Topic: Ugly Politics
This is a quote I picked up from RedState, referencing an article from Huffington Post, that was shown as evidence that the Left is just insane. But this particular quote intrigued me.
"But in light of the very real potential of the next two American elections to solidify our growing American persona as a warlike, polluter-friendly nation with repressive domestic tendencies and inadequate health care for so many tens of millions..."
I am not even sure who wrote this garbage, and I don't really care. It is simply more talking points of the blame-America, hate-America Left. But it is galling to me how the Left can use the amazing power of spin to make the United State of America so bad.
1) Warlike: Because the United States uses its military power in order to defend itself (as in Afghanistan and the conclusion of the Iraq Conflict from the early 90's to today), and liberate (as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Bosnia), we are called "warlike". When the US was propping up dictators and doing what the European powers did in the last century, we were condemned. Now that we are trying to make things work, and bring justice to the darkest corners of the earth, we are duly condemned. Doing nothing brought us 9/11. Apparently doing good makes people even more mad.
2) Polluter-friendly: Because the US has an economy that is the most successful and powerful in the world due to our creativity and work ethic, we are called polluter-friendly. Because we won't sign a Kyoto Treaty, an agreement even Bill Clinton wouldn't sign, because it favors China, India, Russia and virtually every nation on earth while it punishes the American economy, we are polluters. Kyoto exempts "developing nations" like China (which has been around for thousands of years) from quotas on pollution, and allows depressed economies like Russia to sell their pollution credits for billions to other countires. Just read, for a second, an article or two about what China and India are doing to ravage their enviornments. Who is polluter-friendly?
3) Repressive domestically: This is the most galling. The freest nation on earth, where idiots like that author can slander the President and any member of the government with these lies, and get away with it, is repressive? The United States has tried to institute a few programs, like the Patriot Act, wiretapping and bank data mining, to find and capture terrorists. Phone lines are tapped into, just as they were for the Mafia, but this time on calls to and from Kabul. Bank records showing large cash transactions from the middle-east to the US can help us stop another 9/11. Is that oppressive? Do secret police arrest dissenters as in China or Russia? Do people go missing as in some repressive nations? So brave, the liberals think they are, to stand up and speak their minds in the face of nothing stopping them. If only the Iraqis had that chance under Saddam, or the Afghans under the Taliban, or the Chinese today.
4) Inadequate health-care: In fact the United States has the best health care in the world. Liberals are just upset that they can't tax every American 50% of their income in order to make it free for everyone. Hospitals still treat the uninsured. If you lack insurance, yes, you'll have to pay for your care. But that's better than dying, no?
The power of spin is great, and must be dealt with. The United States, the greatest nation on earth, the most free and prosperous, can be made to look outright evil. But most Americans reject this thinking because they are certainly not stupid.
