there was a reason to protest Bush's swearing in - it was a highly charged and contested election - but today when Bush won the popular vote? Why protest his inauguration when he was clearly chosen by the American public? People are really just protesting his policies, particularly the war in Iraq, but I'd like to know how John Kerry would have done anything better about the war.
OK, let's look at this John Kerry fellow. Before the war in Iraq was ever started, John Kerry went on record as saying that he would support a war in the Middle East. He was IN FAVOR of the way, and anyone who suggests that John Kerry wouldn't have taken the U.S. into war just as Bush did is trying to fool themselves. And what about those people who say that Kerry, if he had been elected this past year, would have put an end to the war in Iraq by pulling troops out? Totally false. Kerry openly said that his plan would be to send MORE troops in Iraq - not fewer. Did you read that - MORE troops. So Kerry's brilliant plan to fix the problems Bush created would be to just send in more force to put a complete end to the opposition forces. Yah, that's the solution, just kill all the bastards and make the problem go away.
Now, personally, I don't support all of Bush's policies, but I feel like he has done a damn good job as President considering everything he has faced in his first four years. OK, the national deficit is ridiculously high, but tell me with a straight face that a democrat could make the deficit go away, or even decrease substantially, while facing issues like September 11. I definitely don't agree with a constitutional BAN on gay marriage. Do I personally support gay marriage? Not really, but I don't think it's right to implement a constitutional ban. But I do support Bush's tax policies. The American tax system, with its tiered rates, is setup such that poorer people are taxes less than richer people. So what if we lower the tax rates in the higher tax brackets? We aren't raising rates in the lower brackets, so it's not like the poor are getting poorer. Maybe the rich get richer, but why is that necessarily a bad thing? The social and economic policies of the democrats encourage poor people to be lazy by just throwing free money at them. I am not against welfare programs, just against the bleeding heart programs that tax the rich at unbelievable rates so that money can be redistributed to people who sit at home all day. Should a doctor who saves lives and get paid $500,000 a year be taxed $250,000 each year so that an unemployed bum can get by without ever working another day in their life?
Well, I think that will end my political rant for the time being... like I said, I generally try to avoid being too political because I don't want to insult anyone, but on a day like today, I just can't help myself.