President Bush had intelligence information in advance of 9/11 that clearly and plainly warned of a plot by al Qaeda to attack America. He was told that they might use airplanes and that an attack was imminent. And he dismissed all of it and even belittled an agent who brought him information, saying, “Alright, you’ve covered your ass”. How interesting that Bush’s thinking process was about ass covering, rather than protecting and defending America.
That he didn’t read his briefings and dismissed critical national security information merely provides more examples of his lifelong unwillingness to learn. Some are dedicated to ignorance. That’s not shocking. Here’s what is.
After over 2,800 of our countrymen and scores of foreign nationals were killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania, Bush and Cheney actually told us that they had protected America from terrorist attacks. Yet not even that oft-repeated lie was not what was most shocking. The truly shocking part is that the majority of Americans believed them. How gullible are we?
They told us that they didn’t authorize torture. Yet on February 14, 2010, the former Vice President admitted in an interview that he did authorize torture and that he had directed his aides to manipulate the legal issues so that he could get away with it. Before that, though, he told the lie that, “America doesn’t torture,” even after it was public knowledge that prisoners who had been convicted of nothing at all were being waterboarded, something that has been recognized as torture since the Spanish Inquisition. And the majority of us bought the lies. How gullible are we?
Dick Armey, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty are high on their Tea Bagging fantasies. They’re playing on peoples’ sensibilities, demanding small government and low taxes and they rally their true believers in hatred of anything that isn’t them, which attracts a generous sampling of white supremacist groups and immigrant and gay haters. Disappointingly, mainstream Republicans are sucking up to these extremists for fear of losing a few votes. That’s because what is important to them is staying in power, not what’s best for America.
Many people buy the extremist arguments, talking about the stimulus package as though there would be no adverse impact of doing things differently. But there would be.
If we end the stimulus, the programs that the money would have funded will end. People will lose their jobs, as will all the people who make the things those then-unemployed folks would have purchased. It’s a multiplier effect of job losses.
So, let’s try a little test of their dedication to the Tea Bag. We’ll get a bunch of Tea Baggers together and ask to see a show of hands of everyone who is willing to lose his or her job so that we can shrink the size of government and lower taxes for everyone. Note that we’ll want to do our very best work at minimizing government, so we won’t supply any unemployment benefits to them. Do you think anyone will raise a hand? Likely not, but hundreds of thousands of Americans are having temper tantrums over government spending anyway. How gullible are we?
178 Republican representatives voted against the stimulus package. That’s all of the Republican representatives. At least 111 of the NO voters have gone home to their districts and smiled at ribbon cutting ceremonies and at the handing out of oversized checks, bragging about the jobs that will be generated for their constituents because of the stimulus money they brought with them. They were proud to bring home the bacon, this from a bill they voted against. And most of those hypocrites will be reelected. How gullible are we?
Democracy requires an enlightened citizenry, Thomas Jefferson told us. Unfortunately, those with the loud megaphones are interested only in themselves and their power, so they play us by filling our ears with lies and misinformation. They manipulate us and play us for fools.
One last time: Just how gullible are we?
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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