SOTU Redux or Bush the New Dealer

Okay -- I am taking a ten minute break from work for a political rant. You have been duly warned!!

I am going to give my two cents on the state of the Union address. Let me begin with a point of honesty: I supported the invasion of Iraq and I still do. IMO it was a prudent act of statecraft rooted in a long list of rationales that made and make sense to me. Okay, got that out. Just so you know, I don't want to argue about that.

Now, on to the SOTU address. What I do not support is a crusade to "make the world safe for democracy." (Oops, wrong president -- that was Wilson). I mean to make the world democratic. It is a noble ideal but completely wrong headed. Bush has turned democracy -- a mechanism for governing -- into an ideology -- a religous impulse that is the hope of the world. Hey, if just being democratic is the ticket than what do we about the nasty, brutish thugs named Hamas now that they are in power. They were democratically elected. Oh well, this is an old impulse in American politics. We just can't seem to fight a war for prudent reasons of statecraft. They always have to be these moral crusades. That's all fine and good, but moral crusades cost more blood and money than prudent acts of statecraft.

That leads me to the domestic part of the speech. Bush calls himself a conservative, right? Uh, so, uh how come he acts like a New Dealer when it comes to domestic spending and the notion that the Federal government is the solution to every problem an American citizen has? Of course the house and senate are to blame too. But how about vetoing at least one spending bill?

Maybe I'll join the Libertarians. At least they are consistent!!

Rant done. Thanks for letting me cathart.

Now -- back to work.