Blumenthal: A Moral Dilemma

[kskiska]

"This country is going so far to the right you are not even going to recognise it," remarked John Mitchell, Richard Nixon's attorney general, in 1970. Mitchell's prophecy became the mission of Nixon's College Republican president, Karl Rove, who implemented the strategy of authoritarian populism behind George Bush's victory.

(snip)

Using the White House as a machine of centripetal force, Rove spread fear and fused its elements. Fear of the besieging terrorist, appearing in Bush TV ads as the shifty eyes of a swarthy man or a pack of wolves, was joined with fear of the besieging queer. Bush's support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was underscored by referendums against it in 11 states - all of which won.

The evangelical churches became instruments of political organisation. Ideology was enforced as theology, turning nonconformity into sin, and the faithful, following voter guides with biblical literalism, were shepherded to the polls as though to the rapture. White Protestants, especially in the south, especially married men, gave their souls and votes for flag and cross. The campaign was one long revival. Abortion and stem cell research became a lever for prying loose white Catholics. To help in Florida, a referendum was put on the ballot to deny young women the right to abortion without parental approval and it galvanised evangelicals and conservative Catholics alike.

While Kerry ran on mainstream traditions of international cooperation and domestic investments, and transparency and rationality as essential to democratic government, Bush campaigned directly against these very ideas. At his rallies, Bush was introduced as standing for "the right God". During the closing weeks, Bush and Cheney ridiculed internationalism, falsifying Kerry's statement about a "global test". They disdained Kerry's internationalism as effeminate, unpatriotic, a character flaw, and elitist. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," Cheney derided in every speech. They grafted imperial unilateralism on to provincial isolationism. Fear of the rest of the world was to be mastered with contempt for it.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1343006,00.html

[paper chase guy]

1. great read

thanks :)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Trouble is

the US is no longer the biggest fish in the pond. The EU is a bigger economic entity, and is fixing to make the Euro the international currency for oil. We've already caved to them in regards to trade restrictions. Right now, many "American" companies like Holiday Inn and Burger King are foreign owned. Europe hasn't pulled the rug out from under us--yet. But I believe they (rightly) believe that the Bush policy is dangerous to world stability, and will do something to try and bring sanity back to the world before we have a major catastrophe.

[TomClash]

3. the bushes don't care - they're a crime family

the just want more money and power - consequences be damned.