Battered America Syndrome

It's occured to me that there is a reason America is in the sad and sorry shape it is today. Why is it that we can't shake-off juvenile "Cut and Run" antics of the right-wing, even when they are undermined by one of the President's own primary war archetects - Gen Casey?

From a logical standpoint, the Bush Administration and Republican Congress have done everything wrong. They were wrong to not to intervene when Enron and other energy companies were gutting California, wrong to ignore Al Qaeda, wrong to blame Saddam Hussein for 9/11 by linking him to Bin Laden, wrong to claim he had Nuclear and Biological Weapons programs, wrong to invade a sovereign nation on false pretenses, wrong to ignore the insurgency, wrong to violate the Geneva Conventions, wrong to spy on Americans without a warrant or probable cause, wrong to fail to leave Iraq when everyone from the American people, the Iraqi people and Iraqi government clearly want them to, wrong to ignore the pre-Katrina warnings, wrong to claim that Intelligent Design is "science", wrong to lie to the American people, wrong on the environment and Global Warming, wrong on voting rights, wrong about Terri Schiavo, wrong on Gay Marriage, wrong on Flag-Burning, wrong to try and prosecute journalists for speaking the truth, and wrong to teach our children that sexual ignorance is preferrable to sexual safety and responsibility.

They're batting 0 for 20.

But for some odd reason they aren't on the political ropes. For some odd reason Democrats and people of good common sense can't seem to make the case that these people can't be trusted to run a Quiky-Mart, let alone our government. We're like the repeatedly battered and abused spouse that after years of attacks and degradation just can't bring themselves to cut the strings.

We're suffering from Battered America Syndrome.

From Gail on Common Dreams:

Your man is no good. He treats you like crap, lies to you, abuses you, bullies you, exploits you, takes your money. As a friend I want to tell you that you deserve better. You deserve a person that treats you with respect, cares about your welfare, and your children’s welfare, but that’s not George and it never will be.

Do you tell yourself that he’ll stop, or that it won’t get worse? He won’t ever stop, every insult, injury and death he has caused are a line that once crossed will never be uncrossed. Forget the dream. You will never have the American dream with George. You have to forget about what might have been, what George might have been, and realise that at the end of the day you are what you do, and look at George’s track record.

YOU CAN DO BETTER! You are an amazing country, beautiful, interesting, funny, positively glamorous, you wouldn’t stay single for five minutes, you know that suitors would be competing for your affections and any one of them would be ten times better than George. And how can you stand his god-awful Stepford’s answer to Marie-Antoinette mother, piping up with another casual atrocity every time she opens her mouth.

But the truth is the abuse isn't going to stop, even if we do divorce George. George himself isn't the problem. He's not the only wingbat in this marriage. What do we do about Cheney? Rumsfeld? Frist? Sensenbrener? Not to mention the endless parade of teeth or over-stylized hair on Faux News that keeps telling so many of us that "staying the course" (to Hell!) is our only viable choice? From O'Reilly to Gibson, Hannity, Coulter and Malkin the refain is the same: Stay with us because those evil, godless, traitorous F-ing LIBERALS are out there, ready to pounce on you and our unsuspecting children, teaching them not to respect their elders, and that they don't have give their lives for a pointless, endlessly stupid, arrogant war.

Those Liberals teach them that they have rights, and stuff. No, no the Daddy party can't have that. This is DADDY's house.

Just look how these people behave, with their constant, even pavlovian Liberal Bashing. They don't miss a single oppurtunity to throw a verbal punch or jab, making sure that any Liberal is far too stunned and shell-shocked from the barage to respond. And if they do try to respond, they either cut them off in mid-sentence or start calling them names. They're the school-yard bully - all grown up and sophisticated, smarmy and chummy - but still a bully. They smile as they pummel and batter the kids, the neighbors, our friends, and we just sit back and let it happen. Hands on our laps, powerless.

Why? Because the truth is we're addicted to this bullshit.

No, I don't mean you - I don't mean the progressives, centrist, liberals and ex-conservatives who've finally began to see the light and now openly converse on places like this. I mean Joe and Janine Six-Pack.

They like the idea of having a Strong Protector as head of the household. Oh sure, they look the other way everytime Daddy has a little daliance with Jack Abramoff, Armstrong Williams, Gannon/Guckert and all those sex laborers in the Mariana's Islands. Daddy always comes back home. Daddy takes care of them. A little foundation does wonders for those bruise marks.

In the end, this abuse is secretly what they want. "Daddy beats on those dirty Liberal-Hippie-Faggots-Niggers and Camel-Jockey's worse than he beats on me" and they like that just fine. It makes them feel safe, wrapped in a cumfy cocoon of paranoia.

Meanwhile Democrats in congress are walking around punch-drunk, trying to figure out what happened to the nice, reasonable boyfriend they used to have living across the aisle. Sure, they had their rough edges - but they could always at least talk to them. They think if they just hang in their they can work it all out.

"Oh, George isn't all that bad, you just have to get to know him..."

But that's a crock. We do know him, and it's all "Cut and Run" and "Party of Death" from here on out. Bushco isn't going to play nice, ever. And it's well past time we reached that moment of clarity, that moment where we finally realize that Daddy is an Asshole. He's a Hater. A Racist. A Homophobe. A Xenophobe. Daddy doesn't give a shit about you, he just wants you to roll-over so he can ass-fuck some more tax-cuts for himself and his cronies out of you.

And all his friends are Dickheads too.

They have to go, each and every one of them. It won't be easy, they've got their hooks into everything. But they have to go.

One by one.

It's the only way to protect the children - and their children.

Vyan