Are there other Americans here who are beginning to feel a little uneasy about expressing negative feelings about the current Administration in such an open and public place?
No, I don’t think that the CIA is trying to kill me with beams of mutated static energy coming through my ceiling. :dubious: But I have never felt uncomfortable before in expressing my political beliefs. I’ve never seen our country so hungry for power or so indifferent to preserving our relationships with our Allies. I’ve never known the USA to suspend civil rights the way they have in the last couple of years. I am horrified to think that the US trained Central and South Americans in the techniques of torture. For the first time in six decades, I hear people wondering if the Administration will go so far as to suspend elections. (I fully acknowledge that that last one is just speculation at this point.)
I’ve never known our leaders to be so indifferent to environmental issues.
Sometimes the posts from Administration supporters appear to be blood thirsty and filled with hatred for everything that is not American – or even not Conservative.
How could you feel uncomfortable about expressing your political beliefs where i live im up to my nose in loud mouth liberals who shove their thoughts down my throat. Im not even going to adress most of the points because they account for what you believe not what may or may not be true. I havent noticed any diffrenced in civil rights, and i figure as long as your not having long telephone conversations about bombs and blowing up things you should be ok. I could care less if the government listened to my girlfriend and i talking on the phone. Give it 6 months and some revenue from Iraq oil and our allies would have any complaints. I think you are somewhat over reacting.
Is it that you’ve never known, that you’ve only recently come to care and follow the issues, or that due to the press pushing its freedom you now know more than ever before?
Suspend civil rights? How about a Supreme Court that once ruled for slavery. More recently, how about the Women’s Movement feeling it needed a Constitutional amendment to be seen as equal to men. Ever since the US has been able to project itself, it has been up to its navel in seedy foreign affairs.
IMHO, the biggest difference between now and then has been the growth and commercialization of the media. Journalists are competing and pushing their own agendas, and are doing so by bringing news to light that may have collectively been ‘overlooked’ previously.
Do you actually feel uncomfortable, or do you want to feel uncomfortable because it better validates your dislike of the current administration? Would you feel more justified in that dislike if the administration did suspend elections? Sorry, but it isn’t going to happen. You’re going to have to continue harboring your dislike without the outlandish justification that you seem to crave.
And if Bush finishes his 8 yrs as president and neither you nor any of your family or friends are even so much as bullied in any way by the gov’t will you admit that your fear was ungrounded?
Reeder: My bad sentence structure. The “if” was supposed to apply to the the words after “and”. But you can subsitute “when” for “if” and I’m OK with that. Anyway, my point is that just having a fear does not mean that the fear is justified. What specifically are you afraid will happen to you?
I see an assault on our freedoms from this administration. We already have at least one citizen held without being allowed his civil rights. Just because someone calls him an enemy combatant means he loses his civil rights? If they do it for Padilla, they can do itr for you. I see enemy soldiers held on foreign soil just so we don’t have to give them civil rights. I see our intelligence agencies able to enter my house and search without even telling me let alone get a search warrant. The better question is why aren’t you scared?
Wrong. Several poster have said they feel presonally threatened by the administration. I have challenged that and have not received a valid answer yet. In particular:
Isn’t that an implicit aspect of the “freedom” part?
I mean, Saddam Hussein could have told everyone in Iraq that they had “freedom of speech” and could say whatever negative things they wanted to about his government, but if Joe Iraqi started to utter a dissenting sentence and found a heavily-armed Republican Guard looming over his shoulder, Joe might decide to shut up and stay alive instead.
“Freedom of speech” should include the “warm and fuzzy” feeling that you won’t face retribution for exercising that freedom.
Very good point. That was my first thought when I read the thread title. Fortunately, I believe our system has adequate safeguards built in to not let things get out of hand.
Sigh… once again, I have to reassure fretful lefties that the worst-case scenario is, George W. Bush will leave office on January 20, 2009. MAYBE sooner, if the economy doesn’t improve.
There WILL be an election in November of 2004. Anyone who doubts that or has spent a split second worrying about suspension of elections is a paranoid fruitcake.
No it is not. You have every right to say whatever you like. You do not have the right to force the rest of us to hold your hand and say “wow…that’s a great idea”.
I think most people here know my feelings on the School of the Americas.
I also find it disturbing that many in Bush’s cabinet were involved in the Iran Contra scandal and the funding of terrorism in Central America during the 1980s.
