America Used To Be Really Goddamn Awesome

I've been captivated by Ken Burns' The War this week and it struck me how awesome America used to be.

The prevailing attitude of the ladies and gentlemen featured in Burns' film, and by proxy all Americans of that era, was that if we had to fight a war, we had better do it right. Clearly and with little dissent, we had to fight that war, and without fail, Americans rallied together to do it really damn well.

People from every corner of the nation selflessly pooled their resources for the great cause of World War II, and I'm not sure about this one, but I don't think President Roosevelt ever once asked the country to sacrifice by going to the mall. And I'm pretty sure he didn't outsource the construction of tanks, Flying Fortresses, Hellcats and Thunderbolts to Mexico and China. That's a hell of a thing by today's standards, isn't it?

We've fallen so far from what we used to be, even as recently as thirty years ago when the comparatively liberal president Richard Nixon opened a dialogue with Red China, whilst Mao supplied arms to North Vietnam. One day long ago, it was okay to wish for an end to a war, without being accused of hating the soldiers who were fighting it. It was once a given that socialized public education, police, fire departments, roads, parks, national defense and the constitutionally mandated General Welfare & Domestic Tranquility were simply a part of the American way of life and would always be there.

And when our nation had to go to war, we would be there for her.

Conversely, when we crumble to the pressure of our reactionary and authoritarian elements, we get Japanese internment camps, the rise of the military industrial complex, and men turned away from service due to the color of their skin. Some of our greatest failures have been conceived when our irrationality, fear and lust for power overrule our traditional American ideals -- even during our finest hours as a nation.

And now, 50 years later, in our lives and times, we get President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

The Bush Years have been a monumental, cataclysmic failure on most fronts due to its inattention to what has, historically, made American great. The president and his thinning ranks of fawn-eyed Hannities don't understand this yet. They don't understand it mostly because they're too ignorant -- blinded by sloganeering -- to the very basic reality that Bush Republican style government, in practice, is about as successful and practical as a paper condom. It always has been.

Nowhere is this more apparent than when they compare the Bush Wars to World War II. It's a desperate notion, one that seeks to conflate our current president with greatness he doesn't deserve and an historical legacy he will never achieve. It's also meant to inflate our current "enemies" to Hitler status, and thus proving the case for war.

The comparison is pure horseshit. (Say nothing of the fact that it elevates Bin Laden or the late Saddam or the present Ahmadinejad to a level of villainy they also don't deserve. It's like saying a doofus villain like Solomon Grundy is the next Lex Luthor. I'm sure they appreciate being granted superpowers enough to take over the world, though.)

If it's so fucking important to stay in Iraq, and if it's so fucking important to invade Iran -- and if it's so fucking important to wiretap your phones and read your mail, and to shit all over your constitutional rights and the Geneva Conventions -- and all of it is part of a larger World War II style conflict, then why aren't the Bushies taking their metaphors seriously by demanding the sacrifices of World War II?

Did President Roosevelt cut taxes or ask veterans to pay higher deductibles? Did President Roosevelt outsource the army by hiring no-bid corporate mercenaries?

From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the surrender of Japan, automobile manufacturers stopped making cars in lieu of manufacturing hardware for the war effort. Can you imagine, among all of the scrap metal drives -- the rationing of everything from gasoline to frying pan fat -- if Roosevelt had allowed SUV drivers to receive tax breaks in which sheer vehicular tonnage was rewarded at the peril of even one American G.I.?

If the quintessential symbol of the American character in World War II was Rosie The Riveter, the poster for the Bush Wars has to be that of an SUV driver receiving a tax break while sucking down enough Saudi oil to drive to a mall where he's expected to buy lead-tainted crapola manufactured overseas -- a yellow ribbon hypocrite magnet dangling just above his exhaust pipe and several inches from a fading W04 sticker. The caption: "The Bush Patriot Says: 'I'm On It, Mr. President!'"

The Bushies can't possibly take their own World War II metaphor seriously because they don't truly believe in the comparison.

They know, as you and I do, that these wars have little to do with stopping a new Hitler. If we peel back the layers -- if you look at what truly drives little childish men like Hannity and Cheney and Kristol, you'll find that it has little to do with liberating nations from an occupying Nazi force and ending a brutal holocaust. Beneath the pasty white surface of a typical Bush Republican you'll find greed, fear, ignorance, anger and a basic lack of understanding of America's place on the world stage. They're traits that drive nations into unnecessary wars. They're also traits that often breed cowardice.

To wit... Those of you demanding a war in Iran, I have one question for you. And no, I'm not going to employ the tired military service argument, but I must ask you this: what is the very minimum you're doing right now to prepare for your war? Are you refusing to support further tax cuts or pumping less "Islamofascist" oil into your SUV tank?

