Friday, January 12, 2007

Thank You President Bush



Sincerely. Before you took office, I was consumed by my own short-sighted personal interests and left political activism to others. After all, in the grand scheme of things, my vote and voice meant very little, and besides, I had to put food on the family. But in the 2000 election the vote was too close to call. Less than 400 votes separated Gore and Bush in Florida and with several voting irregularities. Election night came and went, and in the morning, still we had no answer.

Days turned to weeks and the two candidates turned to the courts. David Boies argued for Gore and won a string of successes in Florida, causing the Bush camp attorney, Ted Olson to refer to Mr. Boies as a "T-Rex of an attorney."

Politics definitely had my attention, and I started feeling guilty for not voting. Ultimately Bush the lesser would win by a single vote. His attorney, Mr. Olson successfully argued before the SCOTUS to stop the Florida recount and in a 5-4 decision installed by selection instead of election the President who would ignore the threats of terrorists allowing them to use airplanes to attack America. The one that slammed into the Pentagon was carrying Mr. Olson's wife.

Thank you President Bush, for showing me the power of one vote.

After seven minutes of stunned silence, you grabbed your bullhorn in the nick of time telling America your number one job is to keep us safe. Somehow, wondering around in the wreckage of your ignorance and arrogance did not seem like leadership, but hey, I guess all that Presidentin' is hard work. You round up a posse and search for a tall tree and a short rope but can't seem to find the guy whodunnit. No sense in lettin' a good posse go to waste, so you shake and bake a bunch of undercooked intel and invade Iraq. You will never be found guilty of diplomacy, one only need to look at how you treat our diplomats.

Thank you President Bush, for showing me how important it is who I vote for.

Now your occupation of Iraq is going badly. Whodathunkit? Certainly not your rubber-stamp congress (recently replaced btw). You continuously poked purple fingers into the eyes of your critics as evidence Iraqi's want to throw off tyranny and replace it with freedom and democracy. We point to America's vote of November 7th as evidence of the same. Terms like "congressional oversight" and "separation of powers" and "judicial oversight" had no real world meaning to me, until they were non-existent. And the constitution, which I thought was a bloodless document, is no such thing. When it is damaged, America herself is wounded.

Thank you President Bush for the civics lesson.

The Federal Government limits my employment to 70 hours in eight days, and I frequently bump this ceiling. Nevertheless, prior to the recent mid-terms found me pestering my neighbors to vote. I was dispatched 700 miles from my polling place on election day and threatened to quit. If both of my knees were shattered, I would have drug my unemployed ass across broken glass to cast my vote.

Thank you President Bush for giving me a passion for my country.

Fortunately, I did not have to do that by taking advantage of early voting. On November 7th as I was driving to New Mexico, I called my neighbors and urged them to the polls. My goal was to vote and add three more. The final result was nine. I plan on making them Lieutenants with orders to recruit three more new voters apiece.

Thank you President Bush for doing the impossible; you damn near organized the Democratic party.

Truly I don't think my education and motivation needed to be so costly for America. Curiously you took your one vote mandate (and questionable re-election), lassoed the stalled Gingrich revolution pendulum, pointed your wagon toward the neocon vanishing point and commenced to mash that gas and tote that ass and brought down your own house. You spent all of our money, our kids money and even their kid's kids money. We got no street cred worldwide, our military is sucking wind, our spies are gun shy from shooterface guy and the whole world is heating up. And that's just the short list.

Thank you President Bush for being the poster child of why politics matter.

I've turned the corner towards '08 and set my sights on the blatant homophobe and science denier, Senator James "Baghdad Bob" Inhofe. With any luck, my nine Lieutenants, or hero's (inside joke) will throw in and we can get him bounced. The nightmarish beginning of this century and all the horrors that have occurred since has been due to one man and one vote.

Bring a friend.

What has Bush taught you?

6 comments:

Andrew, Bridget, Walker, and Josie said...

The tuition has been way too high, but we have had a damn good education. I look forward to continuing to put mine to work.

Great Post

A

Anonymous said...

Good piece. Speaking truth to power nowadays seems to be out of style. My Daddy kept us alive in Eastern Oklahoma during the 30's working WPA. He never voted repuglican, ever. I still got a picture of FDR hanging in my kitchen. I have contemplated moving back to Oklahoma just to vote against Inhofe and this new idiot Senator Coburn. God! What shameful representatives of our State they are. I grew up with Senators Kerr, Monroney and Edmundson, and my U.S. Representative, Carl Albert. He was the Goddamn Speaker of the House and possibly the most powerful person in America after the President, and he would come to my home town of Spiro (population 1200) and walk Main Street talking to the people. He'd sit in front of Tobler's Grocery Store and bullshit with the 'Spit & Whittle Club'. A Rhodes Scholar from Bugtussle, OK., interested in the little guy's thoughts about our government. He represented his constituency. He worked for me, and for all of those who elected him.

You write well, and write the truth. And starting the change on the neighborhood level gives hope that my shame for my beloved home state's elected leaders will be soon lessened. Thanks for listening.

HotFlash said...

OIL!FIELD!GUY!

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Effing inspirational. Amazing writing. You collapsed the past two years into one post and I felt like I was living it again, all in a rush.

I'd been a tad depressed (2007 has been a very mixed bag so far) but your post hit me where I live. Knocked my socks off. And kicked me a notch up. I'm gonna make the jump and get *a lot* more involved in making the world the way it should be, and not take no for an answer from either party. It's a big job, it'll take a long time and take a lot of focus and friends. And leaders like you.

You're up there with Ol' Tom Paine, you know, my grand kids will be reading about the patriots who saved America during the Touubles of @K -- Jane and Christy and TRex -- and you.

Hope to meet you in person some day, maybe at YKos, or maybe a Flying J.

Oilfieldguy said...

andrew,
Amen.

jacktheokie,
Ah, you refer to "little dixie" the largest arsenal of Democratic voters in the state. It still is. I've been to Spiro, and many small towns in Southeastern Oklahoma. My Grandfather owned a farm in Buffalo Valley.

hotflash,
Start with small steps. Three new voters. It is easy to imagine that, and not too daunting. I believe that every non-voter is a democrat. Republicans vote. Regular folks need to invite other regular folks into the political process. No one is asking anyone to march or die. But at a minimum...at a minimum, we should pay the friggin light bill on the mansion built on the shoulders of giants who did these very things.

And bring a friend.

Anonymous said...

Great post, Oilfieldguy! Just Great! I agree with your assessment of Inhofe, but I think I can go you two almost as bad...try McCain & Kyl. It's depressing. If it weren't for our Governor, Janet Napolitano, it'd be a real drag. But if you keep working on your state, and I keep working on mine, and a lot of others with similar sentiments keep working on theirs, pretty soon we'll have that 50 state strategy that Howard Dean keeps talking about covered! Good luck!

Anonymous said...

OFG,Thanks for all you do. Know you from fdl and look forward to your opinions. I'm more a reader than a poster, but I will post when I can expand on a point. Volunteered for five weeks after 9-11, hate this war and admin, but talk radio hosts said I was a traitor. Punched the dashboard til I silenced them. That's when my alarms went off. Did my homework, found the truth, and have fdl and guys like you to help guide me. Still a li'l shellshocked, but I come out of the corner for each round. Thanks for what you do and never give em an inch. They'll always take a yard. I'll be reading and converting as many as I can for as long as I can. Keep their feet in the fire my friend. Truth to power. Peace, John