Friday, January 16, 2009

A Long Overdue Farewell

Just a few thoughts on President Bush's farewell speech last night.

Arlene Howard gave President Bush her son's police badge to remind him at all times of what was lost on 9/11. What was lost on 9/11 were people's lives in a truly tragic event. What has been lost since then, with Bush at the helm, has been nearly everything this country has stood for for over 200 years. Our freedom, our prosperity, our national pride. It seems that President Bush not only forgot what has been taken from the people of this country, he stopped caring. 

Since when is Iraq an actual democracy?

It has been 7 years since the last attack on American soil, something that Bush slyly takes a certain amount of credit for. Yet, prior to his term, it had been over 200 years without a terrorist attack.

Bush's presidency was a campaign of terror. Not, perhaps, in the same way as 9/11, but his single-minded invasion of numerous foreign countries in his selfish crusade for power was nothing less than an act of terrorism. In the course of his quest, he has run this country into the ground. He has stripped away freedom after freedom, he has constantly overstepped the bounds of his office as outlined in the Constitution, he has abused every shred of power he was entrusted with, and he leaves us with words of how much good he has done for us. Preposterous.

The environment is not cleaner, particularly after the last few weeks with him lifting restriction after restriction. 

The greatest threat to this country's freedoms is not a terrorist attack. Our greatest threat is the way we idly sit by as our freedoms are stripped from us. That must stop.

America can lead the cause of freedom without interventionist policies and without going to war with any country that doesn't happen to be a democracy. 

In citizens like the ones Bush spoke of, I see the reason that this country will rebound from the catastrophe that was the Bush administration.

Chris Knight over at The Knight Shift posted a great response to Bush's farewell speech in that of Ronald Reagan. It was truly nice to relive what was perhaps the best farewell address in the history of the tradition. It was honest and humble, unlike that of our current president, who sounded very defensive.  Check out Chris's post here

I'd like to leave you today, with a couple of quotes from Reagan's farewell address that I think are quite relevant to the current state of this country. 

"Man is not free unless government is limited." 
"As government expands, Liberty contracts."
-Ronald Reagan

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