Giving Bush a Fresh Start
Writing in TIME, Andrew Sullivan says it's time "to give the winner a chance, a fresh start, a honeymoon to do what he thinks is in the best interests of the country." He goes on to say that those of us who supported Kerry and lost must have "a capacity to give even a man you voted against a chance to prove himself. If you lost, get over it."
I respectfully disagree. If a man is running for his first term as President and you vote for his opponent and your candidate loses, then I agree, it is incumbent upon you to give the victor a chance. That's where I found myself four years ago. I did not vote for George Bush but when he won I was willing to wait and see how he would perform before I passed judgement on him.
That is not the situation we find ourselves in now. The President has had four years to establish what kind of leader he is and in my view, as well as that of 48% of the voters in this country, he has been found wanting. Because 51% of the voters approve of Bush, it is not our duty to ignore all he has done over the past four years to earn our emnity and give him a mulligan. If he wants a fresh start, if he wants us to follow, if he wants to unite the country behind him, it is up to him to choose a path we can follow him down. It is not up to us to set aside our moral principles and blindly follow the leader. Those who would advocate such a course are abdicating their own responsibility for our country's actions. I cannot do that. As long as President Bush represents the United States to the world I cannot sit on the sidelines smiling stupidly when he acts in ways that I believe are immoral or against the best interests of our country. Will I, as Sullivan suggests I should, put aside my anger? I will try. Will I put aside my passion? I will not, and I wonder why to do so would be considered a good thing.
Sullivan goes on to suggest that after the events of the last few months, the President " surely understands now how divided the country has become under his presidency and how deeply flawed his war management has been." Have you seen anything in the President's words or actions to suggest that this is true, that he has a better sense now than he did previously of the degree to which and the passion by which so many people disagree with him? I don't see it. Until Bush pursues some attempt to reach out to the middle, to say nothing of the left, of our political spectrum, until he says or does anything that would discourage corrupt business interests, right wing extemists, and repressive fundamentalist Christians from believing that his reelection is their key to the kingdom and the public treasury, I will continue to withhold my support. Because you know what they say. "Fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again"
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