Sidney Blumenthal
BUSH UNBOUND - BRACE YOURSELF!
Wed Nov 3, 2004 20:04
64.140.159.33

BUSH UNBOUND
Winning on fear itself, the GOP is ready to take the country even farther
right.
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By Sidney Blumenthal

Nov. 3, 2004 | "This country is going so far to the right you are not even
going to recognize it," remarked John Mitchell, President Nixon's attorney
general, in 1970. Mitchell's prophesy became the mission of Nixon's College
Republican president, Karl Rove, who implemented the strategy of authoritarian
populism behind George W. Bush's victory.

In the aftermath, Democrats will form their ritual circular firing squad of
recriminations. But, finally, the loss was not due to their candidate's
personality, the flaws of this or that advisor or the party's platform. The Democrats
surprised themselves at their ability to raise tens of millions of dollars,
inspire hundreds of thousands of activists, spawn extensive new organizations,
attract icons of popular culture and present themselves as unified around a
centrist position. Expectations were not dashed. Turnout vastly increased among
African-Americans and Hispanics. More than 60 percent of the newly registered
voters went for John Kerry. Those concerned about the economy voted
overwhelmingly for him; so did those citing the war in Iraq as an issue. But the surge
of the Democrats was more than matched.

Using the White House as a machine of centripetal force, Rove spread fear and
fused its elements. Fear of the besieging terrorist, appearing in Bush
campaign TV ads as the shifty eyes of a swarthy man or a pack of wolves, was joined
with fear of the besieging queer. Bush's announcement that he favored a
constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was underscored by referendums against
it in 11 states, including Ohio -- all of which won.

The evangelical churches became instruments of political organization.
Ideology was enforced as theology, turning nonconformity into sin, and the faithful,
following voter guides with biblical literalism, were shepherded to the polls
as though to the rapture. White Protestants, especially in the South,
especially married men, gave their souls and votes for flag and cross.

The campaign was one long camp meeting, a revival. Abortion and stem cell
research became a lever for prying loose white Catholics. (Rove's designated
Catholic leader, his own political pontiff, had to resign in disgrace after being
exposed for sexual harassment, but this was little reported and had no
effect.) To help in Florida, a referendum was put on the ballot to deny young women
the right to abortion without parental approval, and it galvanized evangelicals
and conservative Catholics alike.

While Kerry ran on the mainstream American traditions of international
cooperation and domestic investment, and transparency and rationality as essential
to democratic government, Bush campaigned directly against these very ideas. At
his rallies, Bush was introduced as standing for "the right God." During the
closing weeks of the campaign, Bush and Cheney ridiculed internationalism,
falsifying Kerry's statement about a "global test." They disdained Kerry's
internationalism as effeminate, unpatriotic, a character flaw and elitist. "You can
put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," Vice President Cheney derided in
every speech. They grafted imperial unilateralism onto provincial
isolationism. Fear of the rest of the world was to be mastered with contempt for it.

These emotions were linked to what is euphemistically called "moral values,"
which is actually social and sexual panic over the rights of women and gender
roles -- lipstick traces, indeed. Only imposing manly authority against
"girlie men," girls and lurking terrorists can save the nation. Bush's TV ads
featured digitally reproduced crowds of cheering soldiers, triumph of the leader
through computer enhancement. Above all, the exit polls showed that "strong
leader" was the primary reason Bush was supported.

Brought along with Bush is a gallery of grotesques in the Senate -- more than
one of the new senators advocating capital punishment for abortion, another u
rging that all gay teachers be fired, yet another revealed as suffering from
obvious symptoms of Alzheimer's.


The new majority is more theocratic than Republican, as Republican was
previously understood; the defeat of the old moderate Republican Party is far more
decisive than the loss by the Democrats. And there are no checks and balances.
The terminal illness of Chief Justice William Rehnquist signals new
appointments to the Supreme Court that will alter law for more than a generation.
Conservative promises to dismantle constitutional law established since the New Deal
will be acted upon. Roe vs. Wade will be overturned and abortion outlawed.

Now, without constraints, Bush can pursue the dreams he campaigned for -- the
use of U.S. military might to bring God's gift of freedom to the world, with
no more "global tests," and at home the enactment of the imperatives of "the
right God." The international system of collective security forged in World War
II and tempered in the Cold War is a thing of the past. The Democratic Party,
despite its best efforts, has failed to rein in the radicalism sweeping the
country. The world is in a state of emergency but also irrelevant. The New
World, with all its power and might, stepping forth to the rescue and the
liberation of the old? Goodbye to all that.

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After the fall: Should I start my own country now? — Jane Stillwater, Wed Nov 3 20:22