to miss an opportunity to be a uniter. It is sad when a presidents entire agenda is based upon intentionally further dividing this nation. It is sad that the president does not consider himself to be my president and your president, but their president. It is sad that the president cannot be a leader by example to heal the rifts in this country, but can only be the epicenter of the growing schism.
President Bush had an opportunity to be a leader by example. He failed. President Bush had an opportunity to be bigger than both the fringes on the right and left, but he has once again shown that he is lesser. He did not stand up to the far right after they sank his last qualified nominee. Instead, he bowed to them.
Judge Samuel Alito is considered by many to be to the right of even Scalia. He is not an unknown judge. He is anti-choice. He is anti-affirmative action. He is anti-right to privacy. He is undoutfully very intelligent and is intellectually qualified to serve on the bench. But the message Bush sent out today is that he is not to be the peoples president, but the far rights president. Bush didn't even pretend to consult the Democrats this time. Once again, he has shown that he has no respect for opposing views. He has no desire for consensus. He has no need for uniting.
What really baffles me about Bush is how he can predicate his entire governance style on dividing this nation and yet he considers himself to be such a great leader of the American people. He may be a leader, but it is anything but the American people. He governs for himself and a small section of this country.
Bush Selects Alito for Supreme Court
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3 comments:
It's not the President it's the American people that are divided and they have been for some time. If anyone else had been elected, we would not magically have been united.
The only thing that changes is you feel that the country is more united when the side you agree with is in power. Because you feel that the right things are being done, even if the other side doesn't understand or acknowledge it.
I disagree with that Tommy. There have been many conservative and liberal presidents that, while leading from their side, at least made attempts to make the other side feel included in the process. Bush does not make those overtures. He just leads from his side and the rest be damned for not following him. And, it is the party in power that has to make those overtures. It cannot be done in vise-versa.
The American people are not so far divided that a good leader could not bring both sides to a level of at least reasoned discourse. There are leaders on the right who can and do do this. Bush is just not one of them. A real leader must be able to unite even those who do not follow lock-step. I don't know how he worked in Texas, but on a notional level, he doesn't seem to know how to be a real leader of a multi-ideological country.
He ask Iraqis to shed their Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish ideological differences in order to unify the nation, but Bush is unwilling or unable to do it himself.
I didn't like Reagan, but he was a good leader. I didn't like Bush Sr., but he was an honorable leader. There is just nothing redeemable about Jr's leadership that I can find to say, I dislike him, but...
were the people less divided, or were the leaders less divisive? I don't think the people are really any more divided than we were 10, 20, 30 years ago, on the substantive issues, but I think the leaders (both Dems and Repubs) are much more divisive. It is the chiken and the egg.
It takes a very strong leader to be able to unite. Bush may be strong in his convictions, but he is not a strong leader or else he would not have to constantly fall back to the far right for support.
Lieberman is a moderate leader that can reach out to both sides. So is McCain. I think there will be much more desire for these types of leaders in the next presidential election.
As always Tommy, thanks for the good debate.
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