Wonky Muse

August 3, 2004

Ground Shift

There is something in the air that's hard to deny. Over the weekend, as D. and I were entering the freeway, he pointed out a handmade sign displayed on the overpass. It was the infamous image of the hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib, with just two words next to it: Bush Knew.

People are getting progressively angry. They feel they've been betrayed by their leaders. Subtly but steadily, there's a ground shift in the way people think, as they are presented with overwhelming evidence of an Administration's sins that are hard to ignore.

This growing phenomenon was best articulated by Ron Reagan, in his excellent article for Esquire magazine:

Politicians will stretch the truth. They'll exaggerate their accomplishments, paper over their gaffes. Spin has long been the lingua franca of the political realm. But George W. Bush and his administration have taken "normal" mendacity to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. On top of the usual massaging of public perception, they traffic in big lies, indulge in any number of symptomatic small lies, and, ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on.

...this administration seems to lie reflexively, as if it were simply the easiest option for busy folks with a lot on their minds. While the big lies are more damning and of immeasurably greater import to the nation, it is the small, unnecessary prevarications that may be diagnostic. Who lies when they don't have to?...Habit, perhaps. Or an inability to admit even small mistakes.

But image is everything in this White House, and the image of George Bush as a noble and infallible warrior in the service of his nation must be fanatically maintained, because behind the image lies . . . nothing?

posted at 3:37 PM by Wonky Muse

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