By MARC McDONALD
Over the past year, George W. Bush has gone from being perhaps the ultimate GOP wet-dream president to a politician whom even many Republicans hate.
At first glance, this ought to be welcome news. After all, we liberals have been shouting from the highest rooftops about why Bush is bad for America ever since 2000.
It's nice that a lot of Republicans have now come around to our way of thinking.
There's only one problem. If you take a look at the reason why many Republicans finally rejected Bush, it's not an encouraging sign.
After all, why did many Republicans finally turn against Bush?
Was it the illegal, immoral war in Iraq that Bush lied America into? No.
Was it Bush's blatant disregard for America's Constitution? No.
Was it Bush's illegal wiretaps? No.
Was it the disastrously bungled response to Hurricane Katrina? No.
Was it embracing torture as an official instrument of American policy? No.
Was it any one of a number of other serious violations of Bush's oath of office and impeachable offenses? No.
The scary thing is that the Republicans who abandoned Bush didn't have problems with any of the above.
They stood by Bush through thick and thin, and weren't deterred from supporting their hero, even when he dragged America's name through the mud and made us the most feared and hated nation on the planet.
No, the thing that finally ended the love affair between millions of Republicans and the Fratboy-In-Chief was their former hero's immigration policy, of all things.
I've talked to a number of Republicans over the past year and it's become apparent to me that Bush's immigration policy was the straw that broke the camel's back for them. As a couple of Republicans explained it to me last week, "We're sick and tired of all these fucking spics coming into our country."
So there you have it: torture is fine, shredding the Constitution is fine, lying the nation into war is fine. Just keep America as white as possible, and you won't get a peep of protest out of the droves of Republicans who abandoned Bush.
Like I said, Republican Bush-haters are even more frightening than the 28-percenters.
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11 comments:
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Impeachment: the only solution. Go here for more info:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/cheney
Katrina, Iraq and torture were/are mostly harming brown skin people, so no outrage by the GOP. Immigration lets brown skinned people have rights. GOP can't have that.
You nailed them! Scratch a Republican, find a racist. That's why they have lock on the "new" south.
This is why the next round of presidential elections scares me. Everybody seems to think that a Dem couldn't lose -- after all his approval rating is so low and the Republicans have made a mess of it all. The thing is if the Republicans could give their constituents a candidate that followed the Bush line (except on immigration) all those people that are dissatisfied with Bush now would vote for the other guy in a heartbeat. There hasn't been any perceptible swing in the attitudes of American voters towards the left.
It’s not Human Nature, it’s conditioning.
Distrust for others is something we sadly learn by experience. Our values as individuals and collectively as a people have been so corrupted by a culture of orchestrated selfishness and greed, that when it comes to money, we don’t trust anyone. For that matter, we have come to distrust one another on all counts.
“Everybody is looking for something” . . . to take a bite , that is.
Some insist it’s just “Human Nature,” but that’s a lie. Most human beings are herd animals because they have learned to go with flow. It’s a matter of survival instinct. Ideology is a powerful weapon wielded by the powerful to impose their views on the masses. Our “values,” or rather their “values,” of indifference and greed have been pounded into our heads since the day we began to understand language. Our parents and society as a whole were taught that socialism is evil, even though socialism in theory is essentially egalitarianism, and what Jesus preached. But rather than attacking egalitarianism, or Christian values, our masters have cunningly taught us that “socialism” is evil.
Few ideologies are inherently evil, the evil arises in the implementation. The powerful in every society seek to impose their ideology and self-interest on the masses everywhere. Are you aware enough to recognize that your “values,” have in many instances been imposed on you by people who don’t give a rat’s ass whether you live or die?
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A scary thought. I think you are right. None of the "national security" talk about sealing our borders seems to address our northern border does it? I kept wondering what it would take to get the 28 percenters to turn on Bush. I was amazed that they let the spending slide. Nothing like hatred to fire up the base!
These are the ones who will let the top of the hierarchy do anything they want as long as they don't feel like they are at the bottom of it. They MUST have someone to look down on or they won't feel like they have to respect their "betters".
Hi Red Hog,
Thanks for stopping by.
re:
>>>I was amazed that they let the >>>spending slide.
Yes, well that didn't bother them with Reagan, who racked up the biggest deficits in U.S. history, before W came along.
Hi Donna,
Good point. I also think that many of these people, from Bush and Rush, do a masterful job of pretending that they are just "ordinary guys," the sort of person you might bump into at your local Wal-Mart.
(Never mind that both men are hugely wealthy and privately have utter contempt for the sorts of people who shop at Wal-Mart).
Bush didn't violate or disregard the constitution.
Bush didn't authorize illegal wiretaps. He had the authority to do them legally, just as many DEMOCRATIC presidents have.
The only bungled response to Hurricane Katrina was the corrupt local government, who ignored the danger and then tried to lay the blame on Federal government.
Nancy Pelosi, Hilary Clinton and other liberals agreed long before Bush was president that Sadamn was an imminent threat. They also agreed to the Iraq war.
We are the most hated nation, in large part, because of misinformed and ignorant liberals, like yourself, who think government is a Sugar Daddy, and scream until you are red in the face about things you know nothing about, or want to think you know something about. Please be honest with your readers. BTW, hear about the Time magazine debacle?
"Bush didn't authorize illegal wiretaps. He had the authority to do them legally, just as many DEMOCRATIC presidents have. "
*POOF*
don't expect anony to
back up that
assertion
heh...
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