Barber wrote:Bush is a horrific communicator.
You know, I'm not so sure that's accurate. If you're talking about putting across nuanced, complex ideas and programs, then yes, he's awful. But for doing what he needs to do -- reassure and hold his base, confuse and surprise the opposition -- he's does a damn good job. I didn't buy that "Great Communicator" shit about Reagan, either; he was a moron, if we speak of substantive content. But both of them, each in his own way, are great at making their fans feel that everything is gonna be all right, we're in control, and America can and will continue to "stand tall," whatever the fuck that means.
Barber wrote:His staff are also inept when it comes to motivating anything beyond their core far right base.
Yes, well, that's been all they've had to do, isn't it? And I don't think their core far right base is all that's put Bush in office and kept him there, sad to say.
Barber wrote:What needs to happen -- and I'm both hopeful and afraid -- is Americans need to understand how bad it really is.... We've become, by and large, a Gerber's spoon-fed society.
And that's because so many of us are content to do little more than buy and sell each other toys and grub to distract and anaesthetize ourselves and one another.
Barber wrote:what makes this a truly unnerving time is that the opposition party cannot seem to find its ammo when the fish are in a progressively smaller barrel.
Nicely put.
Barber wrote:It's not simply a matter of dismissing the American people, it's a matter of the sense of the majority of Americans of false security and personal (and childlike) need for reassurance rather than an admission that we f***ed up really badly. Many signs are there of what we may be in the process of creating, and they're pointing in the direction of 1928 Germany if we're not careful. I'm not suggesting Bush is Hitler, he lacks the personality and skill to carry off the complete subjectification of our culture -- but he's opened the door more than a crack for someone who does have what it takes and can take advantage of it.
I'm not even that concerned about our domestic political culture. Even if the Democrats did manage to find another FDR or Truman (or even JFK, sorry as he turned out to be, policy-wise), we may still not wake up to the fact that we are poisoning ourselves and our planet such that even the best international political intentions and agreements will not be sufficient to prevent the stress and rancor when resources get slim.
War is, at first, the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off. - Karl Kraus