INSITEVIEW- - tom shugart's weblog

Thursday, April 10, 2003

A Default Bushie?

Well, I knew that when I made a pitch in the preceding post for utilizing the mechanisms of representative democracy—which is what our country is supposed to be about—I would take some flak for it. So be it. I learned long ago not to be surprised by the cynicism of the far left.

What I didn’t expect was to be accused--along with Jonathon Delacour of all people--of being a sort of de facto Bush supporter. Well, I don’t need to prove my distaste of and contempt for the Bush team to anyone. I think I can speak with authority for the content of my own heart, thank you very much.

I desperately did not want this war to take place. I think it’s been a complete outrage. But now that we’re there, we’d better clean up the mess we made. Some seem to suggest that we should just butt out forthwith and go march in the streets. I call that irresponsible and ineffective. If that makes me a Bush supporter in the eyes of some, well, then I guess I’ll just have to live with that.

I fully agree with my esteemed blogging friend, Frank Paynter, when he says that,

“it remains for each of us to demonstrate our opposition to the war crimes perpetuated by the Bush regime and to affirm our complete and total rejection of a government that wages pre-emptive war.”

We can disagree on the most effective ways to demonstrate that opposition. But I’m obliged to say to Frank that I’m offended by the veiled implication that I lack “decency and common sense” for allowing myself, in his view, “to be trapped in the thorny thicket of supposed ‘democratic’ options.”

To be fair, he put it in the context of living in Hitlerian Germany and what he hoped his actions would have been had he been there. But, to my mind the personal implication still stands out. Frank, you’re welcome to rebut. Attack my logic, but not my decency, please.

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