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I thought it was a great summary of the actions taken by this administartion... =-=-=- In the most simple terms, (the Bush Administration) discourages political opposition through the practice of intimidation, character assassination, and secrecy. They show a remarkable disrespect for civil liberties, worker's rights, and free speech. They are self-righteous and display contempt toward anyone that crosses them. They mask the harmful details of their policies behind appeals to patriotism/nationalism or morality/religion. They pay lip service to the public interests while simultaneously undermining those interests for ideological reasons. They ignore the facts. They practice aggression and deception. They arouse our base emotions. They mislead us.
Intimidation = Valerie Plame; maybe systematic torture of noncombatants, etc.
Character assassination = Anyone who dares speak out. Really, do you think it is necessary that I answer this one?
Secrecy = Energy Task Force, etc.
Self-righteous = Iraq. Ignore facts, press ideology. This has been proven time and again. The consequences of the Bush team's behavior and decisions has been predicted well in advance by many critics of the administration's tactics and policies. Have you ever heard Bush or this administration say they made a mistake? Hell no! They are self-righteous ideologues, unwavering in pursuit of imposing their ideals.
Disrespect for civil liberties = Patriot Act, conduct of interrogators, American citizens denied guaranteed rights, TIPS program, Total Information Awareness Program, etc.
Worker's rights = C'mon, really? OK. Benefits, over-time, health care, pensions, workers comp, full-time vs. part-time, minimum wage, environment, etc.
Contempt = democrats, liberals, political opponents, whistle-blowers, political dissenters, gays, etc.
Contempt leads to stonewalling, lying, character assissination, and petty spite = Joseph Wilson or anyone else that crosses them. Or maybe they target family members.
Lip service = paid to freedom while simultaneously undermining our freedoms. Lip service paid to environment while simultaneously undermining our environment. Lip service paid to working Americans while simultaneously pulling the rug out from underneath working Americans.
Ignore the facts = Ignoring the warnings about the haphazard way in which we intended to invade Iraq. Warnings about no plan to win the peace. Warnings about low troop levels. Warnings about just about everything bad that has happened since. Experts in all fields have been treated with disdain when they have pointed out the folly of Bush's Way.
Aggression = Axis of Evil. Unilateralism. Hasty withdrawal from numerous international treaties for ideological reasons. Overzealous desire for war with Iraq. Veiled threats toward Korea, Iran, and Syria. Unconcealed desire to develop new breed of nuclear weapon.
Deception = Again, do I have to. We'll just use the build up to war with Iraq. Nothing more needs to be said.
Base emotions = Morality, religion, patriotism, human compassion. All of these emotions are exploited for the purpose of building a sense of shared values. Meanwhile, there policies are detrimental to the very same people whom they appeal to for votes.
An appeal to base emotions brings many single issue voters on board (i.e. pro-life, NRA, tax-cutterss, religious fundamentalists, militant commando's, etc.).
Misleading = Iraq. Medicare, etc.
They appeal to our base emotions so they can mislead us.
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