A Frightening Picture of American Superiority

The Independent ^ | February 5, 2003 | Johann Hari

[vbmoneyspender]

The extent to which this White House is so completely different to Bush's - which has just delivered a massive tax cut, 45 per cent of which goes to the richest 1 per cent of US citizens - is underlined by the fact that Bartlett's Republican opponent for the presidency is so obviously based on Dubya. He is a dumb, folksy southern governor who is told by Bartlett, "I don't mind that you don't know much, but you've turned knowing nothing into a kind of Zen thing."

Someone needs to let this Brit in on the secret . . . not even the liberals call Bush stupid anymore. The preferred adjective on the hard left is now 'evil'.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Whoa... Just when my I started climbing up onto my desk to urinate on my monitor over this article came this sentence:

Many writers – from John Pilger, who recently described the US as akin to the Third Reich, to Harold Pinter, who says Blair acted in Kosovo because "he loves to drop a few bombs, it gives him, I think, great excitement" – have adopted the inverse of American fundamentalism. They see everything that the US does as simply evil, and therefore ignore, for example, the fact that the Iraqi people loathe Saddam Hussein and desperately want the US's help in liberating them from this tyrant.

[Timesink]

If this guy's spazzing over Worst Wing now, wait until last night's episode makes it across the pond. Bartlet practically adopted the Bush Docrine! Of course, he's using it for good (stopping a thinly-veiled Rwandan genocide) rather than evil (anything Bush supports), but it's still hardcore US unilateralism.

[DB]

What a dumb f**k.

The TV show "West Wing" is as representative of America as Benny Hill is of Britain (Sorry Benny). What a warp dream world this guy lives in not to mention the total disregard of his own country's history.

[Timesink]

He would know that the US to this day gives free rein to Ariel Sharon to murder Palestinian civilians.

"Gives free rein"? I thought we weren't supposed to get involved, Johann.

[Once-Ler]

I take it this means they endorse our Iraq policy...
Gee, thanks a lot "Independent" for the high praise.
That obviously hurt your editorial board to no end.

I could have written this piece with fewer words but still retained all the major points.

Bush sucks...America sucks...Bush sucks...America sucks...Bush sucks...America sucks...Bush sucks...America sucks...Bush sucks...America sucks...oh, could you please take care of Saddam?

[MattAMiller]

The mindset which unconsciously informs Bartlett's actions, just as much as the current administration's, is

that as the President he has been elected to represent American interests. And American interests include Americans not being slaughtered by terrorists.

Did I get it right? Is that the mindset he describes? No? Darn.

[agitator]

This deserved a barf alert

[I still care]

"The West Wing shows the worrying extent to which American imperialism is based not only on a genuine desire to help other countries (and, yes, many decent Americans do actually believe this, and they are sometimes right; they are not all isolationist hicks) but also on a sense of essential superiority."

OK, I admit it. I am a dumb hick and I feel essentially superior. I think the Constitution and the Declaration are "the most perfect documents ever written by sinful men", and thank God for the blessings that we had founding fathers capable, with God's grace, of penning such documents.

As another freeper once said, with the success of the American way of life, the amazing thing is no other country had adopted our form of government, and keeps trying to "improve" on it with socialism.

[sd-joe]

"It isn't easy for those of us in Britain to try to understand ... From the presidential election where the guy with half a million fewer votes ended up in the White House."

It is the American Electoral system you dumb Brit. If you are going to write about the US, please learn some of the basic facts about our system.

"it is impossible for lefties like me not to be stirred to tears ... the crew of saints who man his West Wing stand up to Christian fundamentalists"

Well we know what threats really get the left aroused, don't we?

[sd-joe]

"Edward Said has identified as "American fundamentalism": the equation of what is good for America axiomatically with what is good for the world."

The real truth is:
What is good for America is good for America, and that is our number one priority.
But even given that, America has done more good for the world, in recent history, than the whole rest of the world taken together has done.

"The fact that even a sophisticated, liberal American audience",/i>

Has the press EVER written the phrase: "a sophisticated, conservative"?

[hotpotato]

Yet two small but revealing weathervanes return to our television screens in the next week. The West Wing and 24 both launch new seasons, and they tell us a great deal about our Stateside cousins.

Look who the hayseed is in _this_ article. Yep, it's the writer. I can't believe he is using two tv shows (isn't west wing dropping in popularity) to gage an entire country like the US. He needs to get out more.

[Southack]

Already Posted and Under Discussion HERE

[VaBthang4]

"On domestic policy, it is impossible for lefties like me not to be stirred to tears by the show, [Or the fact that we are so far out of power] as Bartlett and the crew of saints who man his West Wing stand up to Christian fundamentalists, [As opposed to Muslim Fundementalists] protect social security, [LOL!!!] fight [FOR] child poverty and fend off the incursions of the US's especially rabid right-wing. [When in the Bizarro world of reality...it is the same rabid rightwingers who are in power]"

Ugh...another Liberal writer minderbating.

[sd-joe]

"In fact, US politics is, as the brave Republican senator John McCain has argued for years, systematically corrupt."

Thank you John McCain for giving ammunition to our enemies, and for spreading confusion about America to the rest of the world.

Bill Clinton complained ..., that he had to spend so much time raising money for his next presidential bid that neither he nor Al Gore had any time to actually do any governing.

But he had plenty of time to Monica.
It is good to hear Billie admit that he did not do any governing. I always thought that was true.

[Cacique]

Just where the heck is the

Barf Alert?

[Liberal Bob]

Still a little pissed at losing all that tea Huh?

[Straight Vermonter]

The TV show "West Wing" is as representative of America as Benny Hill is of Britain

Euroweenies always laugh at the US because they think we are so insular and no nothing about the rest of the world. Meanwhile, they think they know the US because they watch "Baywatch" and "Friends".