I strongly believe that the main reason for Bush’s lack of popularity was that he did not stick to the conservative principles he espoused. Now Obama is doing a 180 on many of his key campaigning issues, and he hasn’t even taken office yet. So thaaats the “change” he was talking about- a change in platform! That buzzword makes so much more sense now.
In high school I was inspired by modern eco-liberalism. I read Naomi Klein and thought globalization was completely evil and destroying the environment; I thought mother nature was being raped and that big business was entirely to blame. I nodded in agreement when my friends proclaimed they were “moving to Canada” if Bush was elected.
As I went through college and swam in a sea of liberalism, I began to be jaded with its ideals. They sounded nice, but they began to lose their luster. The declaration “THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!” would lead to a deafening silence when faced with the question: “What is a feasable alternative?”
The shiny veneer of liberalism began to wear off as I took electives that rabidly endorsed eco-centric and socialist thinking. I took “Environmental Science” classes that told me the world was melting and greedy businessmen were to blame, but glanced over other contributing factors to pollution, like simple population growth. Sociology classes were platforms for teachers to endorse Marxist views of class warfare and the plight of the downtrodden.
I did learn from those classes though, and I am glad I took them. E. Science convinced me that off-grid living made me less dependent on top-down government policies. Sociology demonstrated to me the danger of taking statistics for face value, and showed me that our welfare system is a system of hand-outs that are so tied up with bureaucracy that they do very little to benefit their recipients.
I no longer share Amy’s enthusiasm for “change” for the sake of change. Such glittering generalities sound great and inspire hope- but they are no more than wishful thinking if you cannot implement them in an effective fashion. I’m not opposed to maintaining a healthy environment- work to curb pollution; punish companies who dump waste into the water table etc.- but what good are draconian regulations on everyday citizens that tax them into poverty? Encouraging self-sufficiency and rewarding responsible reduction and disposal of waste is much more productive than punishing people based on some arbitrary standard someone made up (read: carbon taxes).
