Pure Politics: A thread about a better way in Politics

[Too Tall]

*This thread is a seed. Please share similar currents in politics which have a positive influence on our lives.

Georgie boo did something commendable the other day. He did not "own" anyone or speak for the sake of causing outrage. Mr. Bush talked to the world in a way that gave us options. You can think for yourself, even hold true your opinions out loud with respect to others held beliefs. Common politics is a sport not doubt about it and it is also a very serious play to gain your thoughts.
I offer this not to denigrate Politicals. This is how conversations are created which lead to better outcomes.


George W. Bush reminds us that Republicans once believed in democracy
https://wapo.st/3zcpEpX << The first 10 readers get it for free after that paywall yo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...ump-democracy/ << subscribers
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c49765...e-pennsylvania << full speech no paywall
WaPo excerpted:
In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson forecast that the young nation would “unite in common efforts for the common good” after the bitter election of 1800.
“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle,” he said in the new Senate chamber. “We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”
Americans have, at our best, upheld that creed over two centuries. We are all republicans. We are all democrats.
George W. Bush reminded us of those sacred ties in his magnificent speech Saturday

[holliscx]

Not meaning to put somebody's panties in a wad cut/pasting but here's an Opinion piece on ya boi in the NYT

George W. Bush 2021, Meet George W. Bush 2001

You can draw a straight line from the “war on terror” to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, from the state of exception that gave us mass surveillance, indefinite detention, extraordinary rendition and “enhanced interrogation” to the insurrectionist conviction that the only way to save America is to subvert it.

Or, as the journalist Spencer Ackerman writes in “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump,” “A war that never defined its enemy became an opportunity for the so-called MAGA coalition of white Americans to merge their grievances in an atmosphere of righteous emergency.” That impulse, he continues, “unlocked a panoply of authoritarian possibilities that extended far beyond the War on Terror, from stealing children to inciting a violent mob that attempted to overturn a presidential election.”

The “war on terror” eroded the institutions of American democracy and fed our most reactionary impulses. It set the stage for a new political movement with an old idea: that some Americans belong and some don’t; that some are “real” and some are not; that the people who are entitled to rule are a narrow, exclusive group.

It is with all of this in mind that I found it galling to watch George W. Bush speak on Saturday.

The former president helped commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11 with a speech in Shanksville, Pa., at a memorial service for the victims of Flight 93. He eulogized the dead, praised the heroism of the passengers and crew, and hailed the unity of the American people in the weeks and months after the attacks. He also spoke to recent events, condemning extremists and extremism at home and abroad.

“We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within,” Bush said. “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit. And it is our continuing duty to confront them.”

From there, Bush voiced his dismay at the stark polarization and rigid partisanship of modern American politics. “A malign force seems at work in our common life that turns every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures,” he said. “So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.”

Bush spoke as if he were just an observer, a concerned elder statesman who fears for the future of his country. But that’s nonsense. Bush was an active participant in the politics he now bemoans.

In 2002, Bush said that the Senate, then controlled by Democrats, was “not interested in the security of the American people.” In 2004, he made his opposition to same-sex marriage a centerpiece of his campaign, weaponizing anti-gay prejudice to mobilize his conservative supporters. Ahead of the 2006 midterm elections, he denounced the Democratic Party as “soft” on terrorism and unable to defend the United States.

And this is to say nothing of his allies in the conservative media, who treated disagreement over his wars and counterterrorism policies as tantamount to treason. Nor did his Republican Party hesitate to smear critics as disloyal or worse. “Some people are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists,” stated the Republican National Committee’s first ad of the 2004 presidential election.

Bush was noteworthy for the partisanship of his White House and the ruthlessness of his political tactics, for using the politics of fear to pound his opponents into submission. For turning, as he put it on Saturday, “every disagreement into an argument, and every argument into a clash of cultures.”

Bush won some praise on Saturday. A typical response came from Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian and frequent fixture of cable news, who said it was an “important speech.”

It is frankly maddening to see anyone treat the former president as if he has the moral authority to speak on extremism, division and the crises facing our democracy. His critique of the Trump movement is not wrong, but it is fatally undermined by his own conduct in office.

In his eight years as president, George W. Bush launched two destructive wars (including one on the basis of outright lies), embraced torture, radically expanded the power of the national security state and defended all of it by dividing the public into two camps. You were either with him or you were against him.

As much as he has been rehabilitated in the eyes of many Americans — as much as his defenders might want to separate him and his administration from Donald Trump — the truth is that Bush is one of the leading architects of our present crisis. We may not be able to hold him accountable, but we certainly shouldn’t forget his starring role in making this country more damaged and dysfunctional than it ought to be.

[Scott G.]

Meanwhile, Dan Quayle, has earned sobriquet "Defender of the Republic"

VP Pence called former VP Quayle to help him figure out what to do last Jan 6th.

