Thursday, June 23, 2005
Preparing for Therapy
Giuseppe Abote writes:
Bush's chief political adviser, Rove said in a speech Wednesday that ''liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.'' Conservatives, he told the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, ''saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.''"
Evidently Rove's man George W. Bush--he of the flight jacket and the tin of Skoal outlined in the back pocket of his blue jeans "exuding" "charisma"--is not a true conservative. When Bush saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks he cowered in a grade school classroom. Are we supposed to forget that?
It's true that some conservatives saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war. But war against who? Here is how Jerry Falwell prepared for war on the September 14, 2001 edition of "The 700 Club":
"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"
But wait. Was that "preparing for war" or "preparing indictments"? Maybe Falwell isn't a real conservative either.
Who the fuck were these conservatives preparing for war? Was the conservative mayor of New York City preparing for war when he tried to reassure the city, in a manner not unlike that of a therapist, that we would rebuild bigger and better? By warning the citizens not to attack Muslim Americans in reprisal, which he eloquently noted was precisely the type of hate that had just struck us, wasn't he urging just the sort of restraint and understanding that typifies Rove's idea of liberal calumny?
No one was preparing for war. People were doing lots of other things, like running for their lives, weeping, looting, giving first aid, donating blood, posting "missing" notices for loved ones they had to know were sure to be dead, and generally stumbling around in a state of dumb shock. Laura Bush and her sow daughters were popping bon bons in their "safe places," not preparing for war. The dufuses presiding over the "Fox and Friends" morning television program shrugged off the savagery of the 9/11 attacks to continue promoting the virtues of the American peanut, at an event sponsored by a consortium of peanut lobbyists, with the help of female pro basketball star Lisa Leslie. In other words, Americans saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and responded just about the same way they do to everything: with a mixture of denial, greed, idealism, opportunism and straight-up fear. No one -- not a single solitary American -- was preparing for war. It is a relief to hear from Karl Rove that there aren't any conservatives in this country, after all.
posted by Blicero : 6/23/2005 05:30:00 PM
Bush's chief political adviser, Rove said in a speech Wednesday that ''liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.'' Conservatives, he told the New York state Conservative Party just a few miles north of Ground Zero, ''saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.''"
Evidently Rove's man George W. Bush--he of the flight jacket and the tin of Skoal outlined in the back pocket of his blue jeans "exuding" "charisma"--is not a true conservative. When Bush saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks he cowered in a grade school classroom. Are we supposed to forget that?
It's true that some conservatives saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war. But war against who? Here is how Jerry Falwell prepared for war on the September 14, 2001 edition of "The 700 Club":
"I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"
But wait. Was that "preparing for war" or "preparing indictments"? Maybe Falwell isn't a real conservative either.
Who the fuck were these conservatives preparing for war? Was the conservative mayor of New York City preparing for war when he tried to reassure the city, in a manner not unlike that of a therapist, that we would rebuild bigger and better? By warning the citizens not to attack Muslim Americans in reprisal, which he eloquently noted was precisely the type of hate that had just struck us, wasn't he urging just the sort of restraint and understanding that typifies Rove's idea of liberal calumny?
No one was preparing for war. People were doing lots of other things, like running for their lives, weeping, looting, giving first aid, donating blood, posting "missing" notices for loved ones they had to know were sure to be dead, and generally stumbling around in a state of dumb shock. Laura Bush and her sow daughters were popping bon bons in their "safe places," not preparing for war. The dufuses presiding over the "Fox and Friends" morning television program shrugged off the savagery of the 9/11 attacks to continue promoting the virtues of the American peanut, at an event sponsored by a consortium of peanut lobbyists, with the help of female pro basketball star Lisa Leslie. In other words, Americans saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and responded just about the same way they do to everything: with a mixture of denial, greed, idealism, opportunism and straight-up fear. No one -- not a single solitary American -- was preparing for war. It is a relief to hear from Karl Rove that there aren't any conservatives in this country, after all.
posted by Blicero : 6/23/2005 05:30:00 PM
