"Pick up the phone, old man, and tell 43 you love him." Garrison Keillor

[madfloridian]

Keillor asks how many people will die so one dude can look like a leader.

He was the Great Denier of 2006, waving the flag, questioning the patriotism of anyone who dared oppose him, until he took a thumpin' and now, we are told, he is reexamining the whole matter. Except he's not. To admit that he did wrong is to admit that he is not the man his daddy is, the one who fought in a war."

..." Hey, we've all had issues with our dads. But do we need this many people to die so that one dude can look like a leader?"

..."It's time for 41 and 43 to work something out, and they can't do it by way of James Baker or Brent Scowcroft. Pick up the phone, old man, and tell 43 you love him dearly and it's time to think about sparing the lives of American soldiers, many of whom have sons, too.

Little Boots is a scary person now. He is not going to give an inch. I just read at Google that he said he would work with the Democrats as long as they did not try to pass anyhing that could be considered a poltical statement.

I think there is far more to Bush's war than just Daddy Issues, as Keillor says. But he makes a lot of good points.

Daddy Issues

Meanwhile, in Washington, the limousines come and go, memorandums are set out on long polished tables, men in crisp white shirts sit at meetings and discuss how to rationalize a war that was conceived by a handful of men in arrogant ignorance and that has descended over the past four years into sheer madness.

Military men know there is no military solution here, and the State Department knows that the policy was driven by domestic politics, but who is going to tell the Current Occupant? He is still talking about victory, or undefeat, like some frat boy on meth who thinks he can step off a roof and not get hurt. The word "surge" keeps cropping up, as if we were fighting the war with electricity and not human beings.

Rational analysis is not the way to approach this administration. Bob Woodward found that out. The Bush who burst into convulsive sobs after winning reelection when his chief of staff Andrew Card said, "You've given your dad a great gift," is so far from the Bush of the photo ops as to invite closer inspection, and for that you don't want David Broder, you need a good novelist.

I don't feel comfortable about the new year coming up. I am glad our Democrats are in control of the House...but their Senate control is tenuous at best with Lieberman begging for more troops. Maybe some good Republicans will step up to the plate.


"The beginning of the end of a mad era?"

[wtmusic]

1. Hagel is the de-Lieberator

and with support for W in the twenties it's looking like a Senate vote might bring the troops home.

[madfloridian]

2. Hagel has been sounding good on Iraq.

:hi:

[Morgana LaFey]

28. Careful, folks. Hagel was one of the first known benefactors of

electronic voting. He was CEO of the company (ES&S) which later counted his votes in his first run for office, which was for U.S. Senator. You'll not be surprised to learn tht he "won" across all demographics incuding those had never voted republican before, nor will you be surprised to learn that he won thanks to astonishingly high margsins (80% or so in those newly republican friendly demographics, IIRC).

He can sometimes sound like a real sane man, but he's by NO means clean. I don't know if he ever divested himself of those stocks, but he certainly hid them from appropriate reporting required of him as a U.S. Senator. Nope, not a clean man at all.

[rodeodance]

3. ho ho-Garrison is on the mark once again!

[eleny]

4. "The Bush who burst into convulsive sobs after winning reelection"

This is the first I heard about that. The people around him sure know how to push his buttons.

[wtmusic]

5. Card has made a science out of how to push W's buttons

and is more responsible than anyone in Washington for why we can't buy an electric car in 2007.

[dave_p]

6. 'tell 43 you love him dearly"

Maybe we all need to be doing that...




:rofl:

[madfloridian]

7. From the comments on 41 enabling 43

"P.S. The one part I disagree with is the last paragraph. Daddy won't call Junior, because Daddy chose long ago to enable rather than intervene. By his silence, 43 has put his relationship with his son ahead of the lives of our soldiers and the good of the country. Isn't that the definition of co-dependency?"

Amen.

The beginning of the end of a mad era

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

8. I'm crying after reading this. Garrison Keillor breaks it down and

makes it real.

I strongly recommend that anyone who's read this far take the Salon pass and read the entire article. It's as brilliant a deconstruction of the events of the last six years as I've ever read. MKJ

:kick:

[madfloridian]

9. The 2nd paragraph...painfully true.

"You wonder, however, what this earnest bunch can do when things are so far out of whack as they are in Iraq. The gangland-style execution of Saddam Hussein was visible reality, a token of the blood lust and violence that swirls around Iraq, where our forces are mired, sitting targets, aliens, fighting a colonial war in behalf of a Shiite majority that is as despotic and cruel as what came before, except messier."

