How much would be different?

The hot topic of the week is how stupid Obama is for wanting Gitmo closed. And how wrong he's been for discussing the issue of torture. Then I wondered how different everything would be if McCain had been elected, because I remembered him criticizing the Bush administration when the 1st reports of waterboard were made public a couple years ago.

Here's what was reported By Philip Sherwell in Cedar Falls, IowaLast Updated: 2:25AM GMT 19 Mar 2007 http://wizbangpolitics.com/2007/03/19/mccain-close-gitmo-fight-climate-change.php


... a lot that's not relevant and then...

But Sen McCain has also consistently criticised the handling of the war by the Bush administration, and has led efforts in the Senate to end torture and extrajudicial treatment of terror suspects.

In a sign that he wants to distance himself from the president - to whom he lost in an ugly campaign in 2000 - Sen McCain outlined a series of measures to roll back Bush policies and counter the "ugly American" image.

"I would immediately close Guantanamo Bay, move all the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth (an army base in Kansas) and truly expedite the judicial proceedings in their cases," he said. "I would reaffirm my commitment to address the issue of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I know how important this is in Europe in particular."

John Weaver, Sen McCain's chief strategist, confirmed his plans for a markedly more conciliatory foreign policy. "The next president will have to work extra hard to unite our friends and divide our foes. Sadly the opposite has occurred in recent years," he said, as Sen McCain addressed a crowded hall in the farming community of Cedar Falls.

Doesn't seem like a whole lot of difference in how both parties candidates indicated they would handle Gitmo including the fact they both pretty much agreed that Bush has screwed-up in his foreign policies.

Don't be Afraid or Scary

I know people who lean way to the Right, and the way they’re thinking now just scares me. I try to understand them by listening to Rush and watching Fox News. But when they aren’t declaring how Obama has ruined America forever in these 1st few months, both of those leaders of the Right just rant and rave about how “they” are the targets of the mean spirited, liberal Left, and their mainstream media.

I guess I am a liberal, and I guess I also watch the mainstream media. But unless I tune into the rhetoric of Keith Oberman, I do not hear the Right being attacked. Especially, not since GW left office. The only attacks I see are coming from the traditional political attack programming --- humor. I’m talking about SNL and the Daily Show. Hell, I can even go back to the 70s when conservative views were the butt of the humor – remember Archie Bunker?

Sure nobody wants to be laughed at, but if you view the world as unchanging, contained in the values (a favorite word of the Right) of tradition then your ideas might be outdated if not laughable. Just in the last few centuries, tradition dictated that whites were superior to blacks, browns …, and that men were superior to women, and that Arians were better than Jews. Values change!

Even the Right are not totally immune to an evolutionary change in values. How else can GW’s administration’s adoption of torture as a legitimate method of information gathering be explained. During my military indoctrination in the traditional 60s, torture was really frowned upon. Yes, we were warned that the bad guys might use it. Those bad guys were the --- the godless heathens, the VC, the gooks like the Japs (who attacked us with the shock and awe of Pearl Harbor)—people who didn’t share our values.

Therefore it seems that change is not just an option of the Left. And values aren’t always fixed in political or ideological cement.

But if the Right would have had their way, we Left would have listened to them and “Stayed the Course” of a conservative Presidential administration. However in light of the truly ineffective if not disastrous administration they/we/us voted in 2000 and 2004, how could they expect anyone to follow their lead in 2008. Any such expectation is laughable.

So why isn’t the Right laughing? Why are they so paranoid in their feeling of persecution? I can only advise them to calm down. Give change a chance. See if it isn’t nice. And for that I’ll promise if Obama screws up as bad a GW, I’ll accept a change back. I’ll just have to hope they won’t let him/her be stupid, or controlled by the super natural, or the like.

And if the worst happens for them and their candidate in 2012 is only a three time Purple Heart recipient versus our draft dodging, “Please, Daddy get me into the national guard!”, candidate (Oops never-mind, I’m getting mixed up again), then they’ll just have to tolerate another four years of someone they don’t particularly like.

In the meantime, let’s everybody just try not to be so scared or scary.