About a year ago, as I recall it, I read an article linked from another website about a young man who had attempted to alter the bar-code data on a bunch of Ipods in a store and buy them for nine dollars a piece or some such. When caught, he said, “I’m a kid! I’m only 19! Please don’t put me in jail!”
The denizens of the aforementioned website were less-than-charitable in their responses to such a thing. People began wondering aloud how such an attitude could even pass through the young man’s head. Then it was explained by another young man.
He said that, currently, we live in a society where there’s no particular problem with lying and shifting the blame. He said that most people his age have learned to at least try to lie and weasel their way out of things -first-, because it -might- work, and hey, if it doesn’t, the punishment won’t be any worse.
I thought about this yesterday when watching the clip linked here: (warning: Some not-safe-for-work language in the comments section afterwords) http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/22/bush-stay-the-course/?AmericaIsScrewed=true
For those who cannot, or do not wish to, visit the site, it’s a news clip from an interview between George Stephanopoulos and George Bush on ABC This Week. Durring the interview, Bush says, “We’ve never been stay the course, George!”
Now, I’ve never been a Bush supporter, but in general I’ve been mild about my politics. This, however… Bald-faced lie. I don’t understand how he could do this, unless he’s trying exactly what the aforementioned young man was saying his own schoolmates were trying.
To be honest, this sickens me, and I deem it not only an insult to those who have died on both sides of this conflict while Bush’s rallying cry was ‘stay the course’, but pitworthy simply due to the CIC outright lying.
There is a world of difference between being personally accountable and “staying the course” in Bush’s rhetoric. Being personally accountable means accepting and acknowledging your mistakes, apologizing when appropriate, and changing your actions and behavior when necessary when you are wrong. “Stay the course” doesn’t.
OK-so the analogy may not be the best. I doubt the OP wants to focus on that. I am sitting here, somewhat taken aback by the words that just came out of W’s mouth. It is a bald faced lie-but then when did the man tell the truth? (rhetorical, I know).
thanks for the clip-I have no time to watch the political shows. Can’t wait for the TDS spin (or Colbert’s) on this one.
But this is about accountability. With an election coming up fast, and the Iraq war being a major issue, Bush no longer wishes to take accountability for his failures. He’s now claiming that they were never about ‘stay the course’. Not only is it an obvious lie, but it’s a lie in the service of avoiding fixing his mistakes.
This kind of statement really makes me question the intelligence of our President. Surely he has to know that every word he says is recorded by numerous sources. How can he come out and baldly say he never said something it is very well documented he said not only once, but on many occasions? Does he really think the American people are that stupid?
I thought that maybe Bush pulled one of his verbal fuckups this weekend, but apparently denial of the ‘stay the course’ policy is the new party line: Bartlett: White House Flexible on Iraq
We’re two repetitions into the Denial of Saint Peter, and it looks like there’s a lock on the third.
They don’t want you to think it, and theyt’d deny it, but they apparently believe Adolf Hitler’s Big Lie theory.
I know that’ll upset his followers, and I’m sorry. The discourse is poisoned enough as it is.
But that’s the only rational interpretation when they show such naked contempt for our memory and reasoning ability as to flatly deny what we all watched them assert. And we have tape of it.
Did you really expect a guy who has wormed his way through life to accept responsibility?
Of course it has been “stay the course.” What GW says is that he is flexible about the tactics to be used in “stay the course.” This allows him to say, “I’m flexible.” while at the same time being inflexible on the overall strategy.
If we’ve never been “stay the course” then why in the hell is that phrase even in our freaking lexicon now? How did everyone all of a sudden link those three words together and start associating them with our war strategy, if Bush wasn’t a proponent for doing just that? Did the “stay the course” meme just spontaneously emerge when lightning struck of bunch of aqueous ammonia molecules in Lake Minnatonka? Have we all been suffering from mass delusion caused by eating meme-contaminated spinach?
Someone help me understand what this man is trying to say.
That’s simple: We have always been at war with East Asia. And your memories of when we were at peace with East Asia, and at war with Eurasia, are just a delusion.
I don’t know why you think that his followers will be upset with you. It’s an absolute statement of fact you’re making. It’s as true as the fact that he’s the President or that he’s married to Laura.
However, by pointing out such a similarity you’re giving people an opportunity to change the course of the discussion. For that reason alone I would advise against any comparison to the Nazis. That said, they do bear some striking similarities, don’t they?
Here’s my take on what Bush is trying (unsuccessfully) to say. First of all, he’s obvioulsy been saying “stay the course” for several years now. But he never really defined what that meant. It has been interpreted as meaning just keep doing the same thing over and over and hope it works. Which is not an unreasonable interpretation-- after all, “stay the course” means you don’t change direction. Now, though, he wants us to think he is (and has been) open to suggestions about a change in tactics even if a change in strategy (“stay the course” or stay until the job is done) isn’t an option.
Basically, he’s a victim of his own metaphore. If he hadn’t been shouting “stay the course” for so long without thinking what that phrase actually means, then he wouldn’t have all this ‘splainin’ to do. But then, articulating concepts has never been his strong suit, has it?
And here we find W at last hoist by his own petard (petar?). But I think a more salient point would be: instead of fine sounding phrases, jingoism and calls to the heart, more concrete, operable goals and plans would be helpful. From “Mission Accomplished” to this–sometimes I wonder if he and his speechwriters are fully cognizant of the English language.
An intelligent person would have taken advantage of that lack of definition by informing us that “stay the course” has always meant being versatile, flexible , adaptable, and nimble in the face of unexpected threats. In other words, he should have started throwing out all the antonyms to “stay the course” that he could think of and hoped no one would notice. That strategy might have worked. I mean, wasn’t Brownie doing a hecka of a job? Didn’t Tenet receive a presidential medal after presiding over the most collosal intelligence failure in US history? The administration has gotten a lot of mileage out of living in Bizarro land, and they should have “stayed the course” by continuing to speak the tongue of the Bizarro people tribe.
But instead of carefully redefining language as has been tradition in the current White House culture, he decided to deny what has practically become the cornerstone philosophy of this whole Iraqi escapade. The lie he told doesn’t anger me, actually. Some things are too stupid to elicit anger and this is one those things. But I am very disturbed that our president is saying things that are such a departure from what is sane, rational, and politically self-aware. The lack of self-awareness is what really bothers.
