Cheney believes moderates are useless. Therefore, we’re all useless to him.
From Dick Cheney, courtesy CNN Politics:
“This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas … what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and constitutional principles.
You know, when you add all those things up, the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought to fundamentally change our philosophy,” Cheney also said. “I for one am not prepared to do that, and I think most of us aren’t. Most Republicans have a pretty good idea of values, and aren’t eager to have someone come along and say, ‘Well, the only way you can win is if you start to act more like a Democrat.’”
And here’s a reiteration of what some of these values are:
• Invasion of privacy when it pleases us
• Constant campaigns of fear to keep the masses controllable
• Free enterprise that benefits the top 1% at the detriment of everyone else
• Religious fringe/narrow minded philosophies (climate change a myth, creationism not)
• Wars based primarily on corporate interests and fed to us as patriotic necessity
It hardly ends with this small sampling. The point, however, is not lost. Cheney’s statement is a false representation of our country and the former republican party for that matter. In fact, it’s the kind of things a potential dictator might offer.
Our government is built on checks and balances not because the country believes in an extreme philosophy but due to the opposite; we are a moderate nation. Take a few people who think black and a few who think white and mix them together. What do you get?
The comforting thing about democrats (and also the most frustrating thing in terms of passing policy into law) is that they understand this inherently. In fact, democratic politicians can very rare agree on issues that are part of their party’s platform because there is no herd mentality in the party. Many consider themselves individual thinkers, others as conservatives (blue dogs) and some as radicals. In the end, we have ONE party that represents America.
The republicans, on the other hand, have veered off into Gattaca-ville. They believe their platform promotes freedom and individuality but their too blind to see the truth - situations like Teri Schaivo, phone-tapping, torture approval methods and pre-emptive wars have, until the last 10 years, been a fringe mentality. Thanks to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their Nazi-like followers this kind of thinking about what a democracy is has been pushed into the mainstream. Granted, much of it was pushed through the gauze of fear (mushroom clouds, alert levels, enemies within), but thank God America finally came to their senses.
And that brings us to Cheney. More than anything said before, this statement above proves beyond a doubt that these people never had any intention of working with the rest of us. They maintained their fringe mentality and always intended to shove it down our throats whether we liked it or not. Lets face it, if we DIDN’T like it, we were branded as traitors. As long as we did, we would cheer for the team and become blindly complacent to corruption (Halliburton), laziness (Katrina) and a lack of oversight and enforcement of laws (mortgage industry) that has undone our reputation and the world’s economy.
he deserves to be in prison.
Cheney had Haliburton, Obama and his administration have General Electric. I stand corrected for calling The President a communist. While he is still a marxist at heart he has upgraded to a facist now that he has set GE on the top of the healthcare AND media world. Take a look at http://www.healthymagination.com when you get a chance and read what they plan on doing. Also, Tom Daschle is on healthymagination’s board now. Have you read his book yet on how to fix the healthcare system? Apparently we can save a lot of money by rationing medical care based on a needs to age model in which the elderly should accept the conditions they are going to get in old age and cancer patients would for go medications they need. Lovely!
Cheney had Haliburton, Obama and his administration have General Electric. I stand corrected for calling The President a communist.
Please, Jonathan. I doubt you really want to compare Obama to Dick Cheney. And as far as healthcare, the focus is on preventative medicine. If, however, the plan is TRULY the way you describe it then, yes, I would have a hell of a problem with it. Nonetheless, our current healthcare system here is bullshit. In truth, ANYTHING would be better.
All indicators included, I can only summarize that hings are not going to be hunky-dory (spelling) as far as universal healthcare goes. I had to compare Obama to Cheney to make sure you weren’t completely writing me off HAHA!
But seriously, there is a lot about this President that rubs me the wrong way. Tonight after LOST I was watching his speech at the ASU graduation. Once again he brought out his line “Wealth is a poverty of ambition, it asks to little of yourself…” That is a bunch of bull flop. You show me someone who is willing to work for jack and not recieve SOME compensation for it that would make him better off than he was before. On that same front, define wealth. Is wealth money, or is it the feeling you get from giving a homeless person a ten spot?
The other thing that grinds my gears is an interview he had before his election that not many people now about. This man is supposed to be a Constitutional Scholar and know the document from front to back. He has called that document a “charter of negative liberties”. First, what the fuck is a negative liberty? Sounds similar to reverse discrimination, another phrase that does not compute (discrimination is discrimination). He does not like that the government is told what it can’t do to you and not what it can do for you. He goes further to talk about redistribution of wealth yata yata yata. Point being, he would very much like to have a system in place to give to those that don’t contribute.
If you are in favor of a progressive tax code, and I know you are, let me propose this. Fuck the current progressive tax code we currently have for 39.5% for household incomes of 250K. Lets do this; At 1 million you implement a 1% per million on top of the 39.5% up to 50 million which would result in 90% taxation for 50 million and above. You would generate all the money you would need to fund healthcare, wellfare and every other humanitarian program you want…
That means George Soros, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, etc. would be contributing their “fair share” to the cause. But you know what? It most certainly would never happen because while these guys will preach about giving to a greater cause, or Sean Penn or George Clooney makes a movie about a cause, they aren’t going to give up their lifestyles to actually supprt it.
Obama is just a simple fool. I’m just sorry that the country will have to pay for this idiot for the next 20 years.
What? Like we’ve had to pay for the incompetence of the last eight? You people have such a short memory - that’s probably why you keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
So what are we gaining out of this you ask? What is an American Voter gaining out of it? Unemployement? No Loans, High Charging Credit cards and highly respected institutions going thumbs down? Have we put our heart and soul into this country’s institutions for this?