Tuesday, August 10, 2004
day 85/reason 16: crazy-making contradictions
Hypocritical, contradictory or doublethink may be good descriptions of the actions and beliefs of the W administration. I don't understand this ability - they are able to say one thing and do another so glibly that they can spin their actions so as to make them seem justifiable to a sizeable percentage of our population.
A classic example of this is the whole big government vs small government conundrum. Typically, conservatives prefer small government – they want gov to be as inobtrusive as possible on the lives of citizens, whether it's taxes, property rights or gun ownership rules.
However, this administration is actually a conservative's worst nightmare – from the Patriot Act and increased legal basis for invasions into our privacy, to a Medicare drug plan that makes seniors sign up to get paltry discounts (why didn't the government just send monthly or yearly checks to seniors to use as they see fit for their prescriptions instead of requiring them to sign up for plans that could change the approved drug list at any time? But I stray...). Our ballooning deficit in the name of regime change in another country is another example of big government and so is restricting women's rights to choose what they do with the bodies.
I don't know how W and Co can support these actions and square them with traditional Repub values. Or maybe they can't. They may have already gone crazy from the contradictory nature of their actions, which could explain why it feels like there are crazy people in charge of this country.
Hypocritical, contradictory or doublethink may be good descriptions of the actions and beliefs of the W administration. I don't understand this ability - they are able to say one thing and do another so glibly that they can spin their actions so as to make them seem justifiable to a sizeable percentage of our population.
A classic example of this is the whole big government vs small government conundrum. Typically, conservatives prefer small government – they want gov to be as inobtrusive as possible on the lives of citizens, whether it's taxes, property rights or gun ownership rules.
However, this administration is actually a conservative's worst nightmare – from the Patriot Act and increased legal basis for invasions into our privacy, to a Medicare drug plan that makes seniors sign up to get paltry discounts (why didn't the government just send monthly or yearly checks to seniors to use as they see fit for their prescriptions instead of requiring them to sign up for plans that could change the approved drug list at any time? But I stray...). Our ballooning deficit in the name of regime change in another country is another example of big government and so is restricting women's rights to choose what they do with the bodies.
I don't know how W and Co can support these actions and square them with traditional Repub values. Or maybe they can't. They may have already gone crazy from the contradictory nature of their actions, which could explain why it feels like there are crazy people in charge of this country.
¶ 8:32 PM
