You’re either with them or you’re against them

August 23, 2005

It’s par for the course, but White House spin-doctor extraordinaire Trent Duffy ran yesterday’s press gaggle aboard Air Force One and made one of those comments that offers insight into the Bush worldview.

Q: Is the White House concerned about the protests that are planned in Salt Lake City today?

Duffy: The President addressed that directly. He can understand that people don’t share his view that we must win the war on terror…but he just has a different view.

Never mind the fact that Bush personally said that he doesn’t even think it’s possible to win a war on terror; as far as the White House is concerned, if you protest the president and oppose the war in Iraq, you necessarily believe that the U.S. shouldn’t win the war on terror.

The multiple layers of mendacity and demagoguery are dizzying. That Duffy is quite a talent.

Although I am sure this does not need repeating, but Ol’ Shifty having a different view is not the problem. The problem is not having a coherent policy or plan to support that view, preferrably one that would foster confidence in that view and give the public reason to support that view. No policy. No plan to support a policy. No set of even reasonably sounding standards to measure success. No nothing to back up the view. That, is the problem.

  • I also heard Bush say today that he does not agree with people who wish to withdraw immediately from Iraq and withdraw from the Middle East entirely… This administration has elevated propaganda through conflation and straw man to new and dizzying heights.

  • Also completely forgetting the point that the war in Iraq is FUELING the terrorists. Bush is the best thing that could have happened to al Qaeda, he validates all their talking points.

  • This is pure NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). It’s beyond “framing”, it’s outright hypnosis. Basically, the presupposition is as you state it: either you support Shrub or you are a terrorist. There is no room for debate in this, because it’s not made of logic.

    The only defence against this is the kind of brilliant work Cindy Sheehan is doing. More theatrics, please. This battle will be won in the hindbrain and the hypothalamus– alas Shrub is at an advantage since that’s the only brain he’s got.

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