Back to the future

March 17, 2006

The president spoke at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner in DC last night and tried out a new line about his party’s vision: “We don’t fear the future.”

“We don’t fear the future,” Bush told donors who contributed $8 million Thursday night to support Republican House candidates. “We welcome it.”

Bush repeated a version of the no-fear refrain three times during a 24-minute speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s fundraising dinner.

Reading over the transcript, the president kept repeating this, as if he really wanted the audience to understand and remember it. Republicans “don’t fear the future.” I’ve been trying to figure out what this means. So far, I’m at a bit of a loss.

On the one hand, fearing an unknown future is central to the Republican agenda. We should fear the terrorist threat, and give the president more power. We should fear an economic downturn, and ask for more tax cuts. We should fear the future of the American family, and pass a constitutional amendment on gay marriage. We should fear a Social Security crisis, and let Bush privatize the system.

To an extent, the GOP message is based on almost nothing but fearing the future. Liberal judges, immigrants, unions, socialized medicine, trial lawyers, and human-animal hybrids — if these guys didn’t have fear, they wouldn’t have much.

This is not to say that Dems are brimming with optimism about the future; we’re clearly not. In most Dem circles, there’s genuine concern about the future, particularly as it relates to energy, health care, crippling debt, and perhaps most importantly, the environment. The difference, to me at least, is that our worries are based on reality, not political expedience, though I realize that’s a subjective question.

Bush summarizes his pitch with this:

“Ours is the party that can see into the future. We don’t fear it, we welcome it, because we intend to continue to lead.”

First, the notion that Bush thinks the GOP “can see into the future” is kind of creepy. Second, if Bush and his cohorts “intend to continue to lead,” then we really do have something to fear.

This is an occasional talking point that the Republicans trot out, I think. Last time I saw it was around the SSRI privatization debate. I guess it’s not surprising that it’s happening just as the Republicans try that again.

  • They don’t fear the Rapture (which is the future) because they’re all Saved.

    Blinky’s right. Bush doesn’t fear the future because he doesn’t think there will be one.

  • Yeah, it’s an interesting little phrase on many levels.

    First, like Blinky says, it appeals to the crazy Religious arm of the party, because they DO know the future…they read Revelations, y’know.

    Second, by saying that Repugs DON’T fear the future, they are ‘framing’ it so that the party faithful understand that Dems DO fear it. Because, in their world, Repugs are to Dems as Black is to White.

    Finally, and probably more accurately, Bush likes this little saying because to him, it IS true. He doesn’t fear it only because he doesn’t think about it. The WarBuddha lives in the moment.

  • He doesn’t fear the future because he won’t be around to have to pay the $9 fuC*ing trillion debt he’s gotten us into!!! And guess what my friends, his brilliant current budget has $0 for port security, but $1.7 BILLION for SDI (star wars)!!! What a pure moron. More money for the defense industry, less security for us. Dems intoduced legislation in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 asking for money for the Coast Guard to increase port security. What did the RePUKEli-cons say each time? They said “Ha, silly Dems, Hell no!, and stop asking!” But hey, good thing Bush is protecting is from the terrorists’ ICBM’s. (But wait, weren’t they using box cutters??) Can we have a little more incompetence in the WH please.

  • The Republican Party:

    “We don’t fear the future, it’s change that scares the shit out of us.”

  • “Ours is the party that can see into the future. We don’t fear it, we welcome it, because we intend to continue to lead.”

    Of course they can see into the future. They’re looking ahead to November and they can see … that Diebold has their back and there will be nothing but Republican majorities for a long, long time.

    “In most Dem circles, there’s genuine concern about the future, particularly as it relates to energy, health care, crippling debt, and perhaps most importantly, the environment.”

    Or if the Democratic Party will be worth a damn come November. …

  • This kind of dovetails with something I’ve been thinking about lately. I don’t think anyone on either side of the fence can disagree that Bush has been pushing an unprecedented power-grab. The only difference is that the left has been decrying it while the right justifies it (…necessary in a time of war, etc.).

    But I would love to ask a repub this: given the unthinkable & a democrat wins in ’08 how would repubs feel about all that executive power in the hands of a dem president? What about…. president Hillary? Would bloviators on the right suddenly decide the war on terror was over, so those powers aren’t needed anymore? More than likely they would argue that their guy can be trusted with those powers while our guy (or gal) cannot.