You're probably not doing anything because all you're expected to do is to say that you support the troops (what does that mean in practice?). And as long as you don't oppose the president as he dismantles the Constitution in favor of a corporate police state, then you've contributed to your president's war effort. That's the Bush Republican way. Oh, and to shop. You have go to Disneyland and buy shit you don't need at the mall (what the fuck is a Webkinz?).

How will the Ken Burns of the future portray the Bush Wars? I imagine that a large part of a future documentary about these times will detail what Rick Perlstein sublimely referred to this week as the destruction of America's character.

Whoever the future Ken Burns might be (hopefully, it'll be Ken Burns), he or she will have to dig deep into the destruction of our national character and detail the stories of torture and secret detention facilities; outsourced corporate thugs murdering foreign civilians; government scare tactics without substance -- it'll be a documentary in part about your non-military friends and family who supported this president's war but who sacrificed nothing in its execution.

So here we are in late 2007. The president believes that history will vindicate his efforts to destroy the American character and to bring about the ascendancy of neo-conservatism. After all, he fancies himself the new McKinley -- or is it George Washington? Is he Lincoln this week or Truman? Is he still fighting the Vietnam War or is it World War II? Korea or the Civil War? Goddamn him and his marble-mouthed horseshit. That's exactly why it has to be up to you and me to write the history -- the truth -- now. It won't be a proud endeavor because there has been little to be proud of, but we have to make sure that future Americans know exactly what happened in the Bush Years and in the Bush Wars.

The pendulum keeps swinging further to the right and seldom in our generation has it swung all the way back. When a president can look you in the eye and say he's going to veto healthcare for children, and his people are fine with that; and when the same sales pitch for Iraq is being employed for Iran -- and it's working, what else can you say about that fucking pendulum?

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Comments

[TLV]

None of us would be arguing about what to do about Bush and Cheney if the elections had not been rigged and 9/11 had not been created for them to have their wars.

What kind of country has this descended into? I am deeply ashamed that any of us have allowed the Bush regime to enjoy one moment of power in this lifetime.

[UncleWalt]

This is one of the best summaries of what has happened to Rome... I mean America... that I've read in some time. Intellectual laziness, feelings of world entitlement and a kind of moral smugness that only comes from socio-religious pomposity. In fact, if we really look at ourselves, we must admit that Bush was probably the perfect symbolic leader for the time. An idiot who had never accomplished a thing, with the ability to do nothing but parrot cliches. Rupert Pupkin with an $80 million campaign fund. As the saying goes, he probably couldn't run a Dairy Queen, but he was a "Christian" so millions slapped W stickers on their Denalis and here we are. It might take 20 years to recover, or maybe we'll never recover, but Bob is right...it almost makes one long for Reagan or Nixon, when there was at least a hint of competence attached to the ideology. Those were the days.

[Cmaggie]

Why is it that American Presidents insist on building a legacy?

[Cmaggie]

I would like to debate this

[Cmaggie]

Bin Ladin elevated himself to "Hitler status", when he killed nearly three thousand people in NY. And that, by the way, is more than the armed forces suffered at Peal Harbor, and it is certainly the largest loss of life in the history of terrorism. But, go ahead, minimize it.

[Zhonni]

Cmaggie was ganja are you smoking. I was not going to reply but I couldn't resist.

Bin Laden and Hitler are not comparable. Bin laden in his wettest dreams can't be Hitler.

Hitler had the capacity to literally rule the world. He killed and tortured millions of jews. And had a loathing for anyone who is not German or Aryan.

[YellowDogInRedCounty]

Nobody has minimized Bin Laden. George W Bush has minimized Bin Laden by failing to capture him - by saying "I don't really spend much time thinking about him". Yet you morons continue to support him and then come up with this straw man here about those who disagree with Bush 'minimizing it'. Tell us, PLEASE, what Bin Laden has to do with Iraq?

[Cmaggie]

There was plenty of fear at the start of and for years into WWII. WWII was not a certain outcome, and it had its share of cowards and heros. History will be the judge of who is who and what is what.

[Cmaggie]

I don't know what marble mouth horse shit is. That's a new one. And if you wanna "Goddamn" someone, try Bin Laden. He's the guy who killed some of your American friends. And thank him for your loss of privacy rights. And thank him for the long lines in Airports, and pat downs, and loss of airline priveleges with Cell Phones, Computers, etc. I think "fuck you Bin Laden" everytime I have to stand in line at a Security check point. And you, you tell me that it doesn't irritate you. If you do, you're full of marble mouth horse shit.

[thatvisionthing]

Cmaggie said: "And if you wanna "Goddamn" someone, try Bin Laden. He's the guy who killed some of your American friends."

The FBI doesn't have enough evidence to put 9/11 on Bin Laden's Wanted sheet. Is he the mastermind, the figurehead, an accomplice, a witness or a scapegoat? As far as I'm concerned, we're living in weird world until 9/11 is really investigated. I know what Bush did using 9/11 to gain authority and gut the Constitution, and I'm all for impeachment and indictments. And war crimes trials.

