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I knew we were all in trouble way back in 2000 during the republican primary when he was asked who his favorite philosopher was and he responded: Jesus Christ. In a rational society, this kind of blatant pandering would be seen for what it was and booed off the stage. In America, we carry you into office for it. It's questionable how many other philosophers Bush had read up to that point anyway but the fact that no one bothered to ask that question is another argument for why we deserved to get stuck with this guy.
After that, anything that happened to us we were asking for. If a country elects it's leaders based on their faith rather then their policies, they do not deserve to survive and certainly do not deserve the status of super-power. Yes, he lied, cheated, stole, and killed. He was elected based on his faith. Competent leaders don't need to do that. To be certain, Clinton helped him along by going along with the sex witch hunts instead of saying "None of your fucking business!" like the rest of us would have. He fell into the religious puritan trap as well. This is the problem, we let symbolism trump necessity. As a result, we get stuck with the worst possible leaders.
This happens all the time. Remember the flap over Obama's lack of a flag pin? The fact that "story" got any air time at all shows how little we've actually learned since 2000. How many incompetent republicans are still in office because they ran on the bottemless gold mine of gay marriage and abortion, two issues that don't even affect the people who vote based on them? Sarah Palin anyone?
We on the left can say it's not our fault and that we don't deserve to live with the bad decisions of others mistakes but how many assumed that Prop. 8 would fail in California just because talk radio has painted it the most liberal state in the union? How many assumed that Kerry would win hands down in 2004? How many beleived that Clinton would usher in a new era of tolerance and change back in 1992? We keep giving our fellow citizens the benefit of the doubt no matter how many times they prove us wrong. We need to wake up to the realities of the world around us and just how dumb our fellow citizens really are.
It is easy to say that if Gore had won in 2000 that America would not be as polarized as it is today. I respectfully disagree. The mentality that put Bush in office in 2000 would still be out there. Yes, I am glad he is leaving, but to say that we have learned from his disasterous presidency is niave. In 1998, after the impeachment of Clinton fell through, many commentators said it was the death of the culture wars. Two years later we all know who won, don't we?
I don't have the solution. I don't know how to make people beleive in evolution given all the evidence for it that is already out there. I don't know how to convince that family on the verge of poverty that their pastor really doesn't have their best interest in mind when he tells them that gay marriage is the most important issue to vote on. I just know we need to stop assuming that one election victory means people have woken up. It is a long, hard, fight and we still have a long way to go.