    But here’s what I take away from Bush’s power-grab, taxcuts, gutting of social programs, warrantless spying, etc.: they don’t expect to lose power anytime soon. Or more precisely, they can’t afford to lose power & will do anything to hold onto it. Bush is pretty much admitting it himself.

  • Hence Diebold, ES&S & Sequoia. They ARE the Repukes’ future. Without them, the Repukes are D-E-A-D!!!

  • and they know it! and they are scared as hell. Just look at how desperate they are to justify paperless, unauditable, “private”, corporatized, easily hacked electronic voting systems.

  • The death of our democracy will soon follow if Rethugs are again allowed to maintain their majorities in both houses of congress.

    Look for an attempt to declare martial law and to halt the elections because “we shouldn’t replace Republicans and/or their ‘wartime president’ during this time of ‘war'”.

    Every despot and wanna-be dictator almost always starts with a declaration of martial law as a prelude to gaining absolute dominance. They have already posited canceling the last elections “in the event of a terrorist attack”, so they have the plans in their playbook.

  • How true Bill, how true. Any Dem with a pair better stand up now, while they still can.

  • “…because we intend to continue to lead.”

    Shruby isn’t given to nuance. He doesn’t make a statement like that with anything less than complete conviction.

    I must agree with raff and others. “they don’t expect, (intend), to lose power anytime soon.” The language they use constantly gives me the impression that, whether realistic or not, they think no matter how much shit hits the fan for them, they are right where they belong and they’re not going anywhere regardless of votes or legal proceedings or polls or whatever.

    They think they have an ace in the hole. Do they? I sure don’t know. But they don’t figure on leaving even if Shruby’s numbers go down to zero. We’ve seen very bad things from ShrubCo but I don’t at all believe we’ve seen how really far they’re willing/compelled to go.

  • If you passed a man on the street who proclaimed “I can see into the future and I do not fear it”, you would wonder about his mental health.
    We know he talks to his rug and now he can see into the future.

    Leaders who look to the future bring us a vision of what can be.
    Bush sounds like an Enron exec trying to reassure the nervous shareholders not to withdraw their support from a collapsing company.

    Different from ML King who says “I have a dream”,
    is Bush who is “I have a scheme.”

  • Oh, and if Bush was really able to see into the future… why didn’t he use his psychic powers to advise the military.
    From raw story:
    .On Scene: How Operation Swarmer Fizzled
    Not a shot was fired, or a leader nabbed, in a major offensive that failed to live up to its advance billing

  • The phrase is open to ridicule for those of us who are not convinced and hopefully the comedians and other media outlets will tear it to shreds quickly.

    One must agree that it has a comforting, daddy will take care of you, feeling about it. I’m sure that they have run this through the psychological / focus group trials. It’s really quite a great slogan, especially for those who are scared of the increasingly dark unknown, and who are beginning to very slowly understand that our future is very much in doubt. I think that the GOP is trying to desperately hang on to their straying little lambs and bring them back into the very comfortable fold of ‘don’t let the meanies scare you.’ This slogan is not aimed at the open-eyed worldly individual.

  • I have to ask those of you here who have more political experience how often parties use a negative as their political slogan. It reads like a denial.

    It naturally drew my thoughts towards any examples where Republicans have exhibited a fear of the future. If this slogan doesn’t work, is there next one going to be “We don’t eat babies?”

    “We don’t screw you over.”
    It doesn’t inspire confidence.

  • “…because we intend to continue to lead.”

    In order to *continue* to do something, you first must actually *do* it. ’nuff said.

  • Perhaps, we as citizens of this heretofore democracy, should fear the future if it means a future that was instigated and controlled by the current administration and their fellow Republican cohorts.

    Let’s hope that our fellow Americans will help shift control of Congress to the Democrats in the upcoming 2006–and 2008–elections, and that those Democrats can undo the harm the Republicans have instigated to our beloved democracy. Let’s also hope that the Democrats would be able to pass legislation that would allow universal healthcare and other benefits that would better the lives of all Americans–economically, healthcare-wise, and security-wise–not just the privileged few and rich with efficacy and competency that are lacking in the current administration.

  • Hell! I sure do fear the future. Bush and his minions have created and advanced so many problems and crises — many with consequences that are yet to be recognized — the future is just plain scary. I’m afraid the scope of Bush’s destruction has pemanently crippled the America we once knew.

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