SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE

Fold, Spindle and Mutilate has an important post you should read, "Something's Gotta Give." It's a decent summary of BushCo offenses and the challenges we face as a result, not only in the next four years but for a long time after.

It is impossible to predict the outcome of Bush’s radical experiments with the American economy, his disregard of our political traditions, and his freedom from constraints from the Congress, the media, and soon the federal judiciary. Most scenarios are, quite frankly, dreadful. If we are to avoid the precipice toward which we are accelerating, this deliverance must come from a shock of recognition of our perilous condition followed by decisive and concerted action by the financial establishment, the media, and the general public.
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It is almost impossible to overstate the arrogance of George Bush, and those immediate around him. Those who disagree with Bush’s “gut,” such as Colin Powell, Paul O’Neill, Joseph Wilson and the senior officers of the CIA, are banished from the Presidential Presence. Empirical research and rational assessment of policy alternative have no place in the Bush White House. Instead, George Bush and his circle presume themselves to have a God-like ability to create reality out of wishful thought.

An exaggeration? Consider Ron Suskind’s report of his conversation with “a senior advisor to President Bush:

"The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. .. That’s not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.'

And Seymour Hersh:

"There are many who believe George Bush is a liar - a president who knowingly and deliberately twists facts for political gain. But lying would indicate an understanding of what is desired, what is possible and how best to get there. A more plausible explanation is that words have no meaning for this president beyond the immediate moment. And so he believes that his mere utterance of the phrases makes them real. It is a terrifying possibility. (Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 and Abu Ghraib. p. 416).

"This is beyond arrogance. It is insanity. And I measure that word carefully and employ it in a clinical sense: as "a detachment from reality.”

And it is an American tragedy. This derangement at the head of our government is a ominous burden upon all of us who dwell in this once-blessed land, and a threat to the humanity that lives beyond our borders.

This derangement also presents an opportunity for the progressive opposition. For such a “leader,” and such an administration can, if carefully studied and skillfully provoked, be led to their own destruction, for they are blind to their own shortcomings and incapable of responding rationally and effectively to unexpected obstacles that are placed before them.

The Bush regime will eventually collapse of its own ignorance, arrogance and folly. The task of a responsible opposition is to hasten this collapse, while seeing to it that as few innocent bystanders as possible are struck by the falling debris.