50 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
50 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
Stupid Like A Fox
|
|
<p>For the kind of articulate extrovert who tends to go into politics or the<br />
|
|
media, it can be very difficult to believe that a stumble-tongued,<br />
|
|
inarticulate man can be other than an idiot. As an articulate extrovert<br />
|
|
myself, I’ve had to struggle with this. Like most of our media and<br />
|
|
chattering classes, my instinct too was to write George W. Bush as an<br />
|
|
idiot who had stumbled into the Presidency through no merit of his own.</p>
|
|
<p>Events have forced me to nearly the opposite conclusion. George W. Bush<br />
|
|
is no idiot. In fact, he now appears to me to be an extremely cunning man<br />
|
|
who makes repeated and effective use of his opponents’ inability to take<br />
|
|
him seriously.</p>
|
|
<p>Over and over again we’ve seen the pattern. Bush says he’s gaing<br />
|
|
to do something. Opponents rant and rave and scream about what an<br />
|
|
idiot he is. Amidst all the name-calling, an effective opposition<br />
|
|
fails to materialize. When the smoke clears, events unfold pretty<br />
|
|
much according to the Bush script.</p>
|
|
<p>It’s pretty much been that way on every issue bigger than judicial<br />
|
|
nominations. Now, mind you, in this essay I’m not going to express<br />
|
|
or even imply a judgment about whether or <em>should</em> be that way.<br />
|
|
What I’m trying to point out is that even the U.N. has pretty much<br />
|
|
ended up dancing Bush’s tune. All of the Franco/German/Russian talk<br />
|
|
of thwarting that mad cowboy has come to this in the end: U.S, troops<br />
|
|
in control of Iraq, Saddam gone, and the U.N. formally committed by<br />
|
|
resolution to support the U.S. reconstruction without either a timeline<br />
|
|
or any U.N. authority over Iraq.</p>
|
|
<p>Once or twice could be luck. But Bush <em>keeps doing this</em>.<br />
|
|
He is such an effective political operator that his opponents find<br />
|
|
that their ability to block him has quietly vanished while they<br />
|
|
weren’t looking. The pathological rage now endemic in Democratic<br />
|
|
circles is fueled by impotence. They know they were suckered,<br />
|
|
swindled, <em>had</em> somehow, but they can’t pin down why or how the<br />
|
|
majority voters stopped listening. Bad enough to have Reagan pound<br />
|
|
the crap out of them — they thought he was an idiot too, but at<br />
|
|
least they could console themselves that he was a <em>glib</em> idiot.<br />
|
|
Being shellacked by a Republican who sounds like a moron behind a<br />
|
|
microphone is more than their blood pressure can take.</p>
|
|
<p>Well, Democrats, I’ve got news for you. Bush is using your rage to<br />
|
|
make <em>you</em> into idiots. I think, early in his political<br />
|
|
career, he somehow learned how to push this button reliably, and has<br />
|
|
been sucker-punching his opponents ever since. Clever of him —<br />
|
|
but then, as I belatedly realized when I was thinking this through. he<br />
|
|
<em>has</em> to be brighter than he looks. The dude flew fighter<br />
|
|
planes! Simpletons can’t do that; the Air Force screens pilots for<br />
|
|
intelligence because it <em>has</em> to.</p>
|
|
<p>Want to stop Bush? Then, Mr. J. Random Democrat, call Dubya evil if<br />
|
|
you want — but accept that, on his record, he is pretty damn<br />
|
|
bright. Stop screaming, take his brains seriously, and outsmart him.<br />
|
|
That is, if you can.</p>
|
|
<p><a href="http://enetation.co.uk/comments.php?user=esr&commentid=106731087946688284">Blogspot comments</a></p>
|