Remember Rove's infamous remarks concerning the 9/11 tragedy?
1. "Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Referring to conservatives, he said that they "saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war."
2. "At the core, we are dealing with two parties that have fundamentally different views on national security. Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview. That doesn't make them unpatriotic""not at all. But it does make them wrong""deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong."
Both remarks have had the intended effect. Millions of indoctrinated Americans have responded in knee-jerk fashion, blindly waving the flag to support the imperialist, plutocratic, and dictatorial agenda of Rove, Bush and their fellow Zionist puppets of Israel. (Does AIPAC office out of the Black House yet?) Despite their fundamentally flawed logic, Rove's comments sowed the seeds of fear and insecurity deeply into the psyche of many Americans. Throwing critical thinking to the wind (and thus carrying out their programming), many of Bush's loyal minions vilify those who support moral principals such as universal human rights, equality, peace and social justice, labeling them as liberals, socialists, or (God forbid) Communists.
Taking their oversimplification one step further, many who still believe in the fairy tale version of America assume that each liberal must be a Democrat. Never mind that many Democrats have shown themselves to be as devoid of virtue as their Republican counterparts. Many "good Americans" are inculcated with the belief that people with "liberal" beliefs blindly support all Democrats. For those conforming to American groupthink, it is nearly impossible to deviate from the false dichotomies of conservative vs. liberal or Republican vs. Conservative. How comforting for our de facto ruling class that they can count on placid acceptance of their moral turpitude as scores of millions of Americans are too absorbed in working, consuming, and watching television to notice. Don't worry. Be happy.
Who can we scapegoat?
Someone recently asked me how the illegal occupation of Iraq has changed our nation. Since Bush and his cabal used 9/11 as a blatantly false pretense for invading Iraq, I decided to examine how the United States has changed since the WTC collapse.
In his clever sound-bites I quoted above, Rove set up yet another false dichotomy (manipulative people love to use them). According to him, we had only two choices: pursue the 9/11 perpetrators through legal channels and come to realize that our imperialistic, murderous behavior was fueling intense hatred against the United States or go to war. Taking bold legal action to capture and punish those responsible for the WTC collapse while changing our behavior to conform to international law would have made more sense than going to war against a nation which had no involvement in 9/11. However, catching the criminals and embracing legal behavior would have led to indictments against members of the Bush Regime (since substantial evidence now exists that they enabled or caused the 9/11 demolition of the WTC). Besides, respecting human rights and international law would require the current administration to scrap virtually all of their foreign and domestic policies. So, ignoring the rational option and a host of other possibilities which may or may not have made sense, our criminal government invaded Iraq.
Let's take a look and see
Let's compare and contrast "pre-9/11" and "post-9/11" America so we can sharpen the simplistic, distorted images of the two worldviews Rove (AKA Turd Blossom) sought to create with his clever propaganda. Perhaps we can discern whether or not the Bush Regime's policies and actions since September 11, 2001 have been "deeply and profoundly and consistently right".
Muslims do not have a monopoly on extremism
I want to start in my own backyard here in Kansas. The "apocalyptic" event on 9/11 sparked the fervor of the Christian extremists in our midst. Our very own Senator Brownback is making a bid for the Presidency on a platform which essentially promises to convert the United States into a theocracy. After conducting a kangaroo court, a majority of the Kansas State School Board members decided they were both erudite and righteous enough to re-write the definition of science and to open the door to introduce the "theory" of Intelligent Design in our public schools, which one of my sons attends. I feel reassured knowing that his school will teach him that merely observing the complexity of the world "proves" that there has to be an intelligent designer (translated as the Christian deity). Thankfully, he will also learn that the idea of Intelligent Design rivals the Theory of Evolution, despite the fact that Evolution is supported by years of research by thousands of scientists. And what discussion of Christian extremism would be complete without mention of Kansan Fred Phelps, a "minister" filled with hatred and venom?
(Note to Christians who actually follow the compassionate teachings of Christ and employ the mind that God gave you: it is not you whom I disparage.)
Time travel to the Gilded Age anyone?
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