The Chicago Tribune has endorsed George W. Bush for President.
Apparently the editorial was written by a journalist who, in spite of the many proven omissions, prevarications, contextual elisions and flat-out lies put out by the administration, spouts the same tired “strong leader, working hard” party line.
It’s particularly shocking given that they have endorsed Bean over Crane, Obama over Keyes. Perhaps the Trib is merely attempting to preserve the appearance of non-partisanship, because the editorial is thoughtfully and carefully written. However, the arguments for retaining Bush and rejecting Kerry smack a little too much of shopworn Republican talking points.
Yes, it’s risky changing leaders in the middle of a “war,” but remember who got us there in the first place, for no good reason – as has been clearly and amply demonstrated by at least 4 different government reports.
It’s my personal belief that Bush wanted to attach Saddam Hussein’s Iraq long before we were attacked by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. The often-mentioned report of a possible meeting between an operative of the latter group with an Iraqi agent was dug up very quickly in the initial investigation. Yes, Hussein bad man. Hussein’s sons, very bad men, likely to be much worse in the future after his death. Yes, very bad if they had the bad WMDs. At the time of the war, I was caught up in the fear of “what if they have them,” too. However, it bothered me that we were so gung-ho John Wayne about going in without UN support for the action. After the starry-eyed propaganda reportage started to report things like no WMDs found while strategic and cultural sites were left to the looters while the all-goddamn-important oil ministry was guarded, the scales fell from my eyes. The temporary scales, that is, that had me mostly supporting Bush’s actions post-9/11.
It’s the bitterness, you see. We were all blinded by fear and grief, which for a while overcame our suspicions about the shady doings in the 2000 election. But for some of us, the scales fell from our eyes at some point before or after the invasion, while the true believers are still blindly following and mindlessly chanting mantras of support at their exclusive rallies. That they refuse to see and prefer to be deaf to the truth is what makes the rest of us so bitter. That they can’t think for themselves but must spout party-line formulae at every opportunity makes any thoughtful person fear for the future.
Fortunately, the state of Illinois is supposed to be a “safe” state for Kerry, but there have been an awful lot of Bush-Cheney signs popping up on the roadsides. I have to make good on my threat to get some signs of my own. And to sign up for the volunteer shift at the Democratic phone bank next weekend.
I ran across a frightening word the other day at Fr. Salty’s blog: dominionists. I already stuck it in the Quick Links sidebar, but I have a feeling that the media are finally going to discover this word and the people it describes. And we’re all going to be a little freaked out about it, and everyone will have to re-read The Handmaid’s Tale.
If you’re a Republican, and you’ve never heard this word, you’d better read up on it.