Posted on 08/03/2004 8:57:16 PM PDT by tpaine
What all does it mean?
The right-wing website Free Republic is infamous for galvanizing harassment campaigns against ideological enemies, but it also has a lighter side: a robust culture of George W. kitsch.
"Freepers" display and study the famous photograph of Bush embracing Ashley Faulkner, whose mother perished on 9-11, a woeful, iconic look on his face ("The protective encirclement of her head by President Bush's arm and hand is the essence of fatherly compassion," Freeper luvbach1 writes);
the ladies exchange snaps of the president in resolute pose, rendering up racy comments about his sexiness; they reference an image of Bush jogging alongside a soldier wounded in Iraq like it's a Xerox of his very soul. "He's the kind of guy who's going to remember to call a soldier who's lost a leg," one citizen of the Free Republic reflects, "and go jogging with him when he gets a replacement prosthetic." Revering Bush has become, for people like this, a defining component of conservative ideology.
Once I interviewed a Freeper who told me he first became a committed conservative after discovering the Federalist Papers. "I absolutely devoured them, recognizing, my God, these things were written hundreds of years ago and they still stand up as some of the most intense political philosophy ever written."
I happen to agree, so I asked him—after he insisted Bush couldn't have been lying when he claimed to have witnessed the first plane hit the World Trade Center live on TV, after he said the orders to torture in Iraq couldn't have possibly come from the top, all because George Bush is too fundamentally decent to lie—what he thinks of the Federalists' most famous message: that the genius of the Constitution they were defending was that you needn't base your faith in the country on the fundamental decency of an individual, because no one can be trusted to be fundamentally decent, which was why the Constitution established a government of laws, not personalities.
"If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary . . . "
Conservatives see something angelic in George Bush. That's why they excuse, repress, and rationalize away so much.
And that is why conservatism is verging on becoming an un-American creed
The man has no shame.
Bush NEVER said that...he said he was TOLD about it.....I HATE LIARS!!!
Thanks, buddy. Now I need a shower.
I was thinking. Specifically to piss off snobs like this guy... Bush should start a TV ad campaign, using a popular country song(most country musicians are with bush), showing him hanging out with country musicians, nascar racers, baseball players, farmers, Workers, and other average folks. Kerry could not compete as he would look ridiculous in an ad with any "average folks", and he would p- off his base if he used a country song.
This fool doesn't state the thesis of his argument until the very end. And then he offers no evidence to support his claim.
Throw the twit in the trash where he belongs.
If being conservative is soon to become an Un-American creed, why were the Democrats at their convention trying to flock to the right of George W.Bush?
There was no mention of how proud they were to be Liberal.
The Liberal Leper Colony just keeps on truckin!
4 words. Democrats and Bill Clinton.
This guy has serious drain bramage.
You noticed that too, huh?
This guy gulped down the Kool-Aid!
He was on FR collecting selected comments to use in his bilge spittle writing.
Ron Perlstein ping. He definitely came away from his recent experience debating with FReepers a better person.
BTW, does he have anything to write about other than FR?
This creep is beyond all rationality. A product of a bad genetic pairing.
Uh.....we've got the house, the senate, and the presidency. We plan on keeping them all. The "un-American" citizens have chosen. Get used to it. We're going to be here for quite awhile.
Mr. Perlman, I wish you ill.
It's nice that Perlstein is interested in FR, but if he spends more time here he realize that there is plenty of anti-W sentiment expressed on FR as well as plenty of pro-W sentiment. Also, IMHO even though he ends on a sour note above, the tone of the above article isn't entirely negative, suggesting perhaps that there is also something Perlstein admires in FR.
This is a man from a party that looked the other way when Juanita Broaddrick came forward, that looked the other way when Clinton bypassed the pentagon to give China MIRV nuclear missile technology to more effiviently nuke our cities, that allowed obstruction of Justice, that looked the other way when FBI files were stolen, that now doesn't care about file destruction at the national archives by another Clinton toad to hide from the 9-11 commission, free pardons to billionaire tax cheats...it goes on and on. Rapist, traitor, and liar and yet liberals consider Clinton a great persident.
The man has no shame.
He's short on logic and clarity too.
A typical hate-filled leftist, posturing
as a patriot.
How much time did he spend in his defense of never paying retail?
What an idiot this guy is. I doubt seriously if he questioned all those who vouched for Sandy Berger's good name when he was accused of stealing secret documents, and claimed that his good name alone was sufficient to exonerate him.
I don't know any Bush supporter that thinks Bush is an angel. Everyone has some reservations about Bush, but most trust him. This guy Perlstein lives in a lefty fantasy land as do his lefty cronies around the world.
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