No Kiddies, It Isn't All Bush's Fault
You know, I am honestly and truly scared by the lack of knowledge possessed by (some) Americans about how the US government functions. How many times do you hear or see people absentmindedly hating Bush? I'm definitely no supporter of the Bush administration, but that doesn't mean we can blame every single problem in the entire world on him and him alone.
Believe it or not, the US has not one, not two, but three branches of government! And believe it or not, every single idiot and moron in any office was put their due to our votes. But you know, no one will ever say "Hey, I made a mistake in voting for him." Or "Hey, I didn't raise awareness of other candidates." Instead, we pick out a scapegoat and blame, blame, blame. Not every productive, sorry to say.
First off, if you blame Bush for declaring war, you're wrong. The Presidential position is part of the executive branch, and the executive branch cannot declare a war. They can propose legislation to congress, but congress has the authority to declare war. And do you know what? They did! But, how often do you hear that "congress" has mad a mistake? Hardly ever, it's always placed on the president because no one knows how the freaking government works. That agitates me so much, I mean if you're going to hate someone for declaring war it would be nice if people would hate the right person!
On top of the legislative-executive conflict, I don't even think half the population knows what the Judiciary branch is. They probably have heard of the Supreme Court, but I'd be surprised if they could list all of the duties and powers that the Supreme Court has. Did you know that the judiciary branch could have easily declared the war unconstitutional due to the fact that it wasn't a formal war declaration? But did they? No! And how many people do you see criticizing the Supreme Court? You don't, because they're too busy blaming Bush.
The point of this blog was to not say that Bush is innocent in all these matters, because he isn't (far from it..) He initially proposed the war, but my point was (almost) no one tried to stop him, and now those people are being viewed as if they've done nothing wrong. You can't accuse Bush of being a "dictator", honestly that's pretty disrespectful to the countries that were or are under forced rule. We're spoiled, and we're the ones messing that up for ourselves. He didn't do anything by force, he had support, lots of it. Look at polls after September 11th and you'll see that the majority of the country did want to go to war. Is that true now? No, and those people need to get out of their blissful state and realize they screwed up too, not just the president.
Now that elections are coming up, Senators and Representatives are lashing out at Bush and calling him reckless, but where were these strongly, opposed emotions 6 years ago?The balancing and separation of powers would have made it more than possible to speak out against the war before it happened. But, the media likes to throw all the focus on the president. Typically, he's viewed as the "US Spokesperson", and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. But just because he's viewed that way doesn't mean it's ok for everyone to forget that other people are at fault too.
All I can say is that if Americans keep up with this scapegoat and blame attitude, the 2008 election is going to be scary. People are going to make irrational choices for all the wrong reasons and they're going to neglect important facts. It's time to stop blaming and start thinking for once.
Alrighty, rant over.
Note: I know a lot of you, including me, are not old enough to vote. I say "we did" or "you" meaning Americans in general. I'm also not calling anyone stupid, I'm sure a lot of you did know this stuff, you're in the minority that do.
Believe it or not, the US has not one, not two, but three branches of government! And believe it or not, every single idiot and moron in any office was put their due to our votes. But you know, no one will ever say "Hey, I made a mistake in voting for him." Or "Hey, I didn't raise awareness of other candidates." Instead, we pick out a scapegoat and blame, blame, blame. Not every productive, sorry to say.
First off, if you blame Bush for declaring war, you're wrong. The Presidential position is part of the executive branch, and the executive branch cannot declare a war. They can propose legislation to congress, but congress has the authority to declare war. And do you know what? They did! But, how often do you hear that "congress" has mad a mistake? Hardly ever, it's always placed on the president because no one knows how the freaking government works. That agitates me so much, I mean if you're going to hate someone for declaring war it would be nice if people would hate the right person!
On top of the legislative-executive conflict, I don't even think half the population knows what the Judiciary branch is. They probably have heard of the Supreme Court, but I'd be surprised if they could list all of the duties and powers that the Supreme Court has. Did you know that the judiciary branch could have easily declared the war unconstitutional due to the fact that it wasn't a formal war declaration? But did they? No! And how many people do you see criticizing the Supreme Court? You don't, because they're too busy blaming Bush.
The point of this blog was to not say that Bush is innocent in all these matters, because he isn't (far from it..) He initially proposed the war, but my point was (almost) no one tried to stop him, and now those people are being viewed as if they've done nothing wrong. You can't accuse Bush of being a "dictator", honestly that's pretty disrespectful to the countries that were or are under forced rule. We're spoiled, and we're the ones messing that up for ourselves. He didn't do anything by force, he had support, lots of it. Look at polls after September 11th and you'll see that the majority of the country did want to go to war. Is that true now? No, and those people need to get out of their blissful state and realize they screwed up too, not just the president.
Now that elections are coming up, Senators and Representatives are lashing out at Bush and calling him reckless, but where were these strongly, opposed emotions 6 years ago?The balancing and separation of powers would have made it more than possible to speak out against the war before it happened. But, the media likes to throw all the focus on the president. Typically, he's viewed as the "US Spokesperson", and that doesn't have to be a bad thing. But just because he's viewed that way doesn't mean it's ok for everyone to forget that other people are at fault too.
