Thursday, April 9, 2009

Do you know what I don't like?

People hating on leaders.

I didn't like it when people, oozing moral or intellectual superiority, would say - or think - smugly, "I told you so" about Bush's decisions, secretly rejoicing when things went poorly as a result, and I don't like the naysayers who whine about how Obama's policies aren't going to work at reviving the economy, who just sit around with their precious money and bad attitudes.

People, if the policies of our nation's leaders fail, everybody loses.

If the economy still sucks in four years from now, are you going to be glad because you were right?

Can't anyone be positive about anything anymore? AMERICA - the America I love - it is better than Republicans or Democrats. It is creativity, innovation. It is pushing forward the dignity of every human being. It is the underdog. It is complicated, certainly, paradoxical even. But at its core it is more than what we're making it out to be.


Where is patriotism? Can we only be patriotic when our party is in power? I'm actually not even sure we can do that. No, because, by patriotism, I mean the love and dedication to your native or adoptive homeland, your people, that inspires you to work - with your hands or your mental energy or whatever you have to offer - to build it up. It is not a warm and fuzzy feeling you get when your party is in power which disappears suddenly at the next election leaving you standing by, bemoaning the current conditions.

Everyone is guilty of this - both sides.

Aren't we all Americans first and foremost, not Democrats or Republicans? Why can't we do what is in our capacity to heal and rebuild our own communities, support those with the power to make broader decisions (and yes even constructively criticize, which is part of supporting but different from whining, in that it involves actually contacting them), and have hope and faith that things will work out? Are we just a bunch of lazy, pansy whiners who want somebody to read our minds and fix all of our problems for us?

Pleeeease, people.

Maybe I'm insufferably idealistic. I don't even care.

4 comments:

SeƱora H-B said...

Oh, thank you for writing what I've been feeling. I am so tired of reading political rants.

Bbear said...

Maybe I'm insufferably idealistic.

No, maybe you're insufferably awesome.

Take that.

Samantha said...

You make me smile. I think insufferably idealistic and awesome is exactly what everyone needs.

ci said...

i completely agree. i was horrified recently when i came across clips of a political commentator...smush smimbaugh...who outright said he wanted obama's economic plan to fail, just like he wants the team he's rooting against in the super bowl to lose. what a terrible comparison! if the president's efforts fail, everybody loses.