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Edited on Fri Jan-16-04 02:59 AM by kgfnally
the exact opposite a few weeks ago. I've been forced to alter my stance on this.
Adolph Hitler could be referred to as evil personified, politically brilliant (at least, for people who were of his 'master race'), a unifying leader (again, with some horrid qualifications), and a whole host of other things.
Bush, on the other hand, is the opposite: personified by his evil, brilliantly political, and a polarizing leader. Surprise- the one is as bad as the other.
However, there is a crucial difference at work. Where Hitler eventually murdered and conquered overtly, invading and killing populations that resisted, Bush has killed off something far more subtle. That something is called patriotism.
Hear me out. Ten years ago the policies that pResident Bush* and his administration are currently putting into place would have been met with immediate and open calls for impeachment. We would have kicked his sorry ass out of office faster than Andy Card ran to get burgers.
Instead, we hear the same sad refrain: the world has changed since September 11, 2001. The fact is, if we ever bothered to open our eyes a bit and read archives from international news (which we here at DU are known to do, but we're a minority for these purposes), we would see that events such as 9/11 have been happening all over the world for a great many years. In other words, what has truly changed is our perception of the world.
Realistically speaking, it was only a matter of time that a terrorist group would score a major hit against someone, somewhere. In the ever-perfect hindsight we are blessed- or cursed- with, it appears that it was a combination of policy and simple, bad luck that allowed 9/11 to occur.
Our reaction to the policies like the Patriot Act that the Bush 'team' have put into place would have been rejected back then. So why is the "climate right" now? Because we've been manipulated. But that's a whole other post.
I do wonder what's happened over the past decade. I wonder because I happen to hate the Great Glass Teat. I avoid television whenever possible, and I find the only reason I do watch even TV news is because I want to know what the 'enemy' is doing.
Their rape of our collective rights would never have been tolerated until now, with this administration. It is very, very good at deflecting and redirecting issues and debates in such a way that their message and only their message is what the viewers of the exchange remember. They have either to have done focus groups and statistical analyses to test what parts of a conversation people commonly remember or used preexisting data from studies into the same to become adept at doing so.
Is this to say we should just throw up our hands and say, "oh well?" Of course not. The fact is our country has been dismally poor at keeping our eyes on the traffic on the road, rather than the numbers on our cellphone. We're easily distracted. A bad wreck could easily result from that, and that's a pretty good description for what happened on 9/11.
Now here's a question: how far, in response to prevent such a tragedy, is too far? I'm absolutely certain that our Founders well knew that our country would have covert enemies; after all, they themselves were known to have used precursors of modern-day covert tactics. These were not any kind of stupid men; they were, on the whole, both intellectually and politically astute. Very astute.
So much so that they founded a country, fought a war to do it, and won. We should be so lucky. Instead, what we currently have in office is a man who is willing to co-opt his own current and future citizens to sponsor the enrichment of business and family and friends. We can already assume, if this man is in office even one more day, another citizen of our own country could well die as a direct result.
Unending war was never envisioned by them; maybe they made a mistake in that. Or maybe they had faith in the system of laws they had created, that it itself would be safe if the people kept a vigilant eye. We have failed in that duty, mostly because Bush* has manipulated us into doing so, for his own benefit.
And there, friend, is the crucial similarity between the two men. One was the most prolific murderer in modern history; a man who believed in a 'master race' and conquered his neighbors. The other is a fortunate fratboy son, a failure in all of his major endeavors, a man who is completely out of touch with and incurious to the world around him, who is waging war overseas while transfering the bulk of the benefit to the rich upper business class; a man who is bankrupting our country, our future generations, and in some measure, our very souls as citizens via his overall restriction of Constitutional rights.
However, both are examples of men who do not care, period, unless it benefits them. They are indifferent to the plight of their fellow men. That's what, ultimately, makes them similar.
Hitler may sit at the head of the class, but Bush certainly isn't near the back.
***EDIT***: UPDATED because it made NO sense when I hit 'post'. Apologies.
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