All I can say is that if Americans keep up with this scapegoat and blame attitude, the 2008 election is going to be scary. People are going to make irrational choices for all the wrong reasons and they're going to neglect important facts. It's time to stop blaming and start thinking for once.
Alrighty, rant over. Note: I know a lot of you, including me, are not old enough to vote. I say "we did" or "you" meaning Americans in general. I'm also not calling anyone stupid, I'm sure a lot of you did know this stuff, you're in the minority that do.
Comments
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really informative blog. (:
Let's Live A Dream, April 7th, 2008 at 07:00:09am
this blog is amazing
the only thing that is bothering me though is the fact that people are leaving comment bashing Americans all together, when the point of this blog was political.
Also, I've never seen a map with America in the center. O_o
Seriously, we're not a bad country. We just have a bad leader [s]
southernidiot, December 22nd, 2007 at 06:29:06am
They are all as bad as each other, my goverment, your goverment, everybodies goverment. It doesn't matter on who started the war, it should matter on why there shouldn't be a war. Its to easy to say you made a mistake and lie than it is to tell the truth.
All the goverment is is a power hungry organisation, they like to control what we eat, they like to control who we vote for.
schooldropout, September 28th, 2007 at 09:20:49pm
Oh, thanks so much for posting this, Kurtni. You have no idea how furious I get when people just blame Bush for everything wrong in the world.
Ol' Blue Eyes., September 24th, 2007 at 05:49:27am
Oh God, thank you so much for this. This whole thing annoys me so much but I don't really know anything about it, but now I kind of do. More so than before, anyway. Thank you. (L)
votefordisco, September 8th, 2007 at 10:01:47pm
I just want to listen to your knowledge and absorb it all day long.
Your blogs leave me feeling smarter.
lfmafoalfamo @ be's comment. I concur.
Misanthropist, September 8th, 2007 at 02:10:03am
ditto @ Be
worn-out astronaut., September 7th, 2007 at 03:39:13pm
omfg @ your brain.
rollerpig, September 7th, 2007 at 03:35:31pm
I can speak, dutch, french, german, english, spanish
I'm gonna learn italian and portugese and I hope to one day to learn chinese
That's so cool, I really wish I was better at learning second languages. Im pretty good with German, but whenever I try and learn another one, I just mix them up. Its really difficult for me. The problem is, here, we don't start learning second languages until high school. Most countries in Europe (from what I've seen on this site) started alot earlier. I wish we did that.
t's his puppet masters, otherwise known as d*ck Cheney. He's calling the shots around here and Bush is just his little puppet.
I want to make some sarcastic remark about d*ck cheney calling shots and his hunting incident...but I wont lmfao
Kurtni, September 7th, 2007 at 03:15:17am
EXACTLY. Thats one of my points, everyone in office lies. Thats all they do, and unfortunatly the main guy aka president Bush lies worst of all!!
Jessie.Tastic!, September 7th, 2007 at 01:53:59am
well, see it's not him that's even running the country, see. It's his puppet masters, otherwise known as d*ck Cheney. He's calling the shots around here and Bush is just his little puppet.
I do however, find it a f*cking disgrace, that while the airtraffic controllers and other airline employees had to watch helplessly as the two planes were highjacked and crashed into the twin towers and... where was Bushy boy?
Oh, just reading a book to a little kindergarten class about a little yellow duck...
-_-
Sorry, but when I start talking about politics and this totally unnecessary war, I get pissed
Shorty of Suburbia, September 6th, 2007 at 11:53:04pm
Thank you, thank you so much for this blog. I agree 100% with everything you just said.
People are always like "I hate Bush!" and I'm like "Okay, fair enough, but why?" and they say "Because he started the war!"
Miley Cyrus, September 6th, 2007 at 09:24:54pm
Oh and i'm also bugged with the fact that a lot of people don't know were belgium is...
it's a small country but who cares..
I freaking had to learn every single country in the world, in my final year.
and they year in my first year of journalism at uni. I have to learn them all again...
but.. really EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY
why can't they put in, in every school
that every single one knows whats in the world
champagne supernova*, September 6th, 2007 at 09:19:45pm
well...
I'm just bugged with the fact that people that have english as a mothertongue don't even bug to learn other languages..
I can speak, dutch, french, german, english, spanish
I'm gonna learn italian and portugese and I hope to one day to learn chinese
My teacher visited a lot of schools in america once.. and he said that 8/10 maps were maps with america in the middle
champagne supernova*, September 6th, 2007 at 09:15:08pm
Americans have to start to look outside the box that they call america.
its pretty.
they have to be less self centered
I concur.
a lot of schools in america use a map were america is in the middle of the world. ] That isn't true..we may be arrogant but we aren't that bad XD
Oh, and schools keep the americans dumb too btw.
Nah, we learn all about that stuff. The problem is, no one (well not "no one", alot of people)takes it seriously. The same thing is true with foreign language classes. its other cultures, and people just tune it out. its sad really.
I've always wanted to go to Belgium by the way
Kurtni, September 6th, 2007 at 08:55:53pm