TAKING ON AH-NOLD

MaxSpeak brilliantly deconstructs Arnie's speech:

As we noted before, it is one thing to convey the common sense to one's children that in order to succeed one must maintain a positive attitude and work hard. It is another to presume that, as a matter of public policy, there is no role for government -- the whole people acting collectively -- to insure individuals against common adversities for which private insurance is not available, or prohibitively expensive.

If you don't buy this, you're a girlie man. Well as I smooth my panties I'd like to note the link -- once again -- to some Democratic orthodoxy. You're a girlie man if you recognize weakness in the economy, or in our economic system. In other words, you are guilty of an individual failure. It's your fault, you loser. Once again, the gall here is oceanic. From someone whose career depended so much on good luck -- in athletics and acting, for Christ's sake -- to conflate bad luck with personal inadequacy is breathtaking.

What's the Democratic link? In arguments about free trade, the Clintonoids' refrain was that American workers are so cool of course they will be able to compete with the export of jobs. (In other words, they will somehow accept some combination of more productivity for less pay.) You can't compete (sic), what are you, some kind of weenie?

Then we had this gem:

"But then I heard Nixon speak. Then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military."

Under Mr. Wage/Price Control Nixon, the expansion of the U.S. public sector, taxes included, was historically unprecedented. As to strengthening the military, by contrast we had the discrediting of the military in the course of the Vietnam War.

Which brings me to the 'two Americas' bit, a rhetorical gem:

"Now, the other party says that we have two Americas. Don't you believe that either. I have visited our troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Germany, and all over the world. I've visited our troops in California, where they train before they go overseas. I have visited our military hospitals. And I tell you this, that our men and women in uniform do not believe there are two Americas. They believe we are one America, and they are fighting for it.

We are one America, and President Bush is defending it with all his heart and soul."

I take my hat off to whoever wrote this. It conflates a recognition of the class struggle with unseemly betrayal of the sons and daughters of the working class currently being fed into the meat-grinder of Iraq. And "defending" is that military slacker G. Bush. Logical idiocy, a brilliant inversion. As such, it is perfectly in keeping with the unending waving of the bloody shirt Monday night. We salute our troops indeed. Why not, since their blood and little else irrigates the prospects of the GOP in November.