Politics

Remember Better Times?

Alternative title: “Had Enough?”

From an email – Bill Clinton speaks about our nation’s direction today.

In the eight years I was privileged to serve as President, we set a positive course for this country by working together. Because of the work we did, our country made real progress.

That is just the truth. Things were FAR from perfect at the end of Clinton’s 8 years. But our national situation, in many different areas, was much better then than now. Much better.

We can continue to let the Republicans do it their way and lead this country in the wrong direction. Or, we can do everything in our power to win one of the most critical elections of our lifetime and put America back on track.

That means

  • ensuring retirement security for our seniors,
  • taking climate change seriously and
  • finding new energy solutions,
  • stopping partisanship and
  • reaching across the religious and cultural divides of this world.

It’s time to do something about the fact that Americans overwhelmingly feel that this country is going in the wrong direction.

Amen.

Leave a Comment

3 Comments

  • Do I hear the sound of wind blowing through the Rushes here (comment #1)? As it seems to me, the following are more realistic assessments of that late 90s and early 2000s history.

    1. Clinton had great concern and good ideas about threats from terrorism, and got zero support and obstinate resistance from Republican-dominated Senate and House. They were distracted (obsessed) with their impeachment circus and could not be bothered with things like governing or taking responsibility for foreseeing and planning for events beyond that obsession.

    2. Bush is the one who claimed to have Osama backed into a corner, and who promised to hunt him down and kill him. But again the distraction-syndrome kicked in and off we went to Iraq – which was and is entirely irrelevant to that problem. It was also irrelevant to the threats of terrorism until we succeeded rapidly in making it a major terrorist recruiting tool and training ground.

    3. Alaska is not alternative energy. Drilling more in Alaska is pouring tomorrows money into the solutions of the past – solutions that are poisoning our planet and bankrupting our kids and their kids.

    4. Not to mention there were no pre-emptive wars on false pretenses under Clinton, and we ended the Clinton years in very good shape financially while in only 6 years Bush has given us historic, even world-threatening levels of debt.

    Really, I think I hear the sound of a Rushing mighty wind here – and not the one in Acts 2.

  • At his blog (http://sandmansleepers.blogspot.com) Greg just listed me among people who make my America great. He called me

    my friend the radical left-wing Christian and political dude who takes on the religious right and the assumptions so many Christians have about being Christian in America. I do not agree with him on everything, but I am glad he says what he says because it can serve to keep us honest and thinking responsibly about our lives.

    Radical left-wing eh? I guess that depends on where you are standing!

    I am taking his remarks as a significant compliment, which I am sure is how they were intended.

    And it is not in the least an exaggeration to say Greg is one of the people who make my America not just tolerable, but a truly hopeful place to be. Thank you, Greg.

    (And he is right, we definitely do not agree about everything!)

  • I’m not sure I agree with you here Larry. By the end of Clinton’s presidency, we had suffered two significant terrorist attacks and the Clinton response was basically to sit on his hands and hope for the end of his presidency. What we were left with was a terrorist who Clinton had had the opportunity to take out before 9/11 and unfortunately we were on target for the war we are now fighting. A case can be made that Bush’s admin didn’t do enough either, but Clinton had 8 years. Climate changes are the popular issue for some today, I don’t think everyone agrees that it is as important as Democrats want to make it. Furthermore, when it comes to finding alternative sources of energy, when will Democrats wake up and allow us to drill in Alaska? Just some thoughts.