The sad thing is not that they think it's a good thing he is a 'man of God' (I would too personally favor a leader who believes in some form of a higher being, hoping that this would act as a 'check' against certain actions that might be deemed 'immoral' or 'unethical'). Instead, the sad part is that in today's world, religious people are much more likely to admire a man who "talks the talk", while paying little to no attention to whether or not he actually "walks the walk".
I consider myself a religious man and I certainly believe in God. Morally, I disagree with abortion and and gay marriage. However, I could not care the least bit how secular my President was nor how much he differed with me on religious views. I also whole heartedly support abortion and right to gay marriage because although I may personally have a moral objection to them, I recognize that the government should have no bearing on the personal lives of its citizens. It's probably my greatest pet peeve when people take their personal moral beliefs into consideration when choosing a President or discussing a law. This isn't a theocracy. Shouldn't this be about what's best for democracy? There was nothing that frustrated me more than during pre-election coverage, when they would interview average people. "So why are you going to vote for Bush?"..."Well, I just think he's a good man and he is God fearing." Yes, it doesn't matter that he led us into war based on false pretenses and that he is the head of an administration characterized as perhaps the most corrupt and secretive in United States history. He believes in God. That is enough. Ugh. I'm still bitter.
no doubt it is now down to 34% according to Newsweek 61% disapprove of the way Bush is handling Iraq 52% disapprove of his economic policies 51% disapprove of his job overall 31% approve of his stem cell research stance 34% approve of his environmental policies 38% say ALL the troops should be brought home within a year 12% say now only 26% say keep em there as long as it takes http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050806/nysa006.html?.v=20
Hahaha, no wonder Frist and Santorum are distancing themselves from Bush lately. To steal from T_J, can anybody say LAME DUCK?
"One should only recall what has gradually become of Christianity under the selfishness of the State. Christianity is certainly one of the purest revelations of this urge for culture and especially for the ever renewed generation of the saint; as it has been used hundreds of times, however, to turn the mills of the State's forces, it has gradually become diseased to the very marrow, hypocritical and full of lies, and has degenerated to the point where it contradicts its original aim." Nietzsche, 1874.
His view on it was much more complex than that, though his titles were sometimes so provocative that one who hasn't read him could easily come to the conclusion the he simply hated Christianity.
I had no idea before I started reading this section of the forum that there were so many hard-core Bush haters here, looking for any small piece of news they can use against the President. It makes me kinda sad. I personally detested Clinton, but I never was so obsessed with trying to find things I could post on internet boards to say "see? look! he sucks!" I don't know whether I would be part of the 38 percent that answered a poll saying they approve of how President Bush is handling Iraq policy. I'm actually honest enough to admit that I DON'T KNOW how to properly handle Iraq policy and that if I spent time criticizing any president, it would be disingenous. I don't envy the president, having to make important decisions with so many people actually ROOTING for his failure. What I can say is I like and respect President Bush a lot, and I support him to what extent I can while admittedly not knowing all the millions of details that he deals with on a daily basis to make tough decisions. And it it insulting for people to imply that any Bush supporter is some sort of brainwashed lunatic waiting to be told what to do. You can continue to hold those delusions if you want to, but it simply is not the case. I certainly don't make sweeping generalizations about those who supported Kerry or Gore or anyone else.
I am not ignorant of Nietzsche's views on Christianity and the effect it has had on people, nor how he prefers 'classical' virtues to modern virtues. I have a double-major in Political Science as well as History, so I am well-aware of Nietzsche's work. I didn't just 'skim' over it or only read the titles. 'sche's work is pretty interesting, no doubt about it. I can tell you that he was a personal favorite of my philosophy professors, whom all liked his existentialist views.
Its a generalization as well to assume that people who think Bush is a bad president are irrationally obsessed with him. People hate Bush because he's a bad president, not because they have nothing better to do. It's like shooting fish and a barrell. I wish the worst thing he ever did was get a blowjob. Alot of people made this economy alot of money bc of that event. No one lost their lives, and if not for the empty rhetoric about patriotism and God as if that had anything to do with the issue, he wouldn't even have that 38%.
Do you guys bother to read the methodology of these things? Some stats on those surveyed: -Almost half (49%) identified themselves as either moderately or strongly Democrat (39% identified as moderate-strong Republicans) -14% of those surveyed reported an income below $15,000. -Twice as many 18-34 year olds (31%) were surveyed as 65+ year olds (17%) I'm not necessarily saying it was done on purpose but this seems to be a rather skewed pool to survey.
I personally was pretty surprised by such a low number. A good majority of the people I've come in contact with still support his Iraq policy, so I assumed that his support base would still firmly support him. Then again, I'm in the armpit of civilization known as Georgia right now, and if you believe in God, you can commit murder. There was a thread a few years back which sought to give an explanation as to why the vast majority of posters in this forum tend to lean left. I would be interested to see that again if someone could find it.
It's pretty cut and dry. There is substantial evidence that the man lied in leading us to war. I'm certainly not making generalizations about Bush's supporters, but it's certainly a trend that most of his supporters ignore any type of factual evidence and fail to offer any reasonable argument in favor of their man except that "he's a good, God fearing man" or some jingoistic rhetoric. A trend like that will make people assume they're all sheep.
according to the US Census - 16% of US households earn less than $17,000 there are almost twice as many people 18-34 as there are 65+ in this country (61M vs 36M) http://www.census.gov the info isn't that hard to find
I disagree. The president decided to go to war. Any rationale stated or unstated became irrelevant to GWB after that point. Thus, the fact that some of the stated rationales were factually challenged is also irrelevant to GWB. To restate, telling the truth wrt why we went to war in Iraqwas not a priority or a care for GWB after he decided to go.
I think there have been several polls in this forum wrt where in the political spectrum we fall. IIRC we were pretty evenly split between conservatives and liberals (and those of us in between). Of course also iirc the conservatives did not believe the results and thought not a few liberals sandbagged the results.
