Some discoveries are exciting, joyful, and exhilarating, while others can be quite painful. Stumbling upon the fact that you do not necessarily have a competent grasp of reality, that you have in fact been duped for most of your life, is not a pleasant experience. While it may be a living nightmare to realize that part of one’s life was, perhaps, wasted on the false ideas of others, enlightenment often requires that the worldview that we were indoctrinated with be completely destroyed before we can finally resurrect a tangible identity and belief system. To have rebirth, something must first die…
In 2004, I found myself at such a crossroads. At that time I was a dedicated Democrat, and I thought I had it all figured out. The Republican Party was to me a perfect sort of monster. They had everything! Corporate puppet masters. Warmongering zealots. Fake Christians. Orwellian social policies. The Bush years were a special kind of horror. It was cinematic. Shakespearean. If I was to tell a story of absolute villainy, I would merely describe the mass insanity and bloodlust days of doom and dread wrought by the Neo-Con ilk in the early years of the new millennium.
But, of course, I was partly naïve…
The campaign rhetoric of John Kerry was eye opening. I waited, day after day, month after month for my party’s candidate to take a hard stance on the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I waited for a battle cry against the Patriot Act and the unconstitutional intrusions of the Executive Branch into the lives of innocent citizens. I waited for a clear vision, a spark of wisdom and common sense. I waited for the whole of the election for that man to finally embrace the feelings of his supporters and say, with absolute resolve, that the broken nation we now lived in would be returned to its original foundations. That civil liberty, freedom, and peace, would be our standard once again. Unfortunately, the words never came, and I realized, he had no opposition to the Bush plan. He was not going to fight against the wars, the revolving door, or the trampling of our freedoms. Indeed, it seemed as though he had no intention of winning at all. Read more...
In 2004, I found myself at such a crossroads. At that time I was a dedicated Democrat, and I thought I had it all figured out. The Republican Party was to me a perfect sort of monster. They had everything! Corporate puppet masters. Warmongering zealots. Fake Christians. Orwellian social policies. The Bush years were a special kind of horror. It was cinematic. Shakespearean. If I was to tell a story of absolute villainy, I would merely describe the mass insanity and bloodlust days of doom and dread wrought by the Neo-Con ilk in the early years of the new millennium.
But, of course, I was partly naïve…
The campaign rhetoric of John Kerry was eye opening. I waited, day after day, month after month for my party’s candidate to take a hard stance on the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I waited for a battle cry against the Patriot Act and the unconstitutional intrusions of the Executive Branch into the lives of innocent citizens. I waited for a clear vision, a spark of wisdom and common sense. I waited for the whole of the election for that man to finally embrace the feelings of his supporters and say, with absolute resolve, that the broken nation we now lived in would be returned to its original foundations. That civil liberty, freedom, and peace, would be our standard once again. Unfortunately, the words never came, and I realized, he had no opposition to the Bush plan. He was not going to fight against the wars, the revolving door, or the trampling of our freedoms. Indeed, it seemed as though he had no intention of winning at all. Read more...
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