Sunday, July 18, 2004
It's the Vision Thing, Stupid
"... Second verse, same as the first! ..."0 comments
—I'm Henry VIII, I Am (Herman's Hermits)
WP: President Is Still Mum on Agenda For Second Term
"Duh!"
You expected otherwise?
The centerpiece of Bush/Cheney '04 remains, "Vote for me—or die!"
If you've been paying attention over the last six months, you've noticed that nowhere in the Bush/Cheney ad blitz is there any mention of their record of the last three-plus years. No one saying, "Students are smiling, happy and smarter now." No one claiming, "Seniors are happy because they're enjoying vastly better golden years because of us." No boasting of "We've brought prosperity and happiness to everyone!"
Because they can't.
People who aren't CEOs or who don't hold extensive stock portfolios have experienced vastly diminished lives under this administration. Their jobs and savings have been wiped out by this crew; their children have been slaughtered in the desert in an adventurous military folly in Iraq; their tranquility has been stolen due to the failure to find and capture the (6'6" and drags around a dialysis machine through the mountains) leader of the forces who actually threaten our safety, and Bush's fueling of all that fear for political reasons.
So, Bush pounds his fist on a series of podiums and proclaims: "John Kerry is worse than me!"
Oh.
OK.
So let's look forward a moment.
What other concepts could George Bush's campaign possibly come up with now that would sway millions of people, already furious at his previous four years at the helm, into suddenly considering him to be leadership material?
This is not a bold, great thinker here, folks, even on a good day. This is no visionary.
Bush's entire career has been based on being an astute go-along, get-along political animal, who makes political alliances, keeps his word to those allies, and does and says whatever is expedient in maintaining the status quo.
These are ward-healer skills, not grand leadership qualities of a global scale.
By this juncture, Bush's presidency is SO beholden to the dual-headed beast of Corporate Big Money and Right-wing Radicalism that he's just not going to be able to come out with anything that annoys either of them one iota and keep his job.
Rest assured that whatever the Office of Karl Rove comes out with by convention time will merely be a fine gussying up of the Pig of Higher Profits and the further cleansing of the word "Liberty"—as in the phrase, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness ..."—from the American lexicon.
That's what George W.'s "Base" wants.
So THAT"S George W.'s "vision."
posted by Gotham 12:25 PM
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