A stagnant union...
Tonight, Mr. Bush gave his annual State of the Union address. I thought it went farily well. At least, as well as a war-mired and unpopular president can hope for. He articulated a few proposals that were interesting; less dependence on foreign oil and increased funding for science and technology were the highlights. Read the full text of the speech at the White House website.
As many presidents before him have done, getting past petty partisan politics seemed to be a recurrent theme. Albeit, one that is mostly idealistic. All politicians want to cooperate on bi-partisan legislation, not a lot of them possess the political will to do so. Bi-partisan cooperation may be nice, but it is the opposition of two parties with both extremist and moderate factions that affords us the greatest benefit of democracy: stagnation. Government is about the only facet of life that benefits from stagnation. This is not to say that the long waits at the DMV or County Records office are great. Frankly, those suck. In terms of lawmaking, however, stagnation prevents potentially dangerous legislation from ruining our lives. I know, you're thinking about the Patriot Act and how it was implemented so quickly after the September 11 attacks. First, go read the full text of the Patriot Act, not the highlights. Read it straight from the source, not from the ACLU, Amnesty or other organizations. Read the language. Decipher it. Think about it. Don't rely on others to make a judgement for you. Read and ask yourself, honestly, how does this adversely affect my life? Big Brother is not watching. Despite what conspiracy theorists might say. Big Brother doesn't exist. How much processing time, money and personnel do you think it takes to process the library records of 300 million Americans? Honestly...much more than they have available.
Legislation that is the product of stagnant lawmaking tends to be watered down, harmless to the average american citizen. Not ineffectual, just less ambituous than when the authors originally wrote it. Next time you think, "republicans are stupid" or "stupid, liberal hippy democrats piss me off" think of the benefit of a two parties-in-opposition system. Think of stagnation and competition. They're quite useful, indeed.
As many presidents before him have done, getting past petty partisan politics seemed to be a recurrent theme. Albeit, one that is mostly idealistic. All politicians want to cooperate on bi-partisan legislation, not a lot of them possess the political will to do so. Bi-partisan cooperation may be nice, but it is the opposition of two parties with both extremist and moderate factions that affords us the greatest benefit of democracy: stagnation. Government is about the only facet of life that benefits from stagnation. This is not to say that the long waits at the DMV or County Records office are great. Frankly, those suck. In terms of lawmaking, however, stagnation prevents potentially dangerous legislation from ruining our lives. I know, you're thinking about the Patriot Act and how it was implemented so quickly after the September 11 attacks. First, go read the full text of the Patriot Act, not the highlights. Read it straight from the source, not from the ACLU, Amnesty or other organizations. Read the language. Decipher it. Think about it. Don't rely on others to make a judgement for you. Read and ask yourself, honestly, how does this adversely affect my life? Big Brother is not watching. Despite what conspiracy theorists might say. Big Brother doesn't exist. How much processing time, money and personnel do you think it takes to process the library records of 300 million Americans? Honestly...much more than they have available.
Legislation that is the product of stagnant lawmaking tends to be watered down, harmless to the average american citizen. Not ineffectual, just less ambituous than when the authors originally wrote it. Next time you think, "republicans are stupid" or "stupid, liberal hippy democrats piss me off" think of the benefit of a two parties-in-opposition system. Think of stagnation and competition. They're quite useful, indeed.
posted by J5 @ 10:15 PM
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