http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10182Certain Americans
by Walter C. Uhler | Sep 28 2007
Certain Americans chose a president no smarter than themselves, an illiterate who, in the seventh year of his presidency, still mangles the English language with such sentences as "Childrens do learn." Far worse, however, certain Americans chose a president who then lied to them about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda, in order to send their sons and daughters (along with our sons and daughters) to kill Iraqis and, perhaps, die in an illegal, immoral invasion - now considered the worst strategic disaster in US history.
Even so, certain Americans either shrugged their shoulders or rationalized away the evil behavior of their president when, for example, on the eve of announcing the invasion of Iraq, he "pumped his fist as though instead of initiating a war he had kicked a winning field goal or hit a home run. 'Feels good,' he said." (Paul Waldman, Fraud, p. 8)
Certain Americans cheered him when he proclaimed "Mission Accomplished," more than four years and thousands of lives ago. Certain Americans basked in his phony bravado, when, from the safety of his White House, their coward-in-chief said "Bring 'em on" to the Iraqis just beginning to develop their deadly insurgency. And certain Americans raised few questions when, in 2007, their president falsely told Australia's deputy prime minister that "We're kicking ass" in Iraq.
We know roughly who these certain Americans are. Many are Southern whites, "62 percent of whom voted Republican in House races." (Paul Krugman, "Politics in Black and White," New York Times, Sept. 24, 2007) Many are poorly educated and possess a stupidity fueled by racism. And that explains why the main G.O.P. candidates for president have refused to participate in "a long-scheduled, national debate focusing on issues important to minorities." (Bob Herbert, The Ugly Side of the GOP, New York Times, Sept. 25, 2007) They can't get themselves elected without the electoral support of certain stupid racist white Southern Americans.
Certain Americans love Bill O'Reilly and don't understand the outrage sparked by his observations about dining at Sylvia's in Harlem. O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship…There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "
snip//
Certain Americans remind me of the "proles" described by George Orwell in his novel, 1984. "Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they reverted to a style of life that appeared natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern. They were born, they grew up in the gutters, they went to work at twelve, they passed through a brief blossoming-period of beauty and sexual desire, they married at twenty, they were middle-aged at thirty, they died, for the most part, at sixty. Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer, and, above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. A few agents of the Thought Police moved always among them, spreading false rumors and marking down and eliminating the few individuals who were judged capable of becoming dangerous…All that was required of them was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary…" Consequently, "The larger evils invariably escaped their notice." And, "as the Party slogan put it: 'Proles and animals are free.'"
Meanwhile Oceania's war without end raged on. So, too, in George W. Bush's United States of America.
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