HOME
Message Board
CURRENT COLUMNS
- Editor's Corner
- Blogfest 2005
- Commentary
- Commentary Too
- Down The Middle
- Faulking Around
- Global Warning
- This guy walks into a bar...
- Investing 101
- Faulking Opinions
- Off The Rail
- Words
ARCHIVES
LINKS
CONTACT US
 | |||
Faulking Around - Jan 18, 2005 - Printable Version
- An Open Letter to the Red States
by Robin Buckallew
To my red state brothers and sisters, I would like to relate a bedtime story. Once upon a time (all bedtime stories begin "once upon a time", or they cannot truly be considered bedtime stories). Once upon a time, a man named George Bush was president of the United States, a rich and powerful nation somewhere to the west of Europe and the south of Canada. President Bush wished to remain president, and so after his first term, he ran for re-election. Unfortunately for George, he was defeated by a young upstart named Bill Clinton, from the state of Arkansas, a small, backwards state in the Midwest. Now, the supporters of George Bush didn't like this situation very much, and so they began to look closely at this young smartass, Bill Clinton, who had the utter gall to be elected by a plurality of the people that bothered to vote. They spent the next four years looking through all his closets, sorting through his trash, questioning all his friends and enemies about anything he might ever have done and said. A great deal of this investigating was done using money given to them by the very taxpayers who had elected Bill Clinton. They did find a number of things in his closets, a few dust bunnies here and there, a suspicious file or two, some odd little quirky things, and they spent a great deal of time and money pointing these things out to the public. In spite of all the scandal, much to their dismay, a slightly older but not particularly wiser Bill Clinton was re-elected to the office of president four years later. During this period of time, the investigation went on. Horrible things were said. President Clinton was called every ugly name they could think of. And still the people seemed to like him. In fact, the uglier the stories, it appeared the more the voters liked him. So then, they invaded his personal life. They taped conversations with a girl friend (yes, Bill was a married man, but he didn't let that stop him from noticing other women). They searched the closet still more, until they finally encountered a stained blue dress that would prove Bill lied. Then, they attempted, unsuccessfully, to remove him from office. During this entire eight year period, the people who were lined up against the president were given full access to the news media, front page coverage for even their nastiest stories (even those for which they had no evidence at all), and full use of the nation's legal systems. The Supreme Court gleefully broke with longstanding precedent to allow a civil case to be brought against a sitting president, which allowed the dissenters free reign to continue their challenges. Finally, after eight long years of this, the natural life of Bill Clinton's presidency came to its constitutional end. Following a nasty battle to determine the successor to Bill Clinton, a young man by the name of George W. Bush (yes, he is related to the George Bush mentioned above) was declared president, by hook or by crook. Those who felt his ascension was by crook were told gleefully by his supporters to "get over it". Despite ample evidence of widespread voter disenfranchisement, and in some places the suggestion of outright fraud, Mr. Bush was sworn in as POTUS, took his wife and twins, and moved into the White House. Protests against what some believed was an illegitimate president continued, though mostly quietly, since these protests were restricted for the most part to so-called "free speech zones". Dissenters were told that he was President now, and it was unpatriotic to speak out against the president. Most were unable to remember three months before, when they were calling President Bill Clinton names which could not be repeated in polite company. In fact, most of these individuals were still calling Bill Clinton names which could not be repeated in polite company. Many stories continued to be spread about him, some true (yes, he did lie about sex with Monica Lewinsky; yes, he did take money from the Chinese, as did nearly every other elected official in Washington in both parties), some false (no, he did not remove the "w"s off the typewriter keyboards; no, the outgoing people did not defecate on the White House walls). But any honest attempts to question the presidency of George W. Bush, in spite of the somewhat doubtful manner in which he assumed office, were put down as un-patriotic, un-American, and downright treasonous. Then, the unthinkable happened. On a bright fall morning in September, terrorists attacked the country, killing several thousand civilians and thumbing their nose at the mighty, rich and powerful country. The country rallied around the President. What would he do? How would he protect us? How would he bring justice and peace to the world again? Not a breath of dissent was heard at first. President Bush got grand praise from the country for his stalwart, staunch demeanor. The country poured out money and support for his efforts to defeat terrorism. But this only lasted for a short time. Soon, the president embarked upon a path that some of the Americans found distasteful, even abhorrent. They spoke out once again in protest. They marched, they picketed, they petitioned. They were called every name in the book by those who continued to support President Bush. But still they continued, apparently believing that the Constitution gave them the right to dissent.
Four years later, yet another election was held. In this election, President Bush was re-elected by a very small margin of the voters. He promptly claimed a mandate for his policies, totally ignoring all those who had voted against him. His supporters continue to say "Get over it". Meanwhile, the finger of blame still continues to be pointed at former president Bill Clinton. Books continue to be written blaming everything bad that has ever happened on Bill, and his wife, Hillary. In the midst of all this finger-pointing, flag-waving and patriotic posturing, the individuals who voted for President George Bush continue to tell those who dislike him to "Get Over It". One has to ask themselves, when will they be willing to tell themselves "Get Over It" about the election of President Bill Clinton, a man elected by the majority of those people who bothered to vote, a man who has not been president now for four years?
I have a better idea. I will accept that you, the so-called "red-staters" will NEVER, EVER, EVER in a thousand million years, get over the fact that Bill Clinton was once president of this country. In turn, you will do me the same courtesy of allowing me my constitutional right to dissent, to exercise those rights that make me American. Our founding fathers fought and died, willfully committed acts of treason, to gain those rights for Americans. Now if their actions, if our American revolution, if our Constitution are to have any meaning at all, we must all of us stand together in common purpose to protect our right to dissent, and to respect the rights of others to do likewise. This is my country. I love it, and I will not leave it.
Voice your opinion on our message board (you don't have to sign up to post).