A long time ago, I followed my best friend, after an emotionally traumatic episode for her, to a highly successful Evangelical church. In our impressionistic youth, we were swept up in the mania. The fire and brimstone sermons were tremendously comforting in painting a Black and White Universe, where walking in the middle of the road amount to walking with Evil. In other words, there is only Absolute Good, i.e. God and the Evangelical Church, even the other "moderate" Christian or Catholic churches are really aligned with Evil in their refusal to "draw the line", imagine what they preach about Islam. I shudder to think how we could have been so easily brainwashed - we were among the brightest at a highly prestigious 100 year old academy and we prided ourselves on our knowledge of other languages, literature and cultures. My intelligent and compassionate best friend remains a staunch Christian but I have thankfully snapped out of the stupor and now, trust reality in lieu of blind faith. She is still trying to "save" me to this day. I just want to reiterate that having experienced this mind-altering experience of being "born-again", I can only testify to its unfathomable power at eradicating all doubts and instilling trust in nothing and no one except that which is dispensed by the Evangelical Church. I'd go as far as comparing it to an all-consuming, destructive religious cult, and propose a de-programming of its rabid followers. Evangelicals despise "doing good", instead, they are obsessed with battling Evil and the End-Times when they ascend to heaven while all others burn in the lake of fire. I can understand why George Bush thinks and acts the way he does as a "born-again" Christian, on top of his numerous other intellectual and personality flaws. Of course he is aware of the neo-con agenda, but what consumes and obsesses him is the Evil he sees everywhere. That is his transcendental epic struggle and historic burden.

Bush has no gut, and he's not stubborn or strong-willed. He's just too lazy to change his mind.

Personally, I believe that W is motivated by Dick Cheney. It's really as simple and awful as that.

The Republicans hope Fred Thompson is the new Reagan. He is.

Ignorant, bigoted, living in the past and obsessed with military power and his own importance. He will march courageously and with utter conviction back into the dark ages. What more could they ask for?

Glenn Greenwald, I just want to say how very grateful I am that you are on this planet, in this country, writing what you write, at this time in our history.

During most of his first term, at least, I referred to Bush as the presidential spokesmodel, since Cheney was so clearly controlling the agenda.

Cheney's still there ... pulling reins and chains ... Condi's star has risen ... then Cheney knocks her down ... most recently this Gitmo fiasco ...

Cheney still trumps EVERYONE as far as I can see. Bush's job is to deliver whatever message he's given and act "presidential" -- he's not very good at either.

George Bush can be explained by his audience.He is a an actor , personal motives unimportant but whose purpose is to deliver increased power and wealth to a priviliged group..With the help of Karl Rove , a cowed media,billions of dollars for powerful and nuanced public relations campaign his handlers have pushed a previously apathetic,slightly irritated populace into rabid polarization.He is truly Chauncy Gardner("Being There" with Peter Sellers) and the American public the stooges.

Folks - its every one of us who has sought to make nice instead of jumping into a spirited discussion at the dinner table,shrugged glibly at hurtful media, and every one of us who has thought who am I ?.It is in our prefernce for big screen tv and sports instead of books and citizen action.He and his have worked that angle to make that appear the norm and anything else suspicious and unpatriotic.Real men kick butt for other real men..He has positioned those in power as victims!

For far too long Americans including myself have thought of democracy as voting every election.The 2001 election has made that view woefully laughable.

Who gives a shit what 'really' motivates George W. Bush? We cannot know, and anyway, in a country of 300 million, people like him are bound to exist.

The important question here is this: what kind of country elevates such a man to power not just once, but twice?

Tony Blair has always been much better able to express the "Good v Evil" duality than Mr. Bush, who generally mangles it when speaking ex tempore and whose speechwriters often go on excessively baroque flights of fancy in trying to make the case that they -- whomever -- are Evil, whereas we -- meaning ultimately an inner circle, a cabal as it were, surrounding Bush himself -- are Good.

Bush himself, though, has always struck me as an "Us v Them" dualist in the sense of a fratboy or neighborhood badboy who is trying to stir up some kind of trouble or mischief for his personal amusement (first and foremost), by inducing others to fight, or by "fighting" (ie: brutalizing) the weakest among the boys -- and inducing others to do likewise.

Cheney has a kind of reptilian pragmatic view of what's necessary at any given moment to prevail. That appears to be his sole objective, regardless of anything else, and he routinely takes it to a pathological stage of transparent mendacity. It's an amazing thing to observe. Which is one reason why he so often gets away with it: hard to believe that anyone would be such a single minded liar and be in such a powerful position... but there you are. Breathtaking.

Neo-cons, Busheviks, of course use Good v Evil cant and rhetoric for their own nefarious purposes, primaily their so far astonishingly successful seizure of and utilization of governmental power toward the implementation of totalitarian control domestically and imperial authority abroad. Don't get me wrong, however. The Busheviks' power-grab has been successful, not so much the implementation of totalitarian and imperial grandeur. They hold the power -- still almost unchallenged -- but they're terrible at operating its levers.

By casting their efforts as Good v Evil (which sometimes Bush is able to almost convincingly do himself), Americans (and Other English Speaking Peoples) are supposed to be induced to go along with it -- when they aren't wildly supportive.

In fact, it hasn't worked out so well.

The People (English speaking peoples in general) are not going along with it, certainly have never been wildly supportive, and the only thing that keeps this trainwreck going is the fact that The People haven't risen up anywhere in the English Speaking World.

So that becomes the bar: if The People are not in active rebellion against their rulers, then the Project is Successful. (What did Cheney call the Katrina Debacle? Ah yes, "The Katrina Exercise." Which he declared a "success."

http://www.fnewsmagazine.com/2005-oct/politics_2.html )

The People may not be assembling at the gates of the White House with pitchforks and torches, but they are not believing much of what their Rulers are telling them, either. The Moralistic Marketing Campaign has been a disaster. Worse, many of The People are observing that the Enemy (Evil) may have a point, that some of the things that We (The Good) have done may indeed have contributed to the bloody mess that constitutes World Conditions Today, and that continuing to do those things is making conditions worse, not better. The Moralism of the Marketing is causing a good deal of blowback as well: Moral judgement is being applied to the Bushevik regime, and they are being found wanting.

American "morals" are still bound up with investigations of and critiques of other people's sex lives, however. Mrs Grundy lives, and will no doubt always live in American culture. But the true awfulness of the Bushevik regime has forced Americans to attempt to expand their "moral" judgement beyond the bedrooms of others, so far with some promising and somewhat ironic results.

This may be due to the real naivete of the totalitarians and imperialists who are trying -- desperately -- to hold on to the power they successfully seized, while they try to figure out how to operate the mechanisms in their hands. They must keep The People at bay while they continue pushing this or that button in the hopes it's the right one. The Dualist Marketing Campaign has always worked before, and they naively believe that it will not be applied to them. But the problem is that it is being applied to them. So long as No One Who Matters is doing so, they feel safe enough. But once that dam is broken, there will be nothing to stop the deluge of righteous outrage.