JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I’d never find an intelligent Bush defender, none other than print Misc contributor Doug Anderson shows up to assume the role. He has a blog called “Democrats for Bush,” and contributed an op-ed essay in the P-I last week.
Anderson’s essay takes the familiar neo-conservative tack of attributing all manner of illogical mania to unquoted, unnamed left-wingers (in particular, comparing Republicans to Nazis), implying that Bush’s opponents as a whole share such traits. I happen to disagree with just about everything in it after the first three paragraphs. But it’s well paced, well drafted, and even well argued—qualities I have seldom seen in any pro-Bush material.
I personally see Bush as an inept figurehead (that is, inept at the job of figurehead) for the neocon political machine. The neocon machine has several important cultural differences from the old National Socialist machine, but also several tactical similarities (particularly in invoking the politics of fear and bigotry, a kitsch aesthetic, and a highly authoritarian “populism”).
I have yet to read or hear anything in favor of Bush’s re-election that even attempts to appeal to the mindset of those of us who are neither Limbaugh fans nor billionaires. Alas, I didn’t find it in Anderson’s P-I entry either; just more lucid versions of the same old pinko-bashing you’ll find on certain radio stations and cable channels.
What British conservative pundits used to call “the loony left” has nothing to do with the real issues of this campaign. The radicals don’t even like Kerry, and Kerry’s distanced himself from them. Extreme left-wingers would have little or no sway in a Kerry administration. Extreme right-wingers effectively run the Bush administration, and are taking it and the rest of us into the proverbial toilet.
Yes, I believe we live in a dangerous world. I also believe the neocon machine is responsible for at least two thirds of those dangers, and has proven incapable of effectively responding to the rest.
On the happy side, in Anderson I’ve finally found someone with whom I can intelligently debate these topics.
