Crossposted from Moral Questions Weblog.
There is an eery silence in the blogosphere since Bush’s speech. I’m amazed that no one has appreciated the significance of the speech. Everywhere I look–Josh Marshall, Kevin Drum, Mydd–I only see the standard kneejerk complaints of incompetence and cronyism. That’s well and good–and true–but, hello? Doesn’t anyone get it? We just won.
Well, at least one person gets it. A lone blogger at Dailykos, Rockdart, writes:
They must be – the conservatives I’ve seen talk about this are up in arms. Suddenly we’re hearing about Bush’s job approval numbers being low and that he may actually be incompetent. That this was an FDR or LBJ speech – not a Reagan or G.H.W. Bush speech – these people don’t back it.
Equality? That racial problems are a major cause of poverty? Homesteading? They talk of the price tag being too high. Scarborough mis-quoting the cost of Iraq, saying that the reconstruction would run more than the Iraq war… going straight to the fact that Bush loves to spend, spend, spend – but really no regard for the fact that we’re talking about an American city and American Citizens.
But the door’s been opened. The Republicans saw it right away – ‘what about the mayor of Detroit? He’ll say I have poverty, how about some of these plans to counter it in my city’ (paraphrasing Matthews).
He’s exactly right. But its not just an opening, its and ideological admission of defeat. Brian Bell commented in the thread saying:
Activist government is back with a vengence, and its worst enemies have been forced to embrace it on a grand scale. Liberals should be ecstatic about what Bush is proposing. This positions them perfectly in the coming years. I’m sorry, I just don’t see a down side here.
As for Bush, the rest of his term will be dominated by one of the biggest domestic spending programs in our history. His base will hate it.
I need to stop. I’m tearing up.
Yep, he’s talking about throwing a ton ‘o money at the problem, and that doesn’t sound very conservative. But then, this has never been a fiscally conservative administration. And we all know where that money will go–right into the pockets of Halliburton and the other usual suspects.
Rove is banking that the media will soon pack up, leave the Gulf Coast, and stop talking to the homeless and powerless. After all, there’s a new missing white woman to look for. And so the public will never hear about it when the federal bounty fails to trickle down to the people who need every damn dime.
And here’s the other-shoe-dropping part. Even the appearance that Bush is spending big honking chunks of cash to help poor black people will send the wingnuts into a frenzy. So something will have to be done to appease them.
One possibility is to throw a few nukes at Iran. We don’t have the bucks or bodies to actually pull off an invasion, so that leaves bombs.
Or maybe they’ll cowboy up for a new assault on civil rights. Put the final bullet into Roe v. Wade. Clobber gays and lesbians.
Bush did not wake up Thursday morning and see the second coming of LBJ in his shaving mirror. Rove’s going to find some way to let the base know that their boy didn’t really mean a word of that speech.
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Drop the ball and are running in the opposite direction!
Excellent observations and diary :: this is the creative thinking any democracy needs to succeed.
I listened to the Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour on European broadcast of CNNi Larry King. Very sympathetic and down-to-earth remarks, which included a warning for Bush NOT to send in federal troops to take over the Reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.
The Mississippians are very well equipped and willing to reconstruct their own homes, community, townships – but need assistance from the Federal Government. Hurricane Katrine has destroyed all infrastructure along the coast that was build over a period of three centuries.
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In one respect your are correct this is the way to get things done. With a government using tax money to better the lot of its people. Its the most effective and fastest way to do good. People see that if you want something substantial done you must do it through the federal government.
But if he wants to take responsibility he needs to say no to his rich friends and stop the repeal of the estate tax. Stop his imperialism. We need to balance this budget because in the end he is starving our government. Show some responsibility don’t pass this to my son he’s only eleven. He doesn’t deserve to inherit a bankrupt country.