I know indeed how much everyone loves to pile on Republicans.
It's George W. Bush's fault. I voted for the guy because he was one degree better than John Kerry. The closer the 2004 election approached, the more reserved my support became for Bush 43.
One college friend told me during the 2000 election that George W. Bush was more liberal than McCain. After McCain-Feingold on campaign contributions, and McCain-Lieberman on global warming, and McCain-Kennedy on immigration reform, I did not believe that there could be a more liberal Republican than George W. Bush.
I was sadly mistaken.
From subsidies to major companies, to giving more to seniors in Medicare Part D, to No Child Left Behind, to the invasion of Terry Schiavo's final months, to domestic wiretapping, to easy credit, to Homeland Security, to Afghanistan and Iraq, to surges in America's Middle East forces, George W. Bush was a Democrat, spending money that this nation did not have on resources and projects that we did not need, to people and corporations who did not deserve them.
George W. Bush was a Democrat, and President Obama is doing the same things that Bush did. Because President Obama ran for President as a Democrat, because there is no difference in his party's platform and his actions, President Obama does not elicit as much controversy or inquiry from his base or the press. Of course, the "Mainstream Media" have been gushing over President Obama since he was elected US Senator out of Illinois in 2004. He is a media-hyped amalgam of race-baiting rhetoric, progressive exuberance, and youthful narcissism.
President Obama is the culmination of the multi-cultural Facebook legacy, in which style and hope has replaced substance and faith. Instead of looking at the state as the result of man's ingenuity and a response to values, the government is the author and finisher of man's time, place, and purpose. George W. Bush laid the fire and the wood, but President Obama has inducted the slim majority of voters into the cult of the state. As high priest, he can command loyalty to his cause, because his fans, his supporters, now his worshippers, will not feel conflicted or hypocritical about the preeminence of Big Government.
George W. Bush was a Democrat, but he ran for office as a Republican. President Obama is a Democrat, ran for office as a Democrat, and has furthered Bush's policies without any resistance from his base or from media and political elites.