Mark Phillips: The American Question

3/9/03: Sleaze factor, part 2.

Busted again.

An article in yesterday's Washington Post notes anger among the President's own party over his chronic manipulativeness:

A senior Republican lawmaker, firing back at President Bush for recent statements blaming Congress for underfunding emergency workers, accused the White House of factual inaccuracy and inadequate communication.

As the Post notes,

Democrats have long criticized Bush for inaccurate statements on spending and other matters, but this is the most prominent case of a Republican accusing Bush of falsehoods.

In the '70s, Democrats had a name for this behavior: "sleaze factor". It's what they accused Nixon of, and, they were right. If they had a scrap of fight in them they'd use this language again today. But, they don't.

Right-wing discourse often centers on manipulativeness, if not outright fraud. If they told the truth, few would support them. This manipulativeness is characteristic of the whole history of right-wing ideologies internationally, not just in the U.S. Once upon a time, Nazi leader Hermann Goering explained the way it works:

Why of course the people don't want war. Naturally the common people don't want war, neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Back to 2003 menu
Back to Mark's Blogspace main page

More Information

1. "All roads lead to Tehran", Phillips
2. "Complexity", Phillips
3. "weblogs: a history and perspective", blood
4. "You've got blog", Mead
5. EatonWeb Portal
6. BlogHop
7. Blogger
8. Blogroots
9. The Pepys Project