Bush takes on imaginary racist elites

July 28, 2006

Today’s White House press conference with Bush and British Prime Minister Tony “Yo” Blair was not particularly newsworthy, but there was one comment the president made towards the end of the event that bothered me.

“[W]hat the world is seeing is a desire by this country and our allies to defeat the ideology of hate with an ideology that has worked and that brings hope. And one of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free, that there’s other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world.

“There’s this kind of almost — kind of a weird kind of elitism that says well maybe — maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn’t be free; maybe it’s best just to let them sit in these tyrannical societies. And our foreign policy rejects that concept. And we don’t accept it. And so we’re working.”

What a relief we have Bush working against these secret elites who want to condemn millions to a life of tyranny.

And who are these dastardly bigots who believe Muslims don’t want freedom and who are convinced that “certain parts of the world shouldn’t be free”? Bush didn’t say, but they must exist, right? It’s not as if the president would offer self-righteous indignation against critics who only exist in his imagination. Oh wait….

Post Script: By the way, it’s also worth noting that the question that prompted this stunning straw-man argument was, “[W]hat has happened to America’s clout in this [Middle East] region that you’ve committed yourself to transform?” Funny, he never did get around to answering that one.

“What a relief we have Bush working against these secret elites who want to condemn millions to a life of tyranny.”

Egads.

And I thought I was a master of snark.

  • I can think of a few corporate entities that would like to condemn millions to a life of tyranny, especially when oil (or some other natural asset) is involved. And I know many folks, predominantly white, lower income class folk from the deep south, who strongly believe Muslims (and others) should not be free and who should be controlled en masse. But secret elites?

  • I think he’s talking about his followers who always claim that when Islamic people get to vote, they tend to vote for Islamic government so they’re free for the extent of time that they have the election and then it’s back to Islamo-fascism. Just a thought.

  • Hey, at least he didn’t specifically mention skin color this time.

    But really, “there’s other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world”? Apparently the imaginary bigots even view, say, Japan and France and Canada as unfree.

  • When a vast majority of a population freely choose theocracy, and reject consumer-corporate “free-market” capitalism, do they “hate freedom”? Or, do they want to be free to choose to have their theocracy?

    Likewise, if the vast majority of a population freely choose home-grown socialism and reject the domination of foreign corporations, are they free to choose it? Or will the World Bank, IMF, WIPO, WTO, and the Cheney Administration decide that they can’t have what they freely want?

    To quote the immortal Bill Hicks: “See? IT MAKES… NO…. SENSE!!”

    Bush confuses free markets with free people. They are not the same thing, and often are completely incompatible. Markets are not people. A truly free market means truly enslaved people. And, vice versa.

    To have a functioning economy and a functioning government you have to keep the two in some kind of a balance. We don’t have that in America anymore, and we’re trying to impose this corporate serfdom upon the entire world.

  • I’d like to see a poll along these lines:

    Who do you think would do a better job as president, GW Bush or GW Bush’s Rhetorical Straw Man?

  • He was stunningly incoherent in his reply. I’m truly afraid because this must be how the situation exists in his mind. No wonder nothing that has happened makes sense to me.

  • Using democracy to choose theocracy means you only get to choose once. A theocracy is about One Way. A democracy is about many ways.

  • “kind of a weird kind of elitism that says well maybe — maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn’t be free.”

    What or who is he talking about? I never heard anyone say that.

    On the other hand, there is a difference between wanting to be free and being willing and able to do whatever it takes to be free. I sit here complaining about lost freedoms, but what am I really doing about it — what am I willing to risk? Looking at this another way, one has to ask can freedom be imposed, or does it have to come from within — from people willing and able to do whatever it takes. Just some Friday afternoon thoughts… now back to regular programming.

  • And one of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free, that there’s other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world.

    Of course what he isn’t saying is that Bush and Blair want to dictate to Muslims and “other people” just how “free” they can be. Lebanon, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, Bolivia and the Palestinians have all freely elected a government — in part through U.S. neglect or bellicosity — that hasn’t met the U.S. definitions of “freedom.” We’ve tried or are trying to undermine them all.

