Bush On the Ropes

Shakespeare's Sister appropriately compares two recent polls. The Americans who have not been paying attention have their heads up. What's to keep them from burying their head in the sand again?

The Nov. 9 NBC/WSJ poll showed that 57% of Americans believe Bush deliberately misled them in making his case for the war, and Zogby’s Nov. 4 poll showed that 53% of Americans want Congress to consider impeaching Bush if he did deliberately mislead the public. If the situation in Iraq doesn’t significantly improve and thereby rekindle support for the war (an unlikely event, by any deduction), support will instead continue to dwindle—and that means more and more former gung-ho supporters are going to be looking for someone to blame, which could mean real trouble for Bush.


That’s the problem with kingmakers—they can be a king’s undoing, too.

So far the tax cuts for the wealthy have kept the mainstream Republican happy. I have to wonder how long that will last. Certainly not every Republican is a closet fascist. From Seeing the Forest, we have Stephen Crockett, a radio talkshow host described as moderate conservative sounds the call to arms in State Power & Conservative Ideology:

It is increasingly apparent that there is an important ideological conflict going on in the modern conservative movement between supporters of increased state power and supporters of limited government.


. . . The Bush Republicans advocate a “neo-con” approach to state power that critics fear is a potential creeping fascist ideology disguised as conservatism. Secret prisons, torture and unlimited detention in prisons without trial are all examples of policies supported by the Bush Republican that outrage both traditional conservatives and civil libertarians.


Traditional conservatives rely on the rule of law instead of personal rule by a strong leader or leadership group. The Bush Republicans seem to believe that anything the Bush Administration wants to do should be permitted because they claim that they should be trusted not to abuse the power of their offices.


Traditional conservatives believe that the system of checks and balances should be strong enough to survive good or bad White House or Congressional leaders. The Bush Republicans seem to view the checks and balances system devised by our Founding Fathers as obstacles to imposing their views on our government and nation.

A large number of Republicans have had their heads in the sand too. They seem to be counting their gold pieces still. But some have been awakened. Hopefully more will follow.