Bush is Johnson

mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: Bush is

Johnson

Dean is McGovern. Or so some say. By this, they want to say Dean is too liberal for America. They also want to

predict a devastating loss for Dean and the Democrats.

This simpleminded analogy completely ignores that Dean isn’t nearly as

liberal as his enemies and earliest supporters want to believe. Still, let’s extend this analogy.

Bush is Nixon. [keep reading…]

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Bush is Johnson

Dean is McGovern. Or so some say. By this, they want to say Dean is too liberal for America. They also want to predict a devastating loss for Dean and the Democrats.

This simpleminded analogy completely ignores that Dean isn’t nearly as liberal as his enemies and earliest supporters want to believe. Still, let’s extend this analogy.

Bush is Nixon. Now, at first blush, this is MUCH easier to accept. Except, don’t forget Nixon’s environmental actions — all of which Bush would undo. Ironically, Nixon is too liberal for today’s Radical Right. But the shifty eyes are similar, though Nixon never looked so blank.

Cheney is Agnew. Agnew was the original angry white male who did much to beat the Media into submission (those “nattering nabobs of negativism” are now thoroughly embedded by Bush). Agnew used “liberal” as an obscenity, though he was a pornographer of conservatism. Agnew, the petty crook, resigned in scandal if not shame. Cheney’s going to slip away in secret, laughing all the way to the bank.

Certainly, there is a very similar idea at work within the Republican Party 32 years later: fear is the key to power. Nixon told us to be afraid of crime and thugs (meaning people who wanted to end the war by taking to the streets). Bush is leading us in another endless war, not against poverty (what, are you a commie?) or crime or drugs but terror. None of this “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” (some Democrat said that).

Bush is Nixon. Let’s imagine Bush finally wins election. How long before the many, many things he has done in a secretive manner finally come to light? How long before impeachment proceedings? How long before the great shame comes again?

Iraq is Vietnam. No, we don’t have nearly the tolerance for dead (almost 500) or wounded (almost 10,000have you heard that yet?) or the willingness to just accept what the government says. Vietnam brought down Johnson. Maybe Bush is Johnson!

The big picture visionaries see more in our future-past: Bush’s (re)election will begin a Republican era to last as long as the Democrat’s New Deal-Great Society (the fruits of which are taking far less time to destroy).

Dream on. The Depression and World War II united Americans in support of their government. The Civil Rights Movement proved that government has a vital role in improving our lives, of assuring our rights that don’t seem so self-evident anymore. In the process, no one slandered “liberalism” as un-American.

Bush isn’t FDR. And the Radical Right isn’t the future of America. mjh

www.mjhinton.com/dumpbush/

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