Cry Me a River
I read Maureen Dowd's column this morning in which she details the change of heart her red state family is having about President Bush and Iraq. I am very sympathetic to folks who put their faith in a political figure only to be disappointed. I have bellied up to that bar too often myself. But "W" is a bit different to me. I keep asking "How could you ever?" As in:
How could you ever think a man who did not know the names of major world leaders and boasted of his own lack of intellectual heft was going to pull off the Presidency?
How could you ever countenance invading a country when we had no evidence (let alone the type of convincing evidence that would justify taking lives) they posed us a threat?
How could you veer think that man who used his faith in such an openly manipulative way was not just a little creepy?
How could you continue to support the man after "Mission Accomplished" and "Bring 'em on?"
How could you ever think putting American boots on Muslim ground was not going to be a fight?
How could you ever elect a man who proudly boasted a worldview that stopped being descriptive about 1954?
Instinctually I know the answers to these questions. Many Americans based their votes on the American they imagine to exist and not the America that is. Or worse, the enemies we hoped we had, not he enemies we had. That is a sad thing but it is also telling. The challenge for progressives/liberals/leftists and everyone else who has been horrified by the last eight years, is not to demonize George Bush. He has done that work for us. It is rather to demonstrate that the mistakes we have made are not simply the foibles of one very incompetent man, they are the failures of a certain world view, a certain set of assumptions about the US, its place in the world, the role of government and what constitutes the good life. This world view has had its presumptive home in the Republican Party and its satellites and has been hammered home to us through the media, think tanks, and talk radio. It has become so pervasive, many view it as "common sense" or "the way things are" not an ideology. A few of the more obvious elements of this worldview are:
The US represents the end of ideology. Everyone wants to be like us and if they don't, they should. We are the end of the evolutionary chain. The values of our liberal democracy are universal.
Private markets dispense justice. What is good for the market is what constitutes good policy.
Rich countries and rich individuals got that way, not through any unnatural advantage, but through dint of hard work, innovation and innate intelligence. Forcing rich countries or rich individuals to share their wealth constitutes some type of punishment.
Wealth is private and not social.
The US is a victim of a cabal of foreign powers and there is no one with a credible grievance against us.
Government should stay off our backs in the marketplace but should enforce a rigorous moral code of conduct as it relates to sexuality and family life.
More to come.....
How could you ever think a man who did not know the names of major world leaders and boasted of his own lack of intellectual heft was going to pull off the Presidency?
How could you ever countenance invading a country when we had no evidence (let alone the type of convincing evidence that would justify taking lives) they posed us a threat?
How could you veer think that man who used his faith in such an openly manipulative way was not just a little creepy?
How could you continue to support the man after "Mission Accomplished" and "Bring 'em on?"
How could you ever think putting American boots on Muslim ground was not going to be a fight?
How could you ever elect a man who proudly boasted a worldview that stopped being descriptive about 1954?
Instinctually I know the answers to these questions. Many Americans based their votes on the American they imagine to exist and not the America that is. Or worse, the enemies we hoped we had, not he enemies we had. That is a sad thing but it is also telling. The challenge for progressives/liberals/leftists and everyone else who has been horrified by the last eight years, is not to demonize George Bush. He has done that work for us. It is rather to demonstrate that the mistakes we have made are not simply the foibles of one very incompetent man, they are the failures of a certain world view, a certain set of assumptions about the US, its place in the world, the role of government and what constitutes the good life. This world view has had its presumptive home in the Republican Party and its satellites and has been hammered home to us through the media, think tanks, and talk radio. It has become so pervasive, many view it as "common sense" or "the way things are" not an ideology. A few of the more obvious elements of this worldview are:
The US represents the end of ideology. Everyone wants to be like us and if they don't, they should. We are the end of the evolutionary chain. The values of our liberal democracy are universal.
Private markets dispense justice. What is good for the market is what constitutes good policy.
Rich countries and rich individuals got that way, not through any unnatural advantage, but through dint of hard work, innovation and innate intelligence. Forcing rich countries or rich individuals to share their wealth constitutes some type of punishment.
Wealth is private and not social.
The US is a victim of a cabal of foreign powers and there is no one with a credible grievance against us.
Government should stay off our backs in the marketplace but should enforce a rigorous moral code of conduct as it relates to sexuality and family life.
More to come.....
posted by Jack Reed at 10:21 AM
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