[garryw]

yeah right dont swear. You sure settled that arguement. bottom line is u americans are getting a taste of the evil your govt has reigned down on the resource rich little countries of the world since the 1920's Looks good on u

[Average]

You people need to learn how to express yourself without profanity. Only an idiot can't express themselves without profanity.

[situationcritical]

Religious freaks. All you ever care about is profanity. Swat that gnat before you swallow your next camel.

[rektruax]

Spoken like a true sexually and emotionally repressed 3rd grade teacher...

[stephenstillwell]

If you think this administration is a failure, you aren't looking at their picture.

Dow Jones at 14000, a neutered judiciary, a nearly lobotomized constituency, an unrestrained corporate military, and a Constitution in shreds, what part of that do you imagine they see as failure?

Kudos on getting the foul language and ad hominem attacks past the moderators, I guess they are selective about that.

[pleaseIMPEACH]

Dear America,

Don't be sad, soon you will have something to
be proud if you are a Bushie....

The 4000 (landmark)­dead-troop­s in Iraq will soon be with us.

Todays total is around 3800...u must be proud
America....

[Abram]

He, the idiot, fancies himself as Moses. His mother told him so.

[infideltexan]

Used to be......ask all the people dying to get into this country how we USED to be awesome...go live in Iran for awhile and then you will appreciate my country.

[MajorKong]

Wow! We're better than Iran, a third-world fundamentalist theocracy. I feel so much better now!

[Symes]

Horseshit!

Go live in Europe for a while and you'll see how full of it you are.

What a BS straw argument, "Go live in a 3rd world shit hole then tell me the USA os not number 1!".

Not too smart. are you?

[maddogbitesback]

Have you been in parts of your country? Iran would seem pretty good compared to them. Have you been to other countries. They look great. Food, medicine, good schools and democracy.

[DonRoberto]

Unfortunately, infideltexan, many of our sons and daughters in uniform will apparently be living in Iran "for awhile" in the near future...and while I appreciate your feelings on the matter, I sincerely hope all our sons and daughters (both yours and ours) would have other less dangerous and more constructive experiences they might share together.

[LeeroyFDermit]

Bob, how do you expect to help when you are as out of touch as the Bush administration.

1. Other than the War and the Patriot Act, the Bush administration hasn't been a problem, and they have even done some good things like cutting taxes.

2. The Democrats are in power, so why hasn't anything improved?

3. The Democrats were in power for most of the period back to and including Roosevelt, which is the period in which you correctly observe that things have gone downhill.

4. The programs you credit with making America great like it was during WWII (government schools, social security, welfare, etc.) were begun by Roosevelt. Such programs started at the end of the period when you say America was still great have grown during the period in which you say America has declined. Are you sure you are not a Republican trying to make Democrats look bad?

5. The Constitution does not grant Congress the power to "provide for the general welfare". You are quoting the preamble to the Constitution, which grants no powers whatsoever. Read the Constitution please.

6. Why are you allowed to use such bad language and general nastiness when the rest of us are not?

To read more of my writing about Freedom and Reality go to http://www.LeeroyFDermit.com

[suki21693]

"Other than the War and the Patriot Act, the Bush administration hasn't been a problem..."

I would say, on balance, that is enough of a problem.

[Texashogfan]

Why in the world would anybody with a grain of sense want to read what you write??? And why slam Bob for his language when your Decider uses the same language. The Democrats have made it harder for the neoCons (as in Con artists) to pass neoCon legislation that supports the cheney/bush regime. That's about all the Dems can do at this point. And it is Congress (a combination of neoCons and Democrats) that have a low rating. Go write your drivel--- I'm waiting for my son to come back from Iraq.

[Texashogfan]

Saddam Hussein could have been bought for a cool billion--- but dubya had to have his war. Fill up the ol' coffers.

[Cmaggie]

I'll tell you why things went down hill for years under a Democratic controlled congress. Because they got fat, greedy, and crooked, and America finally took a change of direction.

[maddogbitesback]

America does better economically under a Democrat than a Republican. So right now I think of America as Humpty Dumpty. All the Democrats in the world can't put Humpty to-gether again. Cutting taxes and borrowing money to finance stuff doesn't make sense to me. It's like borrowing money to pay the mortgage.

[Independent voter]

Good article.

You ask "then why aren't the Bushies taking their metaphors seriously by demanding the sacrifices of World War II?"

I ask, why don't the Bushies or the Clintons send their own children to die in the desert if the Republican wars are so very important.

