State of the Union
(Yeah, I know I'm a few days late on this, but news is sometimes hard to come by over here in Japan.)
I was a Freshman at Calvin College during the fall of 1996, and as one of the few liberals in my dormitory, I remember having many a debate about the presidential election. Back then Bob Dole was running on a platform of increasing military spending, cutting taxes, and balancing the budget (and you'll recall, all three of these were major parts of his campaign).
To me this made absolutely no sense. But when I tried to point this out to my Republican friends, they just shrugged it off. It really confused me that otherwise intelligent people seemed to either not realize this breakdown of logic, or not care about it.
So....what then to say about George Bush's State of the Union address? What to say about all the Republicans applauding as George Bush asked for numerous new and expensive projects, while at the same time promising to cut taxes, while at the same time promising to cut the deficit in half over the next five years?
To be fair to my conservative friends: A lot of them have parted ways a long time ago with the Bush administration over it's fiscal irresponsibility. Some of them are even talking about voting democratic in the next election. And what is true for many of my friends seems to be true of more prominent conservatives as well, such as Andrew Sullivan.
But for you Bush supporters still out there: You people do realize that this doesn't make any sense, don't you?