I Like President Bush

When I got my Michigan driver's license and registered to vote, I registered as a Republican. Even though I don't wholly endorse the Republican Party platform, as I moderate conservative I still align myself more closely to the GOP than to any other established political organization. Being back on a college campus, I take something of a private glee in my dirty little secret of calling myself a Republican.

"Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down you yearn for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!" ~ Sideshow Bob after losing the Springfield Mayoral election.

Anyway... the point is that President Bush's recent speech at the American Legion reemphasizes why I have continued to support him despite the ever increasing number of dirty commies around me. Maybe I'm just a jingoistic war-hawk at heart, or maybe my background in history and understanding of the past really does give me some insight. But I have never questioned the need for our intervention in Iraq, and unlike the rest of the armchair Generals and Military Planners I cannot claim to know of a better way to have outlined the current mission.

But if you ever want to know why I still support the mission in Iraq, and why the Bush/Cheney bumper sticker is still on my car, here's why.

"The war we fight today is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.

"Despite their differences, these groups form the outline of a single movement, a worldwide network of radicals that use terror to kill those who stand in the way of their totalitarian ideology. And the unifying feature of this movement, the link that spans sectarian divisions and local grievances, is the rigid conviction that free societies are a threat to their twisted view of Islam.

"They are successors to fascists, to Nazis, to communists and other totalitarians of the 20th century. And history shows what the outcome will be... This war will be difficult. This war will be long. And this war will end in the defeat of the terrorists.

"Many of these folks are sincere and they're patriotic but they could not be more wrong. If America were to pull out before Iraq could defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable, and absolutely disastrous. We would be handing Iraq over to our worst enemies -- Saddam's former henchmen, armed groups with ties to Iran, and al-Qaida terrorists from all over the world who would suddenly have a base of operations far more valuable than Afghanistan under the Taliban."

~ President Bush before the 88th Annual American Legion National Convention on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

I didn't realize it's been a few weeks since I blogged... that's just the way August's been. Made it through training, then RA/MA training, and opening/move-in week is just about done. It's been long some days, but I'm still more content with things here than I ever was at any point in North Carolina. The only variable left to add to the equation is how things will be once classes start next week, though I'm not too worried about it.

Through the last month what has struck me more than anything else is the feeling that I am actually appreciated and valued by people from so many different levels here. I've had deans and directors of whole departments and offices here on campus come up to me and start a conversation knowing who I am, which is a complete departure from the shunning or mild sense of forced politeness I always received as a first year teacher.

The University seems to have a lot of faith in its graduate staff, and thus far I feel more confident that I know what I'm doing or how to handle things than I ever did at any point last year. The lingering sense of dread and foreboding has been replaced with genuine optimism and confidence, which is a welcome change of pace to say the least.

I'm excited for my job, excited for my classes, excited for the prospects of my internship next summer, and just generally excited to be back on campus.