I actually found myself sympathizing with the Bush fans on the SDMB today. I was thinking about a comment I’d read in a thread earlier about how Bush fans are often a day or two late coming to the defense of the Glorious Leader after news of his latest depredations, blunders and malfeasances.
I mean, suppose you’re a conservative who really believes that the Administration is better than a Democratic administration would have been. But maybe you don’t buy into EVERYTHING that Bush does. Still, you feel compelled to defend him – he is your guy after all. And so you keep getting news about new things you’re gonna have to defend. Let’s pretend they’re phone calls and you just hear the conservative’s end of the call: “He … he nominated Alvarez for AG? The torture memo guy? Why did he do that? Was there ANYONE else … OK, OK. Just have to deal with it.” And there’s: “The Justice Department is looking at legal justifications for keeping people incommunicado indefinitely? Really? What about the writ of habeus corpus? What happens … OK, Ok.” And don’t let’s forget, “The Pentagon has devised a what? A gay sex bomb? What have you been smoking? C’mon, stop pulling my leg! OK, what have THEY been smoking? How are we gonna sell that? Don’t ask, don’t tell, just bomb?”
And this is before Bush has even been inaugurated. We can all look forward to four more years of this kind of zaniness. By 2008 the calls might sound like this: “He invaded who? Monaco? Why Monaco? Because we’ve only got 15 or 20 soldiers on hand to do the invasion, what with all the other invasions? Well what happened to the terrorist threat posed by Lichtenstien? He’s going after them because they still have an heriditary aristocracy? Making the world safe for democracy, eh?” Or: “All Americans who don’t go to church every week are going to have to register as sex offenders? How is that part of the faith-based initiative? He figures everyone will go to church so they don’t have to register? Yeah, I guess that is faith-based and does show a lot of initiative. What about the atheists? Oh, in the camps with the gays, eh?” And probably, “We’re going to have to develop special clothes to wear while bathing so he can just plain outlaw nudity? Well, I suppose it WILL put an end to strip clubs? What about that baby-changing thing? The parents can just wear blindfolds while they do it? Oh, they’ll be legally REQUIRED to wear blindfolds while they do it. OK, I guess that makes about as much sense as … everything else.”
Yeah, if the next four years are like the last two months, it’s gonna be a LONG four years for Bush fans. The online fans are going to have a MUCH tougher time of it than Karl Rove, who can easily fob off the soundbite citizens with “Go USA! FLAG FLAG FLAG! FAG FAG FAG! 911! 911!” But online folks tend to have access to more news with deeper coverage. They’ll have QUESTIONS.
If people weren’t getting killed, it’d be funny. Well, funnier.
The gay sex bomb was Clinton’s baby. An excellent idea too. What if such compounds actually existed, and Osama figured out how to use them before America even knew they were possible?
Just want to point out that the state Mr. Bush was so recently governor of (and my adopted home) for decades has been renowned for the quality and range of choice in strip club-type establishments. So, I’m not too worried about that one.
It looks like someome is still awfully sore at losing the elections. Is it just now sinking in, EC? Maybe now that the Inauguration is only a few days away, it’s finally getting through your skull? Better late than never, I suppose.
I predict a spate of these silly and pointless ‘BUSH IS TEH SUX!’ threads over the coming days (Well, more than usual. It’s not like they ever dried up), as the news finally trickles into some our slower citizens that yes, George W Bush is going to be president for the next 4 years.
It does seem like that, and judging from these stupid pittings, the problem is hardly isolated. But what can you do? If Redfury and EC and associated riff-raff don’t want to clue into reality, there just isn’t much to be done.
Good gods Brutus: Torture, murder, rape, cronyism, loss of trust within the international community, increase in the risk of terrorism, etc…
Doesn’t this cross party lines and become an American issue already? Do we really have to stop seeking justice just because Bush won a second term? That’s it? A horserace? Show’s over, let him fuck up the world as much as he can?
Yeah, I refer to these as “Bush-Bashing Circle-Jerk” threads, because all they seem to consist of is Bush-Haters pointing out how much they hate him and how everyone should hate him and how superior they are for hating him. It all seems so masturbatory. Every once in a while, a misguided Not-Bush-Hater will post and get dogpiled. It just doesn’t seem worth the time to post.a
Yup, Turek, all too true, but you seem to have forgotten that there often are perfectly legitimate issues discussed in these threads and that the President, any President, during his time in office is likely to do something or other richly deserving of criticism. Personally, I’ve got no problem with that. Wheat, chaff, etc.
No, El Kabong, as a thoughtful Democrat and American, I’d have to say that my problem here is not merely that a man I feel to be incompetent is in the White House for another four years. It’s the idea I get from the majority of his supporters that the right to criticize the incumbent ended four years ago next Thursday.
I found a lot of Bill Clinton’s ideas quite palatable – and thought he made some major mistakes. And I was quite able to say so, without getting bashed for it. There were even a few Republicans who thought one or two of his policies worth endorsing.
But somewhere between November 2000 and January 20, 2001, the right to criticize the incumbent honestly and forthrightly on the basis of his policies went down the tubes. For an overwhelming majority of the liberals, he’s evil incarnate. And while he’s a megalomaniac clown IMO, he’s definitely a well-intentioned megalomaniac clown, again IMO.
On the other side, though, not one word of criticism of his policies or actions is permissible. I would kiss Cecil’s left big toe if I saw one post from Mr Moto or Brutus that said, in effect, “I still support GWB, and think he’s doing a good job – but he definitely fucked up on that particular issue.”
And right there is the problem – there is no room for reasoned discourse between the sides. Battle lines have been drawn, and what formerly was the space for discourse between opposing parties has become No Man’s Land, with minefields laid by both sides.
I have to agree with you there (and that’s why I never discuss politics, religion, or operations systems with anyone). According to most of the posts in most of the threads I read pitting Bush, if you haven’t decided he’s the antichrist, you’re not just an idiot but a fucking idiot and every sane person in the world would just as soon you were dead.
Well, actually, if I ever saw THAT, I’d buy either of those two posters a drink…and four or five for myself, otherwise the shock would likely do me in.