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Current Issue: Volume 130, Number 1 July 14, 2009

Ed/Op


My View
Citizens should question policies

Posted 02-02-2005 at 3:46PM

So I’m flipping through the channels and see our fearless leader giving a grand oration on how our great homeland will spread the fires of freedom to the darkest corners of the world, or some such rhetoric. The masses on the edges of the screen yipped in unanimous agreement, (except for that handful of dissenters in the crowd that had the gall to hold up a sign in protest). Those unpat­riotic jerks were annihilated by a blast of pure energy from the eyes of our gloriously smirking war president. Then he ate a baby.

At least that’s how I saw the inauguration.

Over the last few months, President Bush has spent his victory lap, while the world collectively sobbed, toting his self-proclaimed mandate. After all, the man received the most votes in American history (assuming you’re not familiar with the concept of percentages). There is another similar election statistic that the slim majority seems to overlook: more people voted against him than any other president in history. If in a democracy a candidate receiving 50.7% of the vote has unquestioned authority to push his policies, even those the public disagrees with, we might want to pause for a moment and reflect on how we can possibly think this is a good idea.

I am sure that many readers right now are furiously shaking their fists and whining in a very high-pitched voice, “But he won! Get over it! America doesn’t want you commies anymore!” To these read­ers, I must first congratulate them for being literate, as it has a tendency to interfere with their world view. Second, I must disagree strenuously with their assertion. It is dishonest to discount the values for which 58 million people voted. You will quickly find that the emotion towards the election is insignificant when compared to the emotion towards the issues that these people feel. They do not speak up to cause problems, but to solve problems. They do not protest to attack a man, but to fight the damage he does to the nation. They do not care about how they are going to win elections, but how they can make the world a better place to live in. My fellow Americans will continue to stand up and be heard, well after the election. It would be unpatriotic to do otherwise.

Yes, I know this might be a foreign concept for more than a few people out there. It is astonishing how half of the country is unwilling to question the guy running the nation for them, particularly when we have the sword of Damocles hanging over us. Personality cult indeed.

Here’s a bit of an exercise: ask the nearest Bush voters what their presidential candidate of choice would have to do wrong in order to lose their support. However, be aware that you’ll most likely be extremely confounded and be­fuddled by the entire episode, and proceed to bang your head against the closest cinderblock.

If you are angry about the last paragraph, I sincerely hope it is because you take offense to the stereotype. Otherwise, take a hike. For those Bush voters who do question his policies, I suggest the lot of you take a long, hard look at most who support this man. Realize that as long as this administration is in power, your beliefs will be trampled, your suggestions will be ignored, and your pleas for moderation will be thrown asunder. There is no longer a place in your party for moderates, as the cries of “mandate!” have clearly indicated. The only way to fight off extrem­ism is to form a popular front against it. Stand up for yourselves, raise your voices for all to hear, and value principle more than party.

On inauguration Thursday, while many ran about with their “told-you-so” grins, the rest of the world felt its heart hit their knees. The land of freedom received a wound that would never heal in the eyes of history. But we refuse to let this wound be fatal to the Constitution we have fought so hard to preserve.

We will never cede the freedoms we have fought so hard to maintain. We will never surrender the liberties we have struggled to keep. We will never sacrifice our beliefs for the sake of public office. Win or lose, we are liberals and we will never take shame in that fact. Expect the pendulum to swing back. Hard.

Austin Randazzo

PHYS ’07



Posted 02-02-2005 at 3:46PM
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