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Drooling on the Pillow

Friday, February 04, 2005

Misunderestimating the Zeitgeist 

The notion that George Bush (and his administration) is some combination of stupid, evil and greedy (the proportions change from person to person, but the pie always comes out about the same) is so ingrained in so many people in this country that when I remark as to how I admire him for one thing or another, I can see people, people I have known for decades, reevaluating me.

So be it. I remember hearing somewhere Bill Clinton being described as a person of high ideals and no principles. Indeed, principles are a liability, in a way, for a politician. If you espouse them, no matter who you are, someone will be able to find something in your life that violates them. And they will. Principles are punished every single time.

With that in mind, if you, like me, are feeling a little giddy this week after the Iraqi elections and the State of the Union speech, and are standing there on the dock waiving gaily as ship of state sails off for his second term, you may, like me, nevertheless be feeling a little nervous about just where the hell the ship is sailing to.

It's unavoidable. The zeitgeist is so unforgiving of Bush's success and so confident of the doom awaiting his policies, that anyone who spends any time in the slipstream of the MSM will imbibe his share of caution.

Bush makes people nervous. And once people started internalizing the notion that he actually intends to do the things he says he's going to do, he terrifies them. The fact that he seemed blithely willing to put his administration (and the rest of us as well) on the line for policies which so many smart people were so sure would be disastrous was all the evidence that was needed to support the notion that he was crazy.

Understand that there is not one small particle of smugness in what I'm saying. I understand the risk inherent in the Bush Doctrine and it's potential for calamity. I support it because it seems plain to me that the policies of the Clinton administration, the approach favored by the State Department and CIA, are far more dangerous.

Okay. What I'm getting to is that if you need a little injection of confidence you need to read Norman Podhoretz' article in the February issue of Commentary, The War Against World War IV. This is a follow-up to his article last September, World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, and Why We Have to Win.

It's a tonic.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:42 PM
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