[gilbaker]

The steep moral decline we find ourselves in as a nation began forty four years ago, with assassination of a president.
JFK's predecessor in the White House was Dwight David Eisenhower, a former WWII commander who was never far from the Pentagon. Eisenhower left office warning us of a looming threat posed by what he called "the military-industrial complex." Eisenhower knew that our government was being taken over by defense contractors who wanted nothing more than to create a perpetual state of war.
These "captains of industry," who were financing the campaigns of every politician on Capitol Hill and frequently paying $100,000 "consulting" fees to the Joint Chiefs, own Washington DC.
In response to the Cuban missle crisis, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, proposed "Project Northwoods" to President Kennedy. "Northwoods" (google it) was a plan by which the U.S. military would attack Miami and blame it on Cuba as a pretext for war against Castro and then the Soviets. Kennedy promptly fired Gen. Lemnitzer and ended the missle threat without a single shot being fired.
For preventing WWIII, "the military-industrial complex" labeled Kennedy a Communist "appeaser" and sentenced him to death.
President Kennedy's "autopsy" was performed at a military hospital. It was the Joint Chiefs who ordered Capt. James Humes to conduct President Kennedy's autopsy. Capt. Humes, a blood pathologist, had NEVER performed a SINGLE AUTOPSY in his entire life.
Any questions?

[Kundera]

yeah......and Bush was behind 9/11, right?

[Rosanneofpgh]

At least you got that right, kun.

[rektruax]

I don't know if he was behind it. I don't think the evidence would support that premise. In all honesty, he seems to lack the intelligence. There is enough circumstantial evidence to support the idea that he a other key players (elected, appointed, and otherwise) knew in advance.

While I know such circumstantial evidence couldn't and shouldn't be used to prosecute, it certainly does merit further investigation.

None of that will happen of course.

[gilbaker]

The attacks of 9-11 could only have happened with Bush, or some other GOP lackey, in office.
The 9-11 attacks weren't "planned" by the neocons...the attacks were simply allowed to happen.
It is an undisputed fact that in 2000-2001 an FBI informant was actually living with two of the 9-11 hijackers. (google "FBI, Terrorists, San Diego" and see reports by CNN, CBS etc.)
Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, who were IN FACT running Bush's government in 2000-2001, allowed the attacks to happen and claimed that a lack of military spending under Clinton was to blame.
On 9-11 a) George W's daddy, a major shareholder in defense industry stocks, was employeed by the defense industry Carlyle Group b) Both Cheney and Rummy still had their Halliburton stock when Halliburton started receiving NO BID contracts that now total more than $20 BILLION since Bush took office...etc., etc., etc.
Any questions?

[LilyMaskew]

What a helleva way to run a war. Bush et. al, seem to deliverately take strong, generous, brave Americans and turn them into fearful, selfish people who have no regard for anyone in other countries. This is how these people are. We need to resist their example. I still cannot beliee these people are still in power. It is mind boggling.

[dotmafia]

"...all you're expected to do is to say that you support the troops (what does that mean in practice?)."

You've hit the nail on the head here.

The most important and major dilemma that Americans are facing right now, is the questioning of their patriotism.

Patriotism, or more accurately ultra-patriotism, is a source of strength for America, but can also be a source for America's weakness if not properly wielded by responsible leadership.

The Bush "administration" has deviously manipulated the American public's inherent ultra-patriotism for 7 years, generating an incredible amount of patriotic strength, but for intentionally wrong and misguided reasons.

The end-game result of this, is an entire country consistantly told to fear and be afraid, taking on a xenophobic mentality. Those in the culture who question the leadership about what is happening around them, and, more importantly why it is happening, are branded a potential traitor who's patriotism should be questioned. 1930's Nazi Germany and America today share many similarities in how patriotism through symbolism has been used effectively against their citizens, although their ideology is different... their methods used are one and the same. The leadership's only desire is -- belief without question.

These are textbook propaganda activities undertaken by the leadership in a fascist, totalitarian police/military state against its own population as a form of direct control. First control, then belief.

Ultra-patriotism will be America's downfall.

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it is destroyed from within." ~ W. Durant
_

[SteveL]

Just think. They had to steal two elections just to mess things up.

[BluMoonRising]

Just think...where would we be had they not?

[Simplicio]

Bush needs to be exorcised.

[JackieBinAZ]

These fuckers don't care about history because they believe they'll be free to write their own version of it, without interference or contradiction. Sadly, the way things are looking, they could be right.

[Pat]

Bulls Eye Bob! Great column. And yet.....where is the Progressive Platform? Why don't we have a clearly stated platform we can all support?
There is so much despair and division and preaching to the choir that I'm growing despondent over our awesome country going down. Are we going to let it go down without a fight?
We need to state our demands on Iraq, Iran, health care, border security, education, infrastructure, and PAC's and join with other Progressive groups to become a force for change.
I want to do something...sign a petition, support a candidate I'm excited about, SOMETHING! Any ideas?