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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (98939)	2/6/2005 3:17:00 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793725

(or at least, he chooses to look as if he believes it. I'm not sure which is worse). I think Kinsley's poking a little fun at Bush and the Bushies, just like I was when I brought it up the other day. This is erasing genuine neocon arguments from human memory, and replacing them with straw men slogans about "evil doers". Unfortunately, politics has degenerated into the creation and ridicule of simplistic slogans since 9/11. I remember clearly the hew and cry over the mere suggestion of "root causes" way back when we were all still trying to understand this. I was posting on a more diverse thread then and I watched the Bushies swarm and strike whenever there was a hint of root-cause discussion. And the sides ended up with demonizing each other over "evil doers" vs. "root causes." The neocon intellectuals may not have been behind the "evil doer" mantra, but Bush certainly relished it. Nadine, there was a period of time after 9/11 before the country became polarized. You know how much I hate the polarization. There was opportunity then to find a common ground somewhere in the mishmash of neocon root cause and "why do they hate us" root causes. There was also an opportunity to find common ground between liberal nation building and neocon democracy modeling. We could have been together as a nation. But we aren't. And the divide doesn't seem to be recoverable. I hold Bush primarily accountable because the responsibility and the stature were his. But he was too busy sounding off about evil doers. Kinsley may have tangled the particulars or used the neocons as a proxy for Bush, but I think his taking this gentle poke at Bush over this is not unreasonable given the lost opportunity and given the ban on concessions from the WH.