Dr. Forbush Thinks

I have faith in Americans. Sometimes it seems hard to understand, but in the long run when all the true information is in the open Americans will tend to make the right decision. The usual problem isn’t that Americans make the wrong decision, it is that they don’t have the right information. Or, in most cases they don’t have “ALL” the information.

We can look at the 2004 election and try to understand how people decided where to place their trust. The people who choose to put their faith in the Republican Party and vote for conservatives did so because they thought that they were making the right choice. They were told that Republicans don’t like to spend money or raise taxes and they voted that way. But, these people didn’t have all the facts. They could see that George W Bush was spending like a drunken sailor, but they thought that he must have some plan to pay for his spending without raising taxes. When the issues get too many levels away from the main point people are distracted and they can’t follow the argument. But those hidden levels will come to light if they are truly real problems. If they aren’t problems, then they don’t matter. Some people actually understood that Bush was going to spend and borrow the money. The price was for the defense of the Homeland, and why should we pay to defend our homeland? It makes more sense that those who will be protected should pay the price, so we should borrow the money and have our children pay twice the price to defend themselves.

But, there were other groups who believed that George W Bush was a moral president, and he would continue to be a moral president. These people are those who believe that killing Americans is a sin, but killing Arabs is a sacrifice that needs to be made in a moral framework. These are the people who believe American Life is sacred and should be protected before it becomes life until after death. Killing 10,000 Iraqi civilians is a small price to pay for the revenge of 3,000 Americans who where killed on 9/11. Even if Iraq wasn’t responsible, someone has to pay. These are Americans who know what is important and they choose a president who knows this importance.

Fortunately, as time goes by and America’s elected officials will do there and the American people will see what they do. If a politicians says one thing and does another, then it isn’t long before the people actually see what the politicians are doing. It may take a while for the people to understand what they are doing, but I have faith that Americans will actually understand what they are doing and take the appropriate action at the next election.

In the town I live in an honest District Attorney who was not a member of the “good ol’ boy” network was elected. Since many of the Good ol’ Boys haven’t been quite as honest as they should have been the network is worried about the new DA. The Good ol’ Boys began to harass the new DA in order to persuade him not to investigate “the way things are done.” The DA wasn’t persuaded and he opened more investigations. Someone in the “network” killed the DA’s dogs and made another threat toward his family. The new DA has gumption and resolve so he continued to investigate and file charges against some of the members of the “Good ol’ Boys” network. Some members of this gang filed frivolous lawsuits against the new DA and filed motions in the city council requiring the DA to defend himself with his own money. The people in my town are not following the case that closely and they are persuaded toward the opinion of the “Good ol’ Boys” very easily. And, now there are petitions in town to recall the DA. I don’t know how the case will turn out, but I have faith that as it heats up more information will become public knowledge and the people will make the right choice.

I also have faith that our national politics will right itself. The first evidence of that is surprisingly the Terri Schiavo case. The Republicans put all there eggs in that basket and it looks like it has done a great deal of harm A CBS poll is out showing that the Republican majority in Congress is in the minority on this issue. This case will certainly not bring down the Far Right Republican network. But, it may get a few people to reexamine how they feel about the extremist ideology that is being used to lead our country today. Maybe people in Kansas will continue to vote Republican in the elections, but maybe they will be more careful about how the candidates line up on the issues in the primaries. The dangers of extremist ideologies has cracked the surface in this case and when the far right pulls this again we will be watching.