This is going to be lengthy, and falls under the category of what I like to call 'shadetree psychology'.
(The theme runs through several things I have been reading lately, and so I have excerpted small parts and linked them to try to keep the length down.)
Sen. Lindsey Graham, during yesterday's hearing, made the point (in a heavily sampled soundbite among mainstream media outlets) that "we're the good guys."
Josh Marshall expanded on his point:
Quote:"...being the good guys is about what you do, not who you are. That's a truth that the architects of this war, in subtler but I suspect more damaging ways, frequently failed to understand."
Time and time again we see that Bush supporters are heavily invested in the idea that Americans, or at least "patriotic" Americans who support Bush, are intrinsically good. It manifests itself in the flags flying from houses, car windows, and the corner of television screens on certain news channels. It shows up in the premise that one cannot support the troops without supporting the President, "you're either with us or against us", and so on. This in turn results in the assumption that everything we
do must be good, or at least justifiable, or at least not as bad as the stuff those other people do.
This point of view is the basis for much of what passes for modern-day Right-Wing ideology. And this mindset is certainly the foundation for Bush's support in the first place.
Conservative Americans love Bush because he reinforces their delusions about themselves.
Liberals are more likely to see Americans as neither intrinsically good nor bad, just people like other people. This means liberal Americans can admit to faults and mistakes without having an existential crisis. Right-wingers sneer that this is self-hatred and that liberals like to wallow in guilt trips.
No, it's just being realistic, not to mention honest and emotionally mature.
Scott Lehigh, in the
Boston Globe:
Quote:... the tragic error here is in the Pentagon's apparent assumption of American exceptionalism, the notion that even outside the United States, the basic decency of our society will still obtain even without strict rules and requirements.
Along with the assumption of American exceptionalism is the assumption of Bush Administration exceptionalism. As
Paul Krugmansaid yesterday...
Quote:From the day his administration took office, its slogan has been "just trust us." No administration since Nixon has been so insistent that it has the right to operate without oversight or accountability, and no administration since Nixon has shown itself to be so little deserving of that trust.
My impression is that Bush's people are so certain of their own intrinsic good that they find oversight and accountability somehow insulting. Of course, we can only guess at what they're hiding. Are they corrupt, or delusional? Or both?
Another of my favorite bloggersdescribed Rumstud at his personal inquisition last week as well as anyone has:
Quote:It doesn't come through on the transcript, but it was clear from Rumsfeld's tone, his body language, the expression on his face, and the look in his eye that this was one of those disturbing moments when you realize that this administration's real problem isn't that they lie too much. The problem is that they actually believe what they're saying.
And Bush supporters believe this also -- Bush and his people are intrinsically good and moral; therefore, what they
do will be good and moral, and people who disagree with them are
not good and moral.
That's really the entire argument in favor of Bush, isn't it? When you peel away the rhetorical huffing and puffing, and all the bravado and excuses and rationalizations, that's all that's left:
We're the good guys, because we say so.
And I am certain they genuinely believe this.
For the past three and a half years, I -- and many others, in and out of this forum -- have been dumbfounded that so many Americans are unable to see what a fraud Bush is. I don't think Bush supporters are necessarily stupid (but amazingly, all stupid people seem to be Bush supporters).
I think their conscious mind won't allow them to see it.
Because to admit the truth about Bush would be to admit the truth about
themselves -- that America is not exceptional. We are
not the Chosen People. To be born American is not to be born into some special state of grace.
Sad but true: most people who support Bush will continue to defend him
no matter how terribly he screws up. That's because their perception of Bush is wrapped up in their perceptions of themselves. And people view threats to self-identity with as much alarm as threats to their bodies.
Expect to see the Right put up thicker and thicker walls of belligerence as the situation in Iraq deteriorates. It's all self-defense. They can't admit they were wrong, about Iraq or about Bush, without experiencing a kind of existential death.
