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Feb 10, 2004 As time goes by it is more and more apparent I live in an America which is more and more divided all the time. There are, in fact, two America's present--one on the Left and the other on the Right. Sure, there might be a smattering of those in the middle; however, even these people lean one way or another. Liberals and Conservative, whether or not they choose to be labeled by these names, simply do not see reality in the same light. Liberals are now berating our current president for some speculative National Guard duty from decades ago while former President Clinton's draft-dodging, anti-war ramblings of his youth are completely overlooked by the Left. President Clinton's administration (as well as most of the free world) directly acknowledged the presence of WMD's in Iraq and further indicated that Saddam Hussein would have to be removed from power at some point. President Bush risked the political capital of he and his party to oust the despicable Iraqi dictator and Bush is cast as the untrustworthy bad guy by a media which increasingly leans politically left and regularly allows opinion to taint so-called "objective" news coverage. Now the national media is talking about a "credibility problem" for our president, although he's not been caught in even the slightest lie in his time in office. Ironically, although we've successfully captured Saddam Hussein, the media has now ignored this fact as it falls over itself to cover the Democratic primaries and swoon over John Kerry, an individual whose presidential qualifications should be questioned as much as Bush's were in 1999. Saddam Hussein now receives better treatment publicly than our president. Even this week, on my own job, a coworker with obvious Left-leaning tendencies who harbors anti- Bush feelings, criticized Bush's tax policies. He stated, "I'd rather have the old bonuses we used to get than a few hundred dollar tax reduction." This is a complete misrepresentation of actual facts. This individual happens to have three children and the child tax credit alone is more of a savings to this person than any bonus we've ever received at work. The reduction in the marginal tax rates is gravy on top of this to this "working class" coworker of mine. This individual does not like Bush and is choosing to see things, to mold reality, in a way that fits his paradigm. He's even willing to give up some of his own hard-earned dollars to see Bush gone. Another example of the chasm evident in the nation today is the fact there are large numbers of liberal citizens who still believe President Bush stole the election in 1999. Again, this attitude flies in the face of every recount performed in the three hotly-debated Florida counties, all of which favored Bush. Bush received enough electoral votes to be declared the winner, but don't tell that to throngs of Democrat supporters, whose emotional state overrides the available factual evidence. Even in the court decisions rendered at that time, significant speculation was given by media and others that the U.S. Supreme Court decision to stop recounts was politically motivated--that they handed the election to Bush. (Of course, as stated, all recounts performed after the fact supported Bush as the winner of Florida.) Yet, there was little or no questioning of the Forida Supreme Court's repeated decisions favoring Al Gore as being politically-motivated; this despite the fact the Florida Supreme Court was composed of virtually all Democrat-appointed liberal judges. Why the difference in treatment in how the two courts' decisions were viewed? Just a manifestation of the two Americas in which we live. Half of us are looking through Conservative lenses while the other half views the world through Liberal eyepieces. I'm not really sure where we're headed as a nation given just how divided we've become. I do believe the liberal media needs to start presenting current events in a more fair manner to help people make up their own minds; this hasn't been the case to this point and the misrepresentations of the media only serve to further the political divide. True presentation of facts and circumstances would help put rational people on the same page. I also believe President Bush is a good leader who has served this country and his own conscience well. It is a testament to how well he's done that there have been no terrorist attacks on this nation since 9/11/01, and that recent evidence shows Al Qada is experiencing problems recruiting new members and raising funds. (Of course, those Lefties among us do not see terrorism as serious an issue as, say, national healthcare--another huge difference between the Left and Right.) I just hope the Continental Divide between our citizens does not lead to the ousting of our solid president before his work is done. ------------ Email Edward Abraham: eabra@myway.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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