I'm 21 and a student at the University of Connecticut. I am volunteering for the important campaigns, but I also care very deeply about advocating liberal/left ideas in order to do my part to move the political center of gravity in this country. I agree with
David Sirota about the importance of having an ideological movement instead of "partisan war syndrome". Which is why in tomorrow's main campus newspaper, The Daily Campus I have my first commentary piece coming out on 9/11 five years later, the failures of conservatism & Bush and the disturbing cynicism they have created in this country, where according to an august poll 36% of Americans have become so disillusioned with government that they believe it is likely that the government allowed 9/11 to happen to start a mid-east war. It is about how we got to such a horrible place and it puts the blame on conservatism.
I think this is Crashing the Gate in that it is getting our ideas out there by simply getting involved and using existing infrastructure
Will you read it and give me feedback? It is not long.
Soon to be cross-published at the Daily Campus:
So much has been taken from us these past five years. I remember when an American student could do a semester in Europe without sewing a Canadian flag on his backpack, or travel in much of the Middle East without being shot in the street. In the 2000 election, long before we lost New Orleans, I rooted for Bush. After 9/11 I rallied around our leader with the bullhorn on the rubble. The direction Bush took us next though shook me badly. In time it became clear that he had been on extended summer vacation while the terrorists prepared, had ignored presidential daily briefings titled "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the US", failed to prevent 9/11, and sat reading My Pet Goat with young children after being told the nation was under attack.
It didn't take long for me to become disillusioned and later disgusted with the way the Conservative Republican Bush administration began to politicize and exploit terrorism to enact an unpopular conservative agenda at home and a radical neoconservative war agenda in the mid-east. Five years later Americans have been made so cynical by Bush politicizing terrorism that according to the LA Times (1) a "poll taken in August found that 36% believed it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials allowed the attacks to occur because 'they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.'" This is not about whether or not that is true, this is about why 36% believe the worst about their government. Five years after 9/11 I am very sad and angry at how Bush failed to protect us, failed to capture Bin Laden and then took his failure and manipulated our tragedy to get almost 3,000 soldiers (4) killed, waste $2 trillion dollars (5) on war that could have solved the energy crisis, and made us a nation of cynics in the process.
What is it that 36% of Americans are reacting to that has made them so cynical to feel that their conservative government would allow 3,000 Americans to die? Five years ago Americans had more faith than that in their government. What changed? They watched the Republican Party use terrorism to win elections by scaring people. They have seen their freedoms taken away with 9/11 as a justification, and it has made them so cynical about terrorism they think they're own government is complicit in it. America has watched the American death toll in Iraq get closer and closer to 3,000, with 9/11 as the justification.
What else changed to make Americans lose faith in their government? FEMA under the centrist-liberal Clinton administration handled emergency's quickly and saved lives. America watched the Conservative Republican response to disaster in New Orleans on TV. They saw that for three days Bush stayed on his traditional five-week vacation while on
their TV they saw Americans on rooftops. It wasn't incompetence at fault for the more than one thousand people who died from lack of government help in the week after Katrina, it was conservative governing philosophy. Ronald Reagan, demigod to Conservatives, famously said "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." (3) and he meant it, seriously. I think the people in New Orleans would disagree.
What other result than massive cynicism of government do we expect when a party that hates government holds absolute power? What the movement Conservatives don't put in their talking points is that what they hate specifically is the kind of government that is there to help people. Their support of Bush shows that they love a large intrusive big brother government that spy's on you, tells you who you can marry and when you can die. Once in office conservatives begin massive spending on war & tax cuts for the rich that ensure huge budget deficits that make funding for social services non-existent. Conservatives sabotage
government so they can say "See, it doesn't work".
Liberals want a government that stays out of your personal life but helps you when you lose your job, get sick or your city floods. Liberals want government, which is really society, or all of us, to share the risks of life. Risks like unemployment, sickness & natural disasters. Liberal policies work and make life better, social security, a 40 hour work week, overtime pay, civil rights, environmental protections, all were viciously opposed by conservatives until we won, and now are threatened by conservatives in power who seek to chip away at the gains we have made in the march of progress.
Another characteristic of the conservative response to a life threatening situation was to try to impose "law & order" on people fighting for survival, to put property over lives. Like treatening toshoot people getting food & supplies from storm damaged stores. Their precious inventory would be compensated for later by insurance or crisis funds. Instead the government ordered police and security contractors to use guns to protect property while people died. This caused people of New Orleans to feel their government would rather shoot them than help them. New Orleans was treated so poorly by the government that many residents of the lower 9th ward are so cynical they believe the levies were intentionally breached.
Six days after the storm, above the Superdome on the bridge from New Orleans to Gretna, the only way out, Shephard Smith from Fox News was on location. "There's people starving and elderly who can't get any medicine... ...Over there (across the bridge) there's hope, over there there's electricity, over there there's food & water but you can't go there the government won't allow it.... ....You can not deny that this is six days after... ....They've locked them in here" Shephard said angrily. In six days this conservative government wouldn't drive buses over a bridge to the central shelter, and wouldn't let the people stranded in "hell on earth" as Geraldo called it walk over a bridge to a safe place. (2)
The most basic difference between the right and the left is if you think your on your own, or that we are all in this together. There is infinite diversity of thought within those two camps, but it really is a fundamental divide. If you think that we're all in this together, and you are tired of the fear, cynicism and endless war being forced on us by the Republican party, make a difference this fall and volunteer for a democratic campaign . After the polls close on election day volunteers get a sweet party with an open bar. It's going to take a lot of work & Liberalism to restore American's faith. Government can and should be an agent for good. It's going to take new leadership to restore the world's faith in America and to end this perpetual war in the mid-east. Volunteer, it's fun.
What do you think? It could only be around 1,000 words so there are certain things I wish I could have explained more, but I had to cut a lot.
Did I come on too strong? Should I aim for the left, or a more general audience?
Sources:
1. LA Times -
http://www.latimes.com/...
2. Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/...
3. Reagan quote -
http://www.brainyquote.com/...
4. Lives http://icasualties.org/...
5. Cost - http://www.csmonitor.com/...