Where Was Michael Moore When We Needed Him??

Since many Americans appear to have "voted for change" (whatever that means) and the Democrats now control the House and likely the Senate, I thought I'd take this opportunity to make my first official post in the political blog world.

It will be interesting for me too see what happens now. This is the first time I've really paid attention to politics when the Republicans haven't been in control of everything. Back when I didn't pay much attention, and before information was so easy to come by, I generally voted either Democrat or Republican (or for Perot) based on little more than how I felt about a particular candidate. 9/11 opened my eyes much wider.

Since 9/11, I have found little in the Democrat platform that I can identify with. To me, their behavior post-9/11 has been nothing short of disgraceful - casting Bush as the enemy instead of the growing wave of violent Islamic radicalism. Thousands marching in the streets in support of Saddam in late 2002 will be a tough image to erase from my memory.

Sure, the Clinton years seemed great. But shortly after we learned that things were not as they seemed. The economy was built on a house of cards and began to collapse shortly before the 2000 election. The foreign diplomacy for which Clinton is lauded, revealed broken promises in North Korea and emboldened Islamic radicals to continue to further their agenda through acts of mass violence.

By the way, I did not vote for Bush in 2000. And when Bush took office in 2001, he was not much better at taking action to stem the tide of Islamic terrorism than Clinton, but he was only in office for 8 months - not 8 years - when 9/11 happened. The difference for me is that Bush and many Republicans realized the old way of approaching the problem was wrong. And Bush would be damned before he would let another attack happen on his watch. Luckily, that attack has not happened. Yet. But it is being planned. And it would have been planned regardless of any action taken in Iraq.

Michael Moore did the Democrats a huge favor by shutting the hell up this cycle. We'll see if the Democrats will continue to distance themselves from the likes of Moore and Kos in the coming two years. The answer to that could well determine who wins in 2008.

Anyway, this post is way too long already, so I'll wrap it up. I just hope in the coming two years that Republicans and conservatives show the Democrats what civility in politics looks like, even though they were not extended the same courtesy by the Democrats. And I hope people can stick to the issues, and not side shows. This is the greatest country in the world, no matter who is president. And if you cant agree with that, we have little to discuss.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are encouraged and will be approved if they are civil and generally do not contain any foul language. Disagreeing with me is also encouraged, but I might not always have the time to respond. I hope I can post often, but work commitments as well as two adorable kids, a wife, and a dog, keep me pretty busy...

Thanks for dropping by.

Jeff (a.k.a. Jordan and Mina's Dad)