Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Missing the Point
Sometimes you wait and wait for them to get it, and when they finally act like they get it, they still don't get it. Case in point: the NYT's "Presidential Character."
The NYT's central indictment of Bush is that he consistently refuses to risk political capital in pursuit of his policies. The op-ed cites the underfunding of his No Child Left Behind package, faith-based charities, his AIDS initiative, and the soft-pedaled cost of occupying Iraq as prime examples of this alleged fecklessness. As a result, implies the Times, "Most of the Bush domestic agenda is a sad deflated version of its earlier incarnation."
Oh really? The Times' editors apparently aren't reading their own star columnist. This editorial's train of thought violates Krugman's first rule of reporting: "Don't assume that policy proposals make sense in terms of their stated goals."
Apparently the Times still buys into the idea that this Administration cares about its stated "compassion" agenda. News flash, guys: They don't, except insofar as they are useful cover for advancing its revolutionary agenda of crippling government's ability to advance the general welfare and projecting hegemonic U.S. power abroad. On the former front we are staring at a massive redistribution of wealth up the income ladder, the dismantling of Social Security, the wrecking of Medicare/Medicaid, erosion of the wall between church and state, and the neutering of all environmental and workplace regulations. On the latter, well, the Pentagon is now staring at an infusion of $87B. How bad can that be? War is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne first pointed out nearly 100 years ago.
If this is a "sad, deflated version" of the Bush agenda, I'd hate to see the happy, inflated one.
The fact is, contra the Times, Bush has demanded sacrifice of the voters in the pursuit of his agenda, in the form of insecure jobs, higher long-term interest rates, rationed health care, a poisoned environment, an unhappy old age, and increased vulnerability to terrorist attack. He just hasn't informed them of those sacrifices.
And as long as the dimwits in the press continue missing the point, he won't have to.
Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. --Gravity's Rainbow
The NYT's central indictment of Bush is that he consistently refuses to risk political capital in pursuit of his policies. The op-ed cites the underfunding of his No Child Left Behind package, faith-based charities, his AIDS initiative, and the soft-pedaled cost of occupying Iraq as prime examples of this alleged fecklessness. As a result, implies the Times, "Most of the Bush domestic agenda is a sad deflated version of its earlier incarnation."
Oh really? The Times' editors apparently aren't reading their own star columnist. This editorial's train of thought violates Krugman's first rule of reporting: "Don't assume that policy proposals make sense in terms of their stated goals."
Apparently the Times still buys into the idea that this Administration cares about its stated "compassion" agenda. News flash, guys: They don't, except insofar as they are useful cover for advancing its revolutionary agenda of crippling government's ability to advance the general welfare and projecting hegemonic U.S. power abroad. On the former front we are staring at a massive redistribution of wealth up the income ladder, the dismantling of Social Security, the wrecking of Medicare/Medicaid, erosion of the wall between church and state, and the neutering of all environmental and workplace regulations. On the latter, well, the Pentagon is now staring at an infusion of $87B. How bad can that be? War is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne first pointed out nearly 100 years ago.
If this is a "sad, deflated version" of the Bush agenda, I'd hate to see the happy, inflated one.
The fact is, contra the Times, Bush has demanded sacrifice of the voters in the pursuit of his agenda, in the form of insecure jobs, higher long-term interest rates, rationed health care, a poisoned environment, an unhappy old age, and increased vulnerability to terrorist attack. He just hasn't informed them of those sacrifices.
And as long as the dimwits in the press continue missing the point, he won't have to.
Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. --Gravity's Rainbow
