Response to Glen Holzhausen

Glen generalizes about liberals presuming that differing opinions are always wrong. Well of course, that’s how liberals see conservatives. For example, conservatives say if you’re against the war, you don’t support the troops. As if conservatives somehow believe that the troops themselves decided to invade Iraq, and that we should never question the motives, facts, and ideology that placed them in harm’s way.

Glen defends John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz as “highly qualified.” They may both be very intelligent, but inappropriate for the jobs they were given. Both have the fault of letting their ideology trump facts and expertise. Wolfowitz, giving his live-in girlfriend an outrageous raise and promotion as his first act as president of the World Bank, made his claims of wanting to clean up corruption a hollow boast.

Glen’s claim that Democrats will harm the economy is also not supported by facts: the economy boomed when Clinton was president, and collapsed under Bush. All of the economic indicators that the Bush supporters point to ignore the 600 pound gorilla in the room: Bush has expanded government spending to historic highs, and gave deep tax cuts to the rich, placing a horrific debt on future generations. All this while a majority of the US population are not gaining at all.

Glen’s claim that Bush can take responsibility for “a dynamic growing economy, [which] produces the most benefits for the greatest number of people,” also does not square with the facts. The middle class and lower class have lost ground under Bush. Yes, t he number of new billionaires has increased, but millions have slipped into poverty as jobs are shipped overseas, the cost of oil, gas, and other energy expenses are not counted in the “core inflation rate,” those who have given up looking for work are not counted in the unemployment numbers, and the very real cost of Medicare and Social Security for baby-boomers is not factored into Government operating budgets.

Bush is a failed president – for conservative ideals as well as liberal.

Jon Monday