Let’s see, in the past few months we’ve heard from the Bush campaign and the Republican National Committee that Kerry will turn over national security to a “global test,” that Kerry’s health plan is a “government take-over” that will lead to “rationing,” that America may be “hit again” by terrorists unless we vote for Bush, that Kerry is literally a “socialist,” that Kerry will raise taxes on the middle class, and that “liberals” may try to ban the Bible. Sprinkled throughout these dire assessments, John Ashcroft issues terrorist warnings about possible attacks on U.S. soil, based on no new information and to the puzzlement of the intelligence community.
All of these tranparent examples were meant to scare people into voting for Bush. They are obvious, textbook examples of demagoguery, plain and simple.
So, how does Bush react? By accusing Kerry of using scare tactics.
President Bush on Monday accused Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry of “shameless scare tactics” by suggesting that the president would jeopardize Social Security for older Americans and bring back the military draft for young people.
Bush, in an Associated Press interview, said of Kerry, “He’s trying to scare our seniors. It is wrong to try to scare people going into the polls.”
Once again, Bush is displaying all the clinical signs of “projecting.”
As the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen recently noted:
In the faraway past, I was a psych major in college, and it was then that I discovered the useful word “projection.” It was, as I recall, the tendency to assign to others the attributes or faults you had within yourself. I have in the intervening years moved on to journalism, but I still know projection when I see it. George Bush projects all over the place.
That was last month. All indications are that Bush’s projecting condition is getting worse. Maybe a new job, away from the pressures of the presidency, would help the poor guy feel better.