Bill Moyers Journal: Candidates and Bailout

I recently had the opportunity to have a conversation with proud Republican about a variety of current affairs. I knew this person was a Republican, and I had vowed to NOT to give in to my desire to probe the mind and reasoning behind "proud Republicanism" in the face of the destruction of the American Economy.

I mean, how on earth do you justify supporting Bush/Cheey in the wake of a failed presidency and the death of the neo-conservative world view embodied by that presidency. How do you justify support for a war based on lies? How do you justify your support torture? How do you, a middle-class person, justify your support of the financial and emotional destruction of the American middle class? How do you support the destruction of the the value of the American dollar? The real estate market? Wall Street? Retirement? Jobs? The economy? Access to affordable health care? In the end, how do you justify your support of more of the same in John McCain and Sarah Palin?

What ideological brainwashing must occur in order for an otherwise reasonable person to be so blind to the human condition and have so few moral values?

Needless to say, try as I might, I asked the questions of someone I considered to be otherwise intelligent and reasonable. It was a very unsatisfactory experience. Basically, it's all "the do-nothing congresses fault". The ultimate bullshit justification.

What I think is this: People know at some deep gut level that they support something bad and wrong. But self-preservation means they can't think of themselves as bad, so they continue to fervently and blindly hold their position. They're actually defending themselves against action which their soul knows is wrong and harmful.

I am really getting to the point of this post, but I wanted to provide you with the backstory.

Bill Moyer's Journal provides what I consider to be an unbiased analysis of both the Biden-Palin Debate as well as the Bailout. A perspective that perhaps I am biased as well, and the polar opposite of proud Republicans. Unfortunately, the video and transcript has not yet been posted. I'll update this post with that information when it's posted.

--Shella