My opinion about the Saddam hanging

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

10. Your OP was spot on. Dovetails right along with Keillor.

:loveya: and :toast: to both of you. MKJ

edited to add...without our artists, writers and musicians we'd be lost.

[madfloridian]

14. Yes, our writers, artists, and musicians tell the truth first very often.

:hi:

[NJCher]

38. that is why

I'm crying after reading this. Garrison Keillor breaks it down and makes it real.

Garrison Keillor is known as our "national treasure."



Cher

[LittleClarkie]

11. Good lord, I've never seen Garrison talk like that

Personally, when I see the word surge, I think of blue suits. Just seems meaningless in context with the war. Weird little euphemism.

[beam me up scottie]

12. Damn.

American boys in armored jackets and night scopes patrolling the streets of Baghdad are not going to pacify this country, any more than they will convert it to Methodism. They are there to die so that a man in the White House doesn't have to admit that he, George W. Bush, the decider, the one in the cowboy boots, made grievous mistakes. He approved a series of steps that he himself had not the experience or acumen or simple curiosity to question and which had been dumbed down for his benefit, and then he doggedly stuck by them until his approval ratings sank into the swamp.

Recommended.

[Supersedeas]

27. Yep, to both sentiments.

[madfloridian]

13. There is such anger and realization in the comments.

"Our country, the once sovereign American People, has been the victim of a coup that placed in power the very people Eisenhower warned us about. They have believed, quietly, behind the scenes until now, that they alone know "what's right" for this nation, and the rest of us, from Clinton on down to the poor bastard who votes and pays his taxes. We are merely children to be spanked, ignored, and sent off to do the dirty work . . . and die. There never was any other plan."

This Iraqi blogger is so very right to be skeptical.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/887

[Pragmatic Pilgrim]

15. 43 came to office with just 2 items on his "To Do" list:

1. Get Saddam.

2. Get Re-Elected.

The drunken Black Sheep of the family set out to do the two big things his Daddy hadn't done.

He may have known that neither of those tasks would be easy. But if you focus the entire Federal government (and the entire U.S. Treasury) on those two self-serving objectives--and nothing else--they become a lot more doable.

C'mon, does anyone believe that this chronic screwup had any higher goals in his presidency? Sure, those around him did, such as the Neocons, but hey, dominating the Middle East oil nations was one of their hobby horses, so they climbed aboard and rode it.

43's entire presidency has been about exceeding 41. I wonder how 43 feels, now that he's in the middle of the highway with a very heavy Iraq chained to his ankle and the Democratic bus is bearing down on him!

[rman]

18. Well, thank god it's not about

oil.

[rman]

16. it's not about daddy, it's not about ignorance

It is about 'friends who make to much money' and about deliberate deception.

It's about oil and power and the elitist heritage of those who thrive on both, and who never have enough of either.

[Pragmatic Pilgrim]

19. Rman, I think that's too simple to explain GW's odd presidency.

Having sat for several years in Adult Children of Alcoholics self-help groups, I know the terribly seductive power of drunks. Bear in mind that GW's presidency has been completely unique in our history, even though during much of it the power elite--including GW's father--has stayed quietly on the sidelines. When the Neocons and the oilmen and the lobbyists and the Fundies swarmed into the picture, it was because they saw a rare vacuum of power--an utterly amoral man in the White House who wanted nothing except to fulfill a couple simple goals, and who would accept anyone's help to get there--and so they accommodated him (and themselves).

In my experience, drunks tend to be obsessive--especially "dry drunks," who need desperately to distract themselves from the demon tempting them every minute with the desire for another drink--and they feel shamed, helpless and angry, which makes them controllers. Nothing and nobody in their lives is so important to them as their own immediate desires. A lifetime of denying their shameful dependency and hiding it from the world has taught them to be excellent (and habitual) liars.

They can rise very high, but they usually crash very badly because they habitually over-reach. Just as with their addiction, they don't know when to stop.

GW has exhibited those traits in every stage of his life, lying and smirking his way through college and obsessively concealing all documentary evidence of his actions in the various positions he's held in business, government, or the military. We've always had wealth and power, yet we've never had such a president before.

