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When did you first realize Bush would be a terrible president? That moment of darkness came to me when reading a "Solon" article about how many executions - justifiable homicides - Bush committed when Governor of Texas. He would spend about 15 minutes reviewing a case, and "never lost a minute's sleep" over his decisions, and this happened on average "every two and a half weeks."
A fair and impartial judge, a humane judge, will agonize some over having to sentence someone to death. Even when it must be done, that doesn't mean he or she has to like it, or worse, be indifferent to it. Even in open and shut cases, there are ramifications to the sentenced's family and to the country at large, this in addition to the suffering of the victim's family. Death is never easy for a humane judge even when it is the right thing to do.
Bush was, of course, elected anyway. And then came 9/11. Like 90% of the country and of the world, I supported going into Afghanistan to get bin Laden and was even proud of Bush, but when BushCo wanted to invade Iraq, I knew it was a lie at worst or a deception at best and argued that Iraq would use any WMDs to fight off our invasion if they had them, and argued they wouldn't do so because they didn't have any. Many DUers evidently thought the same thing. (I wasn't here then.)
For the first time in my life, politics mattered, and Bush's inability to be humane was obviously very dangerous. I had already wondered how a state could be so easily deceived with California's Three Strikes law, which also was a lie at worst or a deception at best. Voters thought they were voting to put repeat "murders, rapists and child molesters" in prison for life. That was false and even once the voters learned it was false, they didn't seem to care. Fool me once, and I'm fine with that. Fool me twice, even better!
How could that happen?
Propaganda. In the early 80s the Right perfected the art of propaganda. We can see it plainly now with the same talking points instantly served to Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter and all of FoxNews, but it wasn't so obvious then, and even now too many do not realize this is a well oiled machine. Fear mongering then was the same as fear mongering now and Rove only took control of the machine. We can see how this works for the President and the Right in "the war on terror," but it is still not so easy to see how they merely shifted their "war on crime" fear mongering and adopted it to their new cause. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. (For the record, I have nothing to fear from the Three Strikes law and it is the propaganda that interests me.)
Foley is the perfect metaphor, no, he is the epitome, of how the Right's hypocrisy and politics took control of our great country. Foley's "for the children" and Bush's "I'm protecting your family from terrorists" are one in the same. The wolf in sheep's clothing merely put on a uniform. We cannot talk to the terrorists any more than we can rehabilitate criminals. Death and prison are the only solutions. This is war! While it may be true that negotiations would fail, it is also true that ignorance of the international stage encourages terrorism.
Neither Bush nor Foley really care like humane judges care and are in fact incapable of empathy, and they both use fear to chop away at the cherry tree of freedom, but unlike Washington, they can tell lies without regret. And like Bush and his executions, they both are as indifferent as a steamroller. That one chats with boys makes little difference.
Yes, calling Foley a pedophile and calling out the Republican house as pedophile enablers can be a logical and effective tactic to win the coming election, but if we lose sight of the Big Picture, if we lose our sense of humanity, if we permit the Right to continue, or if we support, their fear mongering, we will not hold power once we have it. If their fear mongering controls us, they still have the power they want even when they lose elections, because we still do their bidding.
To put it in a way you all can see and experience, all freeper trolls would have to do here at DU to keep the shift to the Right is to propagandize support for the "war on crime" and the "war on terror." Be afraid, be very afraid. That's all they want, and that is all they need to pass torture bills and usurp the Bill of Rights.
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