From Rolling Stone...

During their conversation, Quayle said Pence had no wiggle room and told him to certify the election results. “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away,” Quayle told him.

“I know, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell Trump,” Pence responded. “But he really thinks he can. And there are other guys in there saying I’ve got this power.”

Pence then brought up Trump’s allegations of voter fraud and the lawsuits filed by Trump supporters in Arizona attempting to decertify Biden as the winner in the state. “Well, there’s some stuff out in Arizona,” Pence said to Quayle, who immediately shot him down.

“Mike, I live in Arizona,” Quayle said. “There’s nothing out here.”

[spopepro]

If we do dissociate the words from the past actions of the individual (which I agree with others is quite the labor to ask) the root problem can be found in again recalling the words of Jefferson and peers for guidance. The Nation* was founded on the tallest wave of the enlightenment; with the strongest underpinning being Jefferson's and peers belief that even in cases of disagreement white, landowning, educated men would be bound by the laws of nature to be rational and act in the overall greatest interest of the country and humanity**.

Much like Liszt and friends toiling under the shadow of Beethoven's bust on the piano, American leadership seems to continue to be crushed under the long shadow of the enlightenment. An era which ended 150 years ago. For me the culmination was watching Obama do his best impression of Hamlet--knowing the truth, seeing the walls close in and running around not actually *doing* anything but hoping enough people would notice and that the spirit of the enlightenment would compel fellow leaders to be rational and just. Hamlet is dead, so is the false king, and our constitutional republic appears to be on life support.

We live in an age of existentialism, of angst, dread, and despair. Our systems, loosely defined and expected to operate rationally by default have clearly shown humanity to not be primarily rational; happy to sell your tomorrow for personal pennies today. I don't think all hope is lost... but I do think we must stop looking for a renewal of a human condition we now know not to be true.



*using American exceptionalist language for emphasis
**again for assorted definitions of humanity


***Edit. That felt too heavy for a bike forum. For an interlude, the best video on the categorical imperative in existence:

[theflashunc]

George was always good at the soaring, folksy rhetoric.

But let's not let time diminish what was, until recently, an extremely ugly period in American political history, with a man who actively sought to oppose gay marriage, and who's ugliest campaign attack against his opponent in the 2004 election was to question the honesty and candor of a genuine war hero.

He's also a war criminal that needs to be in The Hague with Cheney and Rumsfeld. Instead he paints watercolors in Texas.

I'll give George and his speechwriters a tip of the hat. Always made good words. Compassionate conservatism was a great line. But deeds, not words.

[bigbill]

This is a tough assignment. I imagine that most of us are too busy to research a topic, post it, and defend it. In my perfect dreamworld, not the one where I have my own Mig-21, a person could present what they believe to a positive political story having researched the topic, and include references. In our busy world, we tend to find an opinion piece that best represents our personal views. I've never quite grasped the method of using an opinion to support an opinion. I like supported facts, not declared facts.

Our sixth President, John Quincy Adams was by all accounts a good president, but in his unselfish devotion to country, he served in The House after his time as president. Adams vehemently opposed the annexation of Texas as a slave state, fearing it would shift the balance of power to the agricultural, slave driven economy of the South. Adams' resolution in 1843:

Resolved, That by the constitution of the United States no
power is delegated to their congress, or to any department or
departments of their government, to affix to this union any
foreign state, or the people thereof. Resolved, That any at-
tempt of the government of the United States, by an act of
congress or by treaty, to annex to this union the republic of
Texas, or the people thereof, would be a violation of the constitution of the United States, null and void, and to which the
free states of this union and their people ought not to submit.

Adams could have retired to a quiet country life, but he put country first.

https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/...ontext=concomm

[bironi]

*This thread is a seed. Please share similar currents in politics which have a positive influence on our lives.

Georgie boo did something commendable the other day. He did not "own" anyone or speak for the sake of causing outrage. Mr. Bush talked to the world in a way that gave us options. You can think for yourself, even hold true your opinions out loud with respect to others held beliefs. Common politics is a sport not doubt about it and it is also a very serious play to gain your thoughts.
I offer this not to denigrate Politicals. This is how conversations are created which lead to better outcomes.


George W. Bush reminds us that Republicans once believed in democracy
https://wapo.st/3zcpEpX << The first 10 readers get it for free after that paywall yo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...ump-democracy/ << subscribers
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c49765...e-pennsylvania << full speech no paywall
WaPo excerpted:
In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson forecast that the young nation would “unite in common efforts for the common good” after the bitter election of 1800.
“Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle,” he said in the new Senate chamber. “We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”
Americans have, at our best, upheld that creed over two centuries. We are all republicans. We are all democrats.
George W. Bush reminded us of those sacred ties in his magnificent speech Saturday

Pure Politics:
A thread about a better way in politics.
Yeah, I can accept responses to what follows the colon.