Deep Down, You Know I'm Right

In the most free country in the world I find it interesting the blind acceptance of moderation, even though pandering to the middle is not what will get our leaders elected. This catch-22 scenario is leading this country to a lack of general leadership and long-term planning. This thought occured to me when I realized that the past leaders of this country were not only better men, but more volatile and passionate about this country. For better or worse, Teddy Roosevelt is a perfect example of this scenario. Once quoted saying during a visit to Paris:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Think about this for a minute. What this quote means really. Our media is content to slam every leader daring to stick to an opinion or stance while praising the weak willed and politically disinfranchised. What happened to strong beliefs and desires in this country? Why are we so willing to accept mediocrity and moderation when we clearly do not desire so. The media spews forth fact patterns and statistics that are pre-packaged crap to make people to believe that canidate X is the right man for you because he/she is accepting of issue Y, but NOT issue Z. With as much flack Bush has taken in his years of presidency, and if he was really doing this bad a job why was he relected despite the media's constant slamming? Because Kerry was a weak willed no stance hack who would have been even worse. The fact is people wanted Bush despite his constant botching because he doesn't apologize for who he is and what he believes and deep down in the cockles of Americans, that is what we love. That is who we are, and if you can't respect that move to China.