Sadly, my plans for a trip to Ottawa this week to speak my mind to George have been forestalled by a heavy workload. So I suppose I'll be stuck expressing my views rather impotently - irony of ironies! - on TERB.
I'd like to take this opportunity to ask protesters to be nice to George, not because he deserves it but because we owe it to ourselves.
The left, having for years endured the stupid insults of the populist far-right, rather than taking the higher ground, are increasing choosing to fight stupid with stupid, duplicity with duplicity. Michael Moore, Moveon.org, Al Franken and the ill-conceived Air America project must all bear some - but not all - of the blame for this.
Spewing slogans in response to slogans is not debate. Calling Bush a "war-monger" says nothing. Comparing him to Hitler is offensive. Saying he is a war criminal is a non-sequitur. Making fun of him for being Christian is bigoted.
Thoughtfully questioning his decision to go to war, balancing all perspectives - which means reasonably acknowledging that reasonable people can believe, however wrongly in our opinion, that the war was just - rejecting the granola-crunching philosophy that states "war is bad" without reservation - all of these strategies will work to display our wisdom, and wisdom is what gains the ear of history, not slogans. Questioning Bush's real belief in and willingness to defend the Constitution of the United States is just. Proclaiming that pure evil has found a home within his soul is not.
Let us demonstrate how Canadians at their best conduct political debate. Who knows - we might even teach our neighbours to the south a thing or two.
I'd like to take this opportunity to ask protesters to be nice to George, not because he deserves it but because we owe it to ourselves.
The left, having for years endured the stupid insults of the populist far-right, rather than taking the higher ground, are increasing choosing to fight stupid with stupid, duplicity with duplicity. Michael Moore, Moveon.org, Al Franken and the ill-conceived Air America project must all bear some - but not all - of the blame for this.
Spewing slogans in response to slogans is not debate. Calling Bush a "war-monger" says nothing. Comparing him to Hitler is offensive. Saying he is a war criminal is a non-sequitur. Making fun of him for being Christian is bigoted.
Thoughtfully questioning his decision to go to war, balancing all perspectives - which means reasonably acknowledging that reasonable people can believe, however wrongly in our opinion, that the war was just - rejecting the granola-crunching philosophy that states "war is bad" without reservation - all of these strategies will work to display our wisdom, and wisdom is what gains the ear of history, not slogans. Questioning Bush's real belief in and willingness to defend the Constitution of the United States is just. Proclaiming that pure evil has found a home within his soul is not.
Let us demonstrate how Canadians at their best conduct political debate. Who knows - we might even teach our neighbours to the south a thing or two.