"A rationalization of selfishness and the hysterical denial of community."

[A HERETIC I AM]

Excellent article from www.emphasisadded.com;

Snip;
It’s moments like this when you need a party in power that actually believes in the affirmative power of government to help its citizens, rather than the party that sees government’s role as protecting the property of the well-off from the predations of the underclass. It’s when the true ugly soul of American conservatism is borne out for what it is: a rationalization of selfishness and the hysterical denial of community. America is about to see what happens when the government is staffed by people appointed to their jobs precisely for their disdain for the whole notion of policy in the public interest. It’s won’t be pretty.

the rest here: http://emphasisadded.com/2005/09/01.html#a1107
(Emphasis mine for this post)

[SmokingJacket]

1. That's an excellent article and an interesting blog. nt

[enough]

2. "disdain for the whole notion of policy in the public interest"

Very important point, and it sums up why this situation is emblematic of the entire Bush reign.

Thanks for the post.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. You're welcome. I should note where i got the link originally.......

from here:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2005/09/this-is-your-accountability-moment-mr.html

Another great read

[belle]

4. The Joe Klein article in Time pretty much says the same thing.

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1101282,00.html

The Chinese believe that natural disasters signal the fall of empires, a shift in the "Mandate of Heaven." The 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, for example, was said to portend the end of Mao's reign. This may be akin to seeing a fetus in the shape of a hurricane, but the Chinese do have a point: we have had two catastrophes in the past four years—9/11 and Katrina—and taken together, they send a signal that America's remarkable late-20th century run may not be perpetual. Modifications in the way we live may be necessary. Certainly, the terrorist attacks have changed little things, like the way we ride airplanes, and profound things, like the basic assumptions of American foreign policy. And now there is New Orleans, which, at the very least, should spark a reconsideration of what has become a casual disdain for the essentials of governance and our common public life.

There was, last week, an immediate and furious debate about the racial implications of the tragedy, since most of the victims we saw on television were poor and black. There were recriminations about the lack of preparedness for the disaster, the corroded infrastructure, the mind-boggling swiftness of a city's collapse into anarchy. But those arguments can be neatly folded into a larger discussion about the radical turn toward what is inaccurately described as "conservatism" that American politics took in the late 20th century. There were good reasons for the turn: a new understanding of the inefficiencies of socialism and initiative-stifling government bureaucracies. But there were terrible reasons as well.

[bring_em_home_bush]

5. An excellent piece and a great blog, thanks for the link

Another excerpt:

As if there were even the chance that a group of people defined by their contempt for community, their disparagement of the idea of the “public good” and their sense of entitlement to power might somehow propose policies that promote broad-based prosperity instead of the most short-sighted looting of the public treasury for private gain.


Well that's it, exactly. People do not steal elections to do good things for the people of the country.

[Frederik]

6. More

I would say that it’s this disconnect between the plain obvious truth and the inexplicably mild reactions of Washington pundits and politicians (especially Democrats) that has been consistently the most frustrating aspect of Bush’s presidency.

Bush’s policies have destroyed our international prestige, exposed the limits of our military power, shredded the social contract, pushed millions of hard-working people to the brink of economic despair, and put at risk the basic protections of our Constitution. Within living memory, the American government was able to accomplish great things: a successful space program, the construction of the interstate highway system, the R&D that laid the groundwork for the Internet. Today, our capacity to perform the most basic core functions of protecting citizens and providing relief from natural disasters is in question, if not in ruins. Moreover, this destruction was accomplished with the speed of a family gambling away their savings, their kids’ college fund, and the title to their house during a long weekend in Vegas.

Bush’s supporters not only don’t apologize for this record, they brag about it and promise more of the same. Read Grover Norquist. Read Pat Robertson. Read the PNAC manifesto. The intentions of these folks couldn’t be clearer, and they are determined to have their way regardless of any real-world consequences.

And yet, otherwise-sane people look on all of this without alarm and without any apparent sense of concern or urgency. “Well, he means well, and he’s the only President we have,” or, “Maybe the Democrat would have been worse.”

As if anyone in the history of the Republic, with the possible exceptions of James Buchanan and Herbert Hoover, has ever been worse.

As if this lazy, cowardly, dull-witted man whose every public utterance is tinged with annoyance at the very concept of having to answer for his actions, might someday rise to the occasion the way we all agreed to pretend he had after 9/11 (once he put down My Pet Goat, emerged from running scared all day on Air Force One and changed into some dry pants).

As if there were even the chance that a group of people defined by their contempt for community, their disparagement of the idea of the “public good” and their sense of entitlement to power might somehow propose policies that promote broad-based prosperity instead of the most short-sighted looting of the public treasury for private gain.