Thursday, November 1, 2007

Who's Deranged?

Rightwing whackjobs love to sneer at anyone who criticizes the Bush administration as someone who has "Bush Derangement Syndrome" - yeah, like rightwing derangement hasn't been on flagrant display since Bill Clinton began to show promise as a presidential candidate. Like most of what they say, it's lazy rhetorical bullshit that serves to keep them from having to answer any one of the literally thousands of legitimate charges against George W. Bush and his so-called administration. Of course, this type of lazy and dishonest demagoguery is part and parcel in the wingnut toolbox: Criticize Israel's actions or policies? You're an anti-semite. Don't like the war in Iraq? You're a traitor who gives aid and comfort to The Terrorists! Think GWB is an asshole? Well, you just have Bush Derangement Syndrome, and therefore we don't have to listen to or address anything you have to say! See? It's a cinch! As Mike and I, and most of the rest of the reality-based world have discovered, it does little good to attempt to engage these folks in dialogue; my friend freewheel may remember that I compared my attempts to do so as being like a hamster on a wheel, running like crazy and going nowhere, so I'm glad I finally got off.

That said, I am here to declare, unequivocally, that I do despise George W. Bush and if that makes me "deranged" well then, I'm in good company. This should be read in its entirety but here's the best part:

Bush claims that if we don't give him the right to make people scream out in sheer agony at what American officials physically inflict on them, he will not be able to keep you and me safe. George W. Bush is completely full of shit. I am prepared to accept whatever risk that goes along with living in a country that doesn't ever torture its enemies. Because I know that there is no such risk, that in fact torturing people places a country at greater risk, morally and existentially, than not. Whatever the reasons he has for torturing people, he is not doing it for the good of ordinary Americans and I reject his insinuation that either my fellow Americans or myself are somehow the reason he feels he must indulge in such perversions.

A word about Bush-hating seems appropriate right about now. It is a subject which deeply concerns so many thoughtful members of the cowardly, fainting classes, ie, Republicans and the mainstream press. When people like me speak out in disgust at what this sick man is doing, it is cause for moral outrage - at the person speaking out! As if hating Bush was in any way morally comparable to the deliberate inflicting of mind-damaging pain on another human being! To those folks, we need to spell it out:

What Bush and his henchmen have done, and what they are presently doing is, in fact, truly hateful, if that word has any meaning at all. But not only are Bush's actions capable of being hated by all reasonable people (and deserve to be). They are also acts which themselves are full of hate and sadism. There's another thing I hate:

Bush will go down in history as the torture president. I hate that this country ever had a president who made the torture of human beings official government policy.


Amen. And pass the Prozac.

6 comments:

Ricky Bones said...

Here's what I don't get. There are MANY conservatives I am friends with who think President Bush has gone off the deep end and they are the moderate guys who are slightly socially conservative to somewhat socially conservative.

Are they deranged? Do they now lose their affiliation as Republicans? The vocal 30% who are setting this standard are nothing more than overgrown children with better than average vocabularies who are acting like that child who just heard someone criticize their daddy and that is their only defense. Label someone crazy, bad, or unpatriotic for talking bad about their daddy.

Sad when you can't see through the B.S. and escape the ingrained logic etched into you by FOX News. They need their thoughts and buzz-words fed to them so they will have taking points for those who don't like their leader.

SAD!

AnnPW said...

The only part I disagree with you about RB is that bit about "better than average vocabularies".....:)

Ricky Bones said...

I was feeling uncharacteriscally gracious towards them ;-)

Mike Thomas said...

I got to have a discussion with my brother-in-law last weekend (not the one that went to Iraq). He is what I would describe as a "true conservative." Fiscally and socially conservative on most things - we had a rather heated discussion about SCHIP expansion for example - but he has given up on Bush and is just as upset as I am about the war and the hundreds of billions we are spending there every year. That doesn't mean he's going to vote for Hillary, but he probably won't vote for a pro-war Bushbot in the next election.

AnnPW said...

Did he say what he thought about Guiliani? I really do think he's going to be the Republican nominee, and I agree with you that he's loonier than a wet cat. It's really fascinating to see sane Republicans (there are some, I just know it) try to cope with what has happened to their Party. Did you see that John Cole has finally given up and registered as a Democrat?

Ricky Bones said...

I saw that about Cole! WOW!