It would be characteristic of such people (again, my personal observation) that they'd be driven by a powerful desire to show their family critics--especially those who had bailed them out from one shameful event after another--that they (the addict) had been right all along and their critics had been wrong. It may look Oedipal, yet it's just another episode of shame-denial. But this time, through a combination of the drunk's incredibly obsessive drive to win at all costs and (as you correctly imply) the exercise of judicial power in order to preserve a prominent family, the entire nation became the Prodigal Son's co-dependents.

At least that's the evaluation of an old guy who's seen a lotta addicts crash and burn while blaming everyone but themselves.

[rman]

20. I think it's to simple to explain big world events as being a result of 'family matters'.

If it would be correct it would mean the neocons and their agenda, others in the WH, the power, the oil and the money are virtually irrelevant. Taking all the ins and outs of that together, it's hardly "simple".

"Simple" is to say that this entire mess is due to a troublesome father-son relationship.

[madfloridian]

21. I think you don't see what Keillor is doing here.

No one here is simplistic enough to think that daddy issues are the only issues. Perhaps, who knows, it may shame 41 into taking stronger action about 43 and his outrages. None of us think it is the only issue in the war.

Keillor wrote a brilliant piece.

[rman]

25. Some here certainly put a lot of emphasis on 'daddy issues'.

I think the dominant factor is the interests of the forces that put Bush in power to begin with; the big money powers - they are the ones who pick he right guys for the job.

[madfloridian]

26. Then you are not getting what Keillor is saying.

And I don't know how to explain it to you.

[Pragmatic Pilgrim]

22. All world events are the result of individual humans who create them.

You may feel differently, but it's been my observation that none of us operates independently of our emotions, and no leader suddenly sheds those influences when he gets power. Quite the contrary, the power allows him to let his true character come out and play. To botch a famous quote by somebody or other who said it far more eloquently, history is nothing more than biography.

If, as Keillor is hardly the first to opine, Bush was hell-bent on invading Iraq from long before his first coronation, it would be logical that he'd look around for people who harbored other motives for controlling the Middle East, and invite them to join his crusade. (9-11 was like winning the Lotto for him. He had been drifting until then, but he and his Neocon pals saw 9-11 as a great chance to spin it toward their real obsession, Iraq and--in Bush's case--Saddam.)

And if he was equally hell-bent on winning the second term his Dad had failed to gain, it would be reasonable to assume he'd work hard to co-opt such neat voting-blocs as the Fundies and the extremely wealthy to help make it happen. They were also rich sources of campaign funds, of course.

It can easily be argued that he viewed the National Treasury as his own personal re-election fund. The trouble was, he couldn't spend it directly for TV ads and such, so he simply shoveled it out as gifts to the people who COULD write fat campaign checks.

I can't name an important thing he's done that did not support those two goals: Get Saddam and win a re-election. And since winning that re-election, he's been drifting pretty aimlessly, trying merely to cover his backside on the Iraq mess and defend his place in the history books. To me, that indicates that he had fulfilled his "To Do" list and had lost interest.

But maybe I'm dead wrong. I'm willing to listen to other theories about this uniquely destructive president.

[wryter2000]

24. I think it's about many things

Oil is certainly one. But, there's stealing from the treasury for Halliburton and creating an American empire (PNAC). Also, all the Oedipal issues.

Further, it seems to me that the reasons are different for different actors. I think getting "re-elected" was the biggest motivator for Bush and Rove.

[Hailtothechimp]

17. Keillor, as always, is right on the mark.

I wish we had a man with his wisdom and insight guiding the country right now. Sadly, we have the polar opposite instead.

[wryter2000]

23. Heard on Franken this morning

I don't remember who said it (was a regular guest). "Bush is running out the clock." He's just going to hang onto his "victory" strategy until he leaves office. How many more people will die in two years so he doesn't have to own up to what he's done?

[Morgana LaFey]

29. OMG. This makes ME want to burst into convulsive sobs

This is the whole of it, in 2 sentences:

American boys in armored jackets and night scopes patrolling the streets of Baghdad are not going to pacify this country, any more than they will convert it to Methodism. They are there to die so that a man in the White House doesn't have to admit that he, George W. Bush, the decider, the one in the cowboy boots, made grievous mistakes.

