Re: Bush and Rove: Collaborators in the Theater of the Moral Lie
- From: Citizen Jimserac <Jimserac@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 19:34:19 -0000
On Aug 20, 1:21 pm, "Gandalf Grey" <gandalfg...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Bush and Rove: Collaborators in the Theater of the Moral Lie
By Andrew Bard Schmookler
Created Aug 16 2007 - 4:39pm
For evil to take over America, it would have to do it with a smiling face
and postures of righteousness.
Most of the evil rulers in history made no pretense to moral virtue.
Maintaining their power through terror, they simply intimidated people into
submission.
But in a democracy, evil can rise to power only with the people's consent-at
least in the first stage. And this means that deception replaces brute force
as evil's route to the throne.
Evil has thus ascended to power in America disguised as the good.
This is why the partnership between George W. Bush and Karl Rove has proved
so fatefully dangerous for America, for the two men bring profoundly
complementary talents to the theater of moral deception.
Rove As Dramatist of the Moral Lie
From the beginning, Karl Rove has been drawn to the staging of morally
deceptive theater to gain political power.
More than twenty years ago, according to James Moore, et al., the authors of
Bush's Brain, he faked the wiretapping of his own office-a gesture that made
his candidate appear the victim of dirty tricks from the other side.
And he's apparently orchestrated the smearing of George W. Bush's opponents
in one campaign after another-from a whisper campaign in the 1994 Texas
gubernatorial race to insinuate that Gov. Ann Richards was a lesbian, to the
behind-the-scenes injection into the South Carolina primary in 2000 that
Sen. John McCain had fathered a black child, to the character assassination
employed against both Gore and Kerry in Bush's two presidential campaigns.
Rove's now significant role in American history thus rests on his genius in
dramatizing lies to persuade people to see his political enemies as morally
worse than they really are. These moral lies are the democratic equivalent
of assassination in regimes where swords rather than votes lead to power.
But Rove's strategy of dramatizing moral lies to slander his enemies becomes
really powerful when combined with its other half: the lie that presents his
side as morally better than it is.
So the great dramatist of the moral lie also needed a talent for casting.
And it should thus come as no surprise that the partnership with George W.
Bush was formed at the initiation of Karl Rove.
In Bush, he recognized that he'd found an actor who was not only heir to
great power but also adept at pretending to a righteousness really quite
foreign to his true nature.
Bush as the Great Pretender
However George W. Bush became adept at pretending to be a better man than he
is, we know that putting himself together in an effective way took him a
very long time-a time marked by many failures covered over by bravado and
anaesthetized by alcohol.
And we can see still in his body -in his posturing like some sort of
gunslinger, arms out from his side; in his swagger and strut; in the
unnatural puffing out of the chest-powerful signs that this is a man who
really does not know who he is. He seems constantly seeking the pose of the
man in the white hat, an imitation of the heroes of movie westerns.
His infamous call to the insurgents to "Bring it on!" early in the conflict,
as if it were he and not the soldiers he'd sent into battle who would carry
the brunt of the fight, is one indication of this President's deep lack of
self-awareness.
This same profound estrangement from the reality of his role in his falsely
righteous dramas was displayed back when the hunt for Osama bin Ladin was
still on. On this occasion, the President stood before microphones on the
White House lawn mocking bin Ladin for cowardice in sending other men off to
face death while he remained protected in some hidden cave. This from the
most protected man in the world, who'd just sent his countrymen's sons and
daughters to fight his war!
How many of the lies this president enacts before the world are lies he
tells himself?
The best liars are those who believe their own lies.
With Bush, as in human affairs generally, it is hard to know where to draw
the line between "really doesn't know" and "doesn't want to know." Bush's
Brain author James Moore says about the Bush-Rove partnership:
"The President is oblivious, and chooses to stay oblivious, to the things
that Karl does, and the contradictions about morality that Karl does. The
whole concept, and it works in all of his campaigns, is the candidate or the
officeholder takes the high road -- talks policy, talks moral clarity, and
honor, and principle -- while the operative does all the dirty work down in
the ditch, and splashes the mud, and spreads the scurrilous smears and
rumors and whisper campaigns that have the desired political effect to keep
the candidate elected."
Right now in America the buck stops with a man who talks about restoring
integrity to the Oval Office while the "architect" he hires is a specialist
in perpetrating moral fraud.
He's someone who talks about how we're fighting for "Freedom," but arranges
political events from which people wearing T-shirts favoring his opponent
are excluded, and has his Pentagon use the "Patriot Act" to treat peaceful
protesters against his policies as a "threat."
He parades his devotion to a culture of life, but sows the seeds of death at
home, around the world, and in the biosphere.
He talks about "compassion" but can mock the pleas for mercy he rejected
from the woman -born again, like himself-whom he'd put to death in Texas.
He promised to be a uniter, not a divider, but has used divisiveness as his
primary political tactic.
He arranges photo ops with his friendly arm around some black child or
another, but fights hardest for policies that further weaken the
disadvantaged.
He campaigned saying that the United States should be a "humble" nation, but
is now reviled around the world as an arrogant bully.
In this dangerous period of the moral lie, regrettably, this list of
discrepancy between the saying and the doing could be expanded almost
indefinitely.
The Need to Spread the Moral Truth
It is through such moral hypocrisy that evil could gain a foothold in a
democratic society like America. These rulers could not shoot their way into
the White House. They had to sell themselves to a willing public.
And so it is that the takeover of America by evil forces has been achieved
by such outstanding dramatists of the moral lie as these two. But unless the
false righteousness of these moral liars can be exposed, this can be but the
first stage.
For when evil is combined with power, it can spread its ways, destroying the
structures of good order that stand in its way. So we see these forces now
tearing apart the foundations of our democracy-degrading the discourse on
which democratic deliberation depends, dismantling the protections against
the abuse of power, polarizing Americans into warring groups.
So if evil can advance far enough through the moral lie it can gradually
remove the mask. Behind this presidency, there are forces with no
ingratiating smiles, forces ready to show their true faces should the time
come when power has no need for such pretense.
The stakes could not be higher.
At present, we in America can talk about these things without worrying about
the jackboots at the door. But unless we can awaken our deceived countrymen
to the truth about these rulers -unless this country is moved to repudiate
fully not only these present leaders, but also the ruthless forces for whom
they are the phony public face-that may not always be true.
*************
Though this piece was originally written near the end of 2005, I thought it
fitting to publish it here now in the wake of the news of Karl Rove's
leaving the White House. America would do well to look at how he and the
destructive president whom he has both served and used have collaborated to
deceive the nation with their phony postures of false righteousness. For
Rove and Bush have pointed out well the gateway through which evil gains
power in America.
_______
About author Andrew Bard Schmookler's website, None So Blind [1], is devoted
to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means
by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr.
Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes:
The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good
Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also
conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
Schmookler can be reached at andytheb...@xxxxxxxxxxx [1]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
ROVE IS A DISGRACE to everything good and noble that our country
stands for
and for which people have fought and died. When the American people
finally wake up (and that is happening right now), Rove will be booed
off of any stage he dares show his face.
The IGNOMINY of his record is now being written as the sordid
manipulations and "tricks" are gradually exposed. This will not
reflect well on the president either - it is starting to become
crystal clear why Rove was made to resign NOW.
Citizen Jimserac
One Voice from Many
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