| Just to respond to your edited comments, I do not see this as an attack on Republicans in general, and I don't see Bush as a run-of-the-mill Republican. I know that Bush is a neo-con and that this piece is critisizing Bush and his administration.
You seemed to miss my point, so here is the main thrust.... the piece SHOULD have been critisizing the US Government as a whole including Republicans and neo-cons (which are currently a subset of the Republican party).
The problems that are raised are not specific to Bush and his administration. I will agree that he has without doubt made the situations worse, but he did not create any single issue raised in the "speech".
to readdress each point:
1. OK, I think I just misinterpreted the point of this. If the point was that Bush spent money in the wrong place by burning it in the oil fires, I won't contest that.
2. My wife is a Social Worker, my father is a Special Ed teacher and my step-father ran a retirement home in the 80's and 90's. I am fully aware of the sad state that social services are in. I am also very aware that even when Clinton was being praised by everyone that all service areas were underfunded, understaffed and still couldn't help even half of the people that needed it. Has Bush made things better? Hell no! But he did not create the problem and social services was not a rosy world of perfection before he was elected.
3. The Auto industry (and the oil industry) continue to fight tooth and nail to keep any form of fuel efficiency standards out of legislation. There is some now, but anytime a bill is put forth with more it is attacked from many angles. If you offered up a bill right now with standards that would make a significant difference, it would not pass. In fact the California standards are already being attacked in court and may be overturned. I have to take off, but if the conversation is still going tomorrow I'll post some additional info on this.
4. VonDondu and TonyMontana1638 already responded better than I would have been able to. For this topic, I was going more by a judgement (no pun intended) than specific instances. Maybe the history doesn't reflect my impression, but in general all politicians put people in place that follow their general thinking.
In general, I agree that Bush is doing a terrible job and is swinging US policies far from moderate. But I don't think that he is the single reason for the current state of the government. I think the blame can be equally shared around the whole town.  |