January 21, 2005
"GET OVER HIM ," HE SEETHED:
A Vision of Our Own: Four ideas for the left to redefine itself (John Powers, 1/21/05, LA Weekly)
Despite occasional noises about wanting to represent all the people, no president has been less shy about saying things guaranteed to get his opponents’ goat. When the Washington Post recently asked him why nobody in his administration was held accountable for the botched occupation of Iraq, Bush replied, "We had an accountability moment, and that’s called the 2004 elections. The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me." So, there.Within minutes of the Post story hitting the wires, my Outlook Express was flooded with teeth-gnashing e-mails noting that winning the presidency by a disputed nose in Ohio doesn’t exactly mean America thinks Rummy’s work in Iraq is just swell. I agreed with their point, but I also found it faintly depressing that so many on the left are still obsessed with anger at Bush. It’s time to get over it. Loathing the guy may have filled Kerry’s campaign coffers — and fattened Michael Moore’s wallet — but it wasn’t enough to beat him. In fact, it may have even cost the Democrats the election. Growing fixated on one man is bad politics.
I know it’s hard to give up hating Bush. I myself enjoyed bristling when Bush said the election gave him "political capital," the same MBA-inflected lingo that led him to dub NASA astronauts "space entrepreneurs" (this last word obviously being his highest accolade). But if George W. Bush disappeared tomorrow, kidnapped by Alan Colmes in a Che Guevara beret, everything awful about his presidency would still be in place. Oil entrepreneur Dick Cheney would simply change offices (if not roles).
It takes an astonishing lack of self-awareness to decry how Bush hatred is misshaping the Left in one breath and accuse him of being a front for Dick Cheney in the next. Of course, that's just a warm-up for another Satanic reference.... Posted by Orrin Judd at January 21, 2005 11:01 AM
From the article:
[If Bush were gone], "..Oil entrepreneur Dick Cheney would simply change offices (if not roles). Pest-control entrepreneur Tom DeLay would still be infesting the House. Medical entrepreneur Dr. Bill Frist would still be running the Senate like some ghastly HMO asylum..."
This is an amazing and didactic essay. It left me slack-jawed and gaping at its blindness, rage, and ability to out-Bourbon the Bourbons (they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing, and cannot even consider it possible they might have erred). I particularly like the fourth plank of his set of ideas - bring back utopia.
Like many others, I think a loyal opposition party of Dems is a good thing, but after reading an essay like this I doubt we are going to see one for *years* to come.
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at January 21, 2005 1:28 PMAnd another thing - previously discussed on some Bros Judd post or another - why do they always pick on DeLay's exterminator business background? Too commonplace, not academic enough?
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at January 21, 2005 1:32 PMI can't believe he says "winning the presidency by a disputed nose in Ohio" when Bush won by over 118,000 votes. Pathetic.
Posted by: Kay in CA at January 21, 2005 3:02 PMWhat is satisfying is that W knows how to say the Two Little Words in an elegant manner,
Posted by: Lou Gots at January 21, 2005 3:33 PMIf Bush won by the presidency by a "disputed nose" then Gregorie's margin in Washington was a disputed nose hair. More accurately, a stolen nose hair.
I think one reason they constantly reference DeLay's business is that it's a short jump (in their minds) to self-styled "pest exterminators" such as Himmler and Heydrich.
Posted by: George at January 22, 2005 3:11 PMIf Bush won by the presidency by a "disputed nose" then Gregorie's margin in Washington was a disputed nose hair. More accurately, a stolen nose hair.
I think one reason they constantly reference DeLay's business is that it's a short jump (in their minds) to self-styled "pest exterminators" such as Himmler and Heydrich.
Posted by: George at January 22, 2005 3:14 PM