[madfloridian]

31. That is a very sad part.

The whole thing is sad.

[jazzjunkysue]

30. Keillor's nickname for Shrub: "Etch-O-Sketch President." n/t.

[grasswire]

32. I've been meaning to write Keillor a "love letter"..

...and I think I will do it this week. A love letter to tell him just how much he has added to my life over the years. I want to tell him before he goes or I go, and it might as well be now as neither of us is getting younger. The sound of his voice, which is the extension of his elegant mind, has sustained me many a time and brought a kind of calm and decorous way to feel about the events of our times. Dear sir: I adore you. Thanks for the endorphins. Gratefully yours, always.

[NJCher]

39. I hope you do that, grasswire

As will I.

Did you know that Garrison Keillor wrote an essay called "How to Write a Letter?" Yes, it is about the long-lost art of the personal letter. It appears in many English anthologies for first- and second-year writing courses in higher ed.

From the sound of your post, though, you've already read it.



Cher

[GreenTea]

33. A snake only a mother could love.

[anitar1]

34. A Mother snake, perhaps. n/t

[madfloridian]

35. Following the comments on Garrison Keillor's post at Salon. Oh, my.

From January 3:

How many people will die so one dude can look like a leader.

There are some who will just never ever get it. They are lost in their little world of denial. They don't want to see the truth, and probably they never will.

Daddy Issues, comments

Bush is not the ignorant one, you are. Bush is not an evil genius, but just an ordinary man who was transformed by the actions of 9/11. This ridiculous comparison with Vietnam and the Vietnamese with these extreme Muslims is not only tiring but totally out of context. If you truly do not believe that these peoples' intent is the destruction of the Western World and its ways, then sit back and do your silly little demonstrations, just like you did with "Vietnam". Yes, its true that public opinion about Vietnam was all over TV., and you actually believe that because of that, is why we pulled out of that war. The fact is we let these poor people be subject to communist ways, and even worse the Khamir Rouge who killed more people in Cambodia, than were ever killed in the entire war in Vietnam.

You actually need to look at history, whether it be Roman, Greek, European, WWI, WWII, democracy always has a price to pay. Whatever form it is, is defintely prefably to a regime that treats its citizens to one of oppression, lack of human rights, especially women, and tyranny. Yet, people, like you continue to downgrade this country. You are part of a group that apparently loves your rights, and at night are tucked in, yet in the daylight fail to see the big picture. You might ultimatly get your way, yet it will be our children, and grandchildren who will have to live in this world.

And some do get it.

If only a hug COULD fix it

I agree that Bush's warped psychology is behind the insane path we are all being forced to walk. But it seems like it's more than an I've-got-something-to-prove-to-Daddy problem. There is true incurable, ingrained sociopathy here, an utter and absolute inabililty to perceive consequences of actions, to acknowledge personal responsibililty for those actions, and -- most frighteningly -- to give even the slightest damn about how those actions affect anyone else. His Daddy -- and let's not discount that bizarre robot battleaxe Mommy - somehow created a monster long before he took office.

But it all works out okay for that bunch. Bush's Invasion is making lots of money for those folks (read: Dad's friends)who, in their own vicious sociopathy, have figured out that manipulating his bottomless need to feel like the bigshot is the surest route to their own fat fortunes. The truly scary thing for America is how many citizens mistake a horror show for leadership quality.

Views from Iraq about what we have done there.

[ellisonz]

36. LOL DUPE.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3073234&mesg_id=3073234

The best part was the beginning:

As the new Congress convenes this week and Speaker Nancy Pelosi ascends to the rostrum, you have to wish them all well. These are the kids who got up in school assembly and spoke on Armistice Day and were captains of teams and organized class projects to do good works, a different breed from us wise guys who lurked in the halls and made fun of them, and in the end you want them and not us running your government. Yes, they had serious brown-nose tendencies and a knack for mouthing pieties, but you could count on them to do what needed doing. They were leaders. They weren't going to swipe the lunch money and buy a keg of suds.

:hi:

Edit: Easier to read link for some: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007701030385

[madfloridian]

37. That was a super description of high school groups.....

He did a good job on painting a picture of the kinds of kids in high school. :hi:

I have been checking since I wrote this to see if new comments had been added.