Shut Up and Do as Bush Tells You

With election day upon us, it couldn't hurt to remind ourselves once again of the differences between Democrats and Republicans, both the politicians who go by these names, and the voters who put them into office. While I was home visiting Kentucky lately, I chanced upon two letters-to-the-editor in the--unfortunately Gannett-owned--local Louisville paper, the Courier Journal (Oct. 26) . The first letter, written by Kevin Howard of Smithfield, Ky., offers a list of "Reasons not to vote Republican":

Iraq, Katrina, fiscal irresponsibility, nuclear north Korea, Cheney, sex scandal, Tora Bora, ear-marked pork, resurgent Taliban, federal debt, Rumsfeld, international scorn, Social Security, overextended military, Freedom Fries, immigration, Harriet Miers, Iran, unfounded mandates, no WMD, Clean Air/Water Act rollbacks, Abu Ghraib, administrative incompetence, Rita, lobbying scandals, Mission Accomplished, global warming, deficit spending, inadequate armor, bin Laden still free, and Bush.

Yeah, and what about, "Bring it on"?

The second letter, which follows the first in the paper, looks almost like a hack job commissioned by a conservative editor at the Courier-Journal, in the name, of course, of "balance." But once in awhile, certain issues really do turn out to be one-sided. The author, Darrell Carlisle of Louisville, gives us a list of "reasons" to vote Democratic:

If you want our soldiers who died in Iraq to have died in vain, then vote Democrat. If you want to fight the terrorists in our country cities and streets, the vote Democrat. If you want to have a socialist country, then vote Democrat. If you want to lose everything you have worked for, then vote democrat. If you want to be forced to worship a foreign God, then vote Democrat. If you want to lose all the freedoms we have, that Americans have fought and died for, then vote Democrat.

In other words, the commies will be marching in the streets, confiscating your Hummers, and forcing you to trample on a crucifix. But at least waterboarding will be prohibited!

It's instructive to consider the differences in these two lists. The first is a list of actual, specific reasons to oppose Republican policies, though they're not completely spelled out (you could write a book about any of them) because the author assumes a modicum of intelligence and remembrance in his readers. The second list is just a list of hollow slogans, though they are apparently (though not in reality) spelled out in greater detail. Notice too that the author of the second list seems to make the opposite assumption: he thinks his readers are complete fools who were born yesterday. This has been the attitude of the Republicans for many years now, especially of Bush and his cronies: they do as they please with no regard for the will of the people, and then attempt to manipulate public opinion through propaganda.

Regardless of your political leanings, liberal or conservative, this attitude alone is reason enough to throw the Republicans out of office.