Liberals don't like Bush because he doesn't cave or compromise on the pet liberal issues.
{edited a bit for effect}Seriously--can you imagine if today's liberals were around at the time of Lincoln? Their heads would probably explode because they'd be so torn up as to whether to support Lincoln and the move to abolish slavery or to villainize him for trampling the Constitution!
..... unlike todays Liberals (Clinton and Obama are perfect examples), had the balls to make unpolular decisions and to do what he thought was right regardless of whether it made him popular or not. His divisiveness was a great thing and absolutely necessary at the time.
neat trick there, fox.....you have diverted this thread from ITS intention, to yours....which is apparently
1. to equate the junior bush's convictions to lincoln's
2. to infer that liberals don't have the gumption to make the hard choices....and that is at the heart of any discussion of divisiveness.
but i'll run with it for abit
i take no issue with your applause of the junior bush for the strenght of his convictions (certainly he believes he's done the right things, and -more than likely- didn't arrive at his decisions without some soul searching)....and "strenght of conviction" is a necessary quality for a leader.
but while those three words describe a quality that is necessary for a leader....the quality alone is not sufficient to justify the devisiveness that usually follows on the heels of a tough decision.
it is the motivation for the decision.....and self-righteousness alone (lincoln's or jr. bush) don't make it so, either.
lincoln's motivation was concise....damn hard to miss....slavery in a country of free people (regardless of its economic benefits) was just wrong......end of story.
jr. bush's motivations?(particularly wrt iraq)....it's boiled out to kind of choose your own adventure, hasn't it? was it terrorism?...was it wmd?....was it bringing democracy to the freedom starved iraqis?.....was it oil (economic opprotunity)?....not once did he state the obvious....the region is fucked up, and we mean to do something about it. (could it be that he didn't say that because it dovetailed a bit too closely to hussein's own opinion?)
as you said, lincoln didn't care what people thought....he abolished slavery because he saw it as the right thing to do.....but he was honest about his motivations....and that's why he is a great president...politics was secondary.....
bush however, tried desperately to make his reasoning palatable....to play the game of politics.
imo, you cant lay all the political bs at jr. bush's feet -times have changed (we're so accepting of "career politicans" nowadays that we EXPECT politics to play a role in every decision -that's our fault)....but you can lay his lack of honesty at his feet....."strenght of conviction" demands that, imo, if it is to mean anything going forward.