  • What Bush fails to realize is that promoting democracies in countries where tyrannies exist, and especially where globalization has reinforced the hatred by majorities to tyrannies composed of religious, racial or ethnic minorities then he is setting the world on fire. At a time of great global instability, adding the potentially, highly inflammable — democracy — to the fire is exacerbating an already treacherous situation. This is not a question of which races or ethnicities or religions that we favor to be free of tyranny, but how democracy can most successfully take root where it does not exist. It is also a question of how setting the world on fire threatens our own security and those of other nations with whom we share ties of security. It does no good to fight a war on terror while at the same time sowing seeds that destabilize the world and create an environment more favorable for the spread of terror. Democracy and freedom, may however noble and desirable, may not be the best antidote to tyranny at every time and place in history.

    So, if this is an elitist position, I plead guilty. But, I am more inclined to think that Bush’s is the real elitist position — the globalist, corporate capitalist, theological, wealthy, and oil dependent elitist position — that is more likely to get us into a world of hurt.

  • Given how little Bush understands about what makes democracy work in our country, it’s not surprising that he should be clueless about how it will work in others. He and his crew have been engaged in an assault on the Lockean liberal and rationalist concepts at the heart of our system for some time.

    I’d say he talks like someone who believes that ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are like magic beans that, when planted, overnight grow into the giant beanstalk of a western-style industrial market economy, but actually, the way he talks I can’t tell what he thinks.

    “One of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free”? Where does he get this stuff?

  • Dear President Bush,

    Please take your meds like Laura and the doctors tell you and the strange elitest voices in your head will go away.

    Your boss,

    John Q. Public

  • ” ‘kind of a weird kind of elitism that says well maybe — maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn’t be free.’

    What or who is he talking about? I never heard anyone say that. ” – beep52

    Yes, of course not. But you see, he does. They are called Republicans! Not all Republicans are NeoCons, and in the quiet times when they’ve finished ponying up money for favors, they let their hair down and talk about how Arabs and Asians just don’t have a cultural background to support democracy.

  • The worst of it is that more people will believe there are these Muslim-hating elites than already believed in the black helicopters, the WMDs and the Saddam-Osama link. Worse still all those who believe there are angels and evils running rampant, that nothing ever evolved, that stem-cell research is murder and that global warming is a crock.

    The GOP are mongers of fear and loathing. The last thing they trouble themselves with is the first thing the Democrats allow themselves to stumble over: the Truth.

  • I’m beginning to understand Busheese

    Sacred Life= using an embryo or a brain dead person to whip up votes
    Freedom loving = republican minded
    wierd kind of elite = any critics of Bush policy
    ownership society= serfdom to the rich
    mission accomplished= my friends are making money
    war on terror= be very afraid.

    It’s all clear when you get the secret decoder ring.

  • Nothing’s more mendacious than false innocence. Bush knows he’s making this crap up but he has to wrap him self up in his fake heroism to make his points.

    Bush and his ilk ARE those elitists he speaks of that hold people down. Just looks at his Mom’s comments in the Astrodome, his dad not having any idea what a quart of milk costs the average American when he was prez and our dear George who has policies that trample on the underclasses while he also has no problem saying Americans are too good to do the jobs that we need undereducated and impoverished Mexicans and Central Americans to do for us. His elitism stems from the fact that he thinks everyone else should pay a high price for all the things he has had handed to him for free his whole life. He is the “deciding class” elite who thinks he should have the power to make people’s decisions for them while he should never have to suffer the consequence of others controlling his fate.

  • I’ve been musing of late on these baffoons in the WH, and wonder: just when did Mr. Bush and his WH team decided to take up the white man’s burden? Imperialists – the lot of them! -Kevo

    Oh, and Vote the Rascals out in ’06 and ’08!

  • Ah, Bush is so kind: we’ll kill you if necessary, but we’ll make sure you’re free.

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