Respect

I promised myself when I started this blog, I would keep political comments to a minimum and especially keep from venting my spleen about our current president. Once again I have proven my ability to make promises I cannot keep.

I made the mistake or call it the decision to drop in at a political forum I used to hang out in. Bike Forum's "Politics and Religion" sub forum. Naturally my intention of just stopping by to say "hey" turned into more than that. Anyway, a thread about a recent British decision to ban RAF uniforms on personell while off base caught my attention. As most threads do, this one deviated from the original point into one about respect. Respecting the uniform turned into respect in general.

I stated this:
"IMO, the bottom line is everyone should start out being respectful of everyone else until such time that person does not deserve their respect. There are degrees here you know. I think half the problems in the World would be eased somewhat if we all looked upon each other for ways to find respect instead of the typical "You have to earn my respect" stupidity."

Being a political forum, President Bush naturally came up at some point.

I will not rehash all the back and forth flames and threads in the past that focused on how he deserves our respect just because he is president. People have very intense feelings about this. No need to point out the obvious takes one way or the other. That is with the exception of my own take of course. Hey, it's my blog.

I am very comfortable in my own mind seperating idea of the office of President from the individual. The position deserves to be respected, but when I see an individual president disrespect it by their action in our name, I have no problem calling them out. And I firmly feel that Bush has done the office true harm during his tenure. But then I pretty much feel most them have in one way or another. Don't get me started on Bill Clinton. Or Daddy Bush or Reagan. But of them all, I feel this Bush has tarnished the position like no other president in my lifetime.

Which brings me back to my quote up there in blue. I honestly did try to respect Bush once he took office even though he had underwhelmed me when he was governor of Texas. I gave him some latitude. Not much maybe, but I did try to hold judgement until he had some real prez time under his belt.

Some might think it was Iraq that did it. But no. It was his poor fiscal policies right out of the gate that brought him down in my eyes. Tax cuts? What a dumass idea. A bandaid knee jerk feel good fool em with some six pack money bullshit. Iraq just sealed his fate in my eyes.

So I guess my feeling that we need to respect first until such time it is proven to be wrongly placed is still intact. But when considering my president, the rope I hand out is very short indeed.