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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Another Prediction
Find the people you know that voted for Bush. Write their names down, because in ten or fifteen years, you're going to want the pleasure of reminding them of their votes. I predict that most people you know who voted for Bush will deny it.
Don't believe me? Try to find any Nixon supporters these days. Nixon swept 49 states in 1972. The only state that didn't go for Nixon? That would be Massachusetts, of course. (A common bumper sticker at the time: "Don't blame me: I'm from Massachusetts.") Only two years later, Nixon became the only President to resign in disgrace. Once the most popular politician in America, Nixon is now widely and correctly considered to be the worst and the most crooked President in history.
And so he will remain until we take stock of Bush.
(Update 10-Nov-2004: Realizing that the thought was incomplete:)
I'm not arguing here from historical analogy, i.e. as Nixon goes, so goes Bush. Instead, I believe that the agenda that Bush will pursue will be so extreme, so right-wing and divisive, that it will repulse even many of the people who voted for him. Also, it will become increasingly clear that the war in Iraq is a debacle which was enabled by Bush's lies, and Bush will be unable to blame anyone else for it. Furthermore, the scope of fiscal damage which Bush is wreaking on the country will come into sharper focus, and again, when one party rules, who else will be there to take the blame? Not that Bush won't try...
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Find the people you know that voted for Bush. Write their names down, because in ten or fifteen years, you're going to want the pleasure of reminding them of their votes. I predict that most people you know who voted for Bush will deny it.
Don't believe me? Try to find any Nixon supporters these days. Nixon swept 49 states in 1972. The only state that didn't go for Nixon? That would be Massachusetts, of course. (A common bumper sticker at the time: "Don't blame me: I'm from Massachusetts.") Only two years later, Nixon became the only President to resign in disgrace. Once the most popular politician in America, Nixon is now widely and correctly considered to be the worst and the most crooked President in history.
And so he will remain until we take stock of Bush.
(Update 10-Nov-2004: Realizing that the thought was incomplete:)
I'm not arguing here from historical analogy, i.e. as Nixon goes, so goes Bush. Instead, I believe that the agenda that Bush will pursue will be so extreme, so right-wing and divisive, that it will repulse even many of the people who voted for him. Also, it will become increasingly clear that the war in Iraq is a debacle which was enabled by Bush's lies, and Bush will be unable to blame anyone else for it. Furthermore, the scope of fiscal damage which Bush is wreaking on the country will come into sharper focus, and again, when one party rules, who else will be there to take the blame? Not that Bush won't try...
