Perverted Morality

Hello!

Today's post is a serious one...Don't worry, I'll go back to being incredibly weird and silly on Monday..Apparently, the Bert pictures are now available, so I will post those in my next blog, and even provide some commentary and impressions about each picture from a surprise guest...Good stuff coming on Monday, rest assured.

But today, in the wake of the election, I wanted to talk about the results, which have given George W. Bush a 2nd term in office.

Now, I'm not going to argue the validity of the results...They appear legitimate, and thus, Bush should congratulate himself for winning his very first presidential election.....But in retrospect, the results of this election trouble me much more than the 2000 election ever did.

Why? Because according to the majority of voters (especially in the swing state Ohio, which decided this election), the most important issue, despite thousands of hours of pundit commentary on endless cable TV political shows, turned out to be "morals and values". Not Iraq, not the loss of nearly a million net jobs across the country since 4 years ago, not even terrorism.

Now, on the surface, this might seem like a good thing. One might say, "It shows that people in this country put their morality and integrity ahead of money and other secular concerns".
However, when scrutinized, the truth begins to rear its ugly head, and at least to me, it's quite scary.

It's the fact that people are so willing to believe that Bush represents 'moral values' that troubles me. Let's review what he's done, first off, in office...these are merely some highlights, not a thorough rundown of his candidacy thus far:

- At the moment, it has been estimated that over 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the current war (this, of course, is excluding the 1100+ U.S. soldiers that have died, and the multiple beheadings of civilians). Most are women and children, and most died during bombing campaigns carried out by U.S. planes. I seem to remember several self-righteous claims from our government about ensuring that all steps are taken to reduce collateral damage....Remember those precision bombs and missles we developed, using the most advanced computer technology, that were only supposed to target Saddam's loyal followers? They don't seem to be working out too well.....And where are those WMD's? Remember, that was the main justification for going into Iraq to begin with.

- Mr. Bush, our 'moral' president, who has found Jesus and is now born again, has not attended even ONE funeral of any of our soldiers who died in the war.

- Mr. Bush has not vetoed even ONE massive spending bill proposed by his party, which is why the government went from a massive surplus created during the 90's to a 500 billion dollar debt. Based on Bush's goals for his 2nd term (tax code reform, overhauling of social security, drilling in the Alaskan wildlife refuge), the deficit, according to some, may double and reach a trillion dollars. Who do you think is going to have to pay this debt off? Enormous pharmaceutical companies? HAHA!! Don't make me laugh...It's us! The middle-class, the people who keep finding novel ways to scrape by for another month. Worse yet, it is likely that future generations, like our kids, and maybe their kids, will still be paying this debt, and this means (1: that college tuitions will continue to skyrocket to near unpayable levels, and in this day and age, if you don't have a college degree, you can forget a job that pays halfway decent wages. (2: Health care will become even more unaffordable than ever -- need some drugs to stave off that pesky heart trouble, or that timely life-saving operation? It's just going to get increasingly out of reach.

-Bush justifies the above by referring to the Bible, where he reads the book of Matthew...It states, "Thou shalt cut taxes for the rich and for massive multinational corporations, so that they could invest more money in the stock market, and thus, get richer." He bases this idea on the intrinsic philanthropy of gigantic corporations: he thinks that if they make more money on investments, then this means they'll create more jobs...Wrong again, Mr. Bush! Studies have shown that by doing this, companies actually purchase more technology, and they use their existing workers to do more work, thus ELIMINATING the need to hire more people.

- Mr. Bush cares little about our environment, being a Republican. He'd rather drill for oil instead of preserving the incredibly delicate ecological balance that exists on this planet. This planet is not getting any healthier, fish populations in the ocean are declining rapidly, as is the oxygen supply in the oceans, rain forests, which house plants that have resulted in innumerable medicines, continue to dwindle. Oh yeah, I forgot, the poles are melting too, thanks to global warming, and it is estimated that in 75 years of so, much of Oceania might be on the brink of being submerged.

So as we can see, George Bush understands middle class values, and is clearly guided by his morals. Heh...(If you REALLY want to be scared, don't watch "Saw" or "The Grudge" -- read the 911 Commission Report. This may be the only document in the last few years that is unquestionably true, and it unleashes the true horror of the Bush Administration)

But the question remains -- why is he viewed as "the moral president"...even when his record shows that in the very least, his actions should be viewed with tremendous skepticism?

It's because on the surface, he talks about religion, faith, church, and Jesus. And in this country, as shown by the election results, a majority of people, either due to laziness or stupidity, would rather look at the surface than look underneath it.

But it's even worse than that. Not only did so many churchgoers vote for Bush because he proclaimed himself to be religious, but they voted for him because of what the Catholic Church is trying to accomplish in the US: (1: The abolition of gay marriage, and (2: The abolition of abortion. (3: School prayer.

Now, for me personally, I don't mind school prayer, and abortion is a personal issue that is about 50/50 split among most demographics, so I won't touch that. But it's #1 which really bothers me. It is now apparent that the people in the red states, when they say they prefer moral values, really mean, "Gay people are evil, so let's reduce their rights." But what about Jesus' numerous messages of unconditional love for all?.......this sentence is a great way to make a Bush supporter shut up, because they have no answer.

I have so much more I want to say, but I just want to close with this: Remember why so many people voted for Bush: when they say that Bush is the candidate of morals and values, they mean that he also hates gay people too.

I called this post "Perverted Morality" because morality, according to Bush, is in reality quite hideous. That's why for the 1st time in my life, I'm not 100% sure that I belong in this country.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with my post, but I needed to get this off my chest...Thanks.