But after having wallowed in our fear these last five years, maybe what we need next are leaders who will raise us above it. The one man who taught us better than any other to conquer fear was no Governor Terminator. His muscles were unimpressive. He had no physical swagger to him at all. His military experience was a desk job. He wore no cowboy gear. He smoked cigarettes not like a Marlboro Man but filtered through a slender, feminine holder that could have been a prop from the Follies Bergere. He didn’t promise to protect us. He made us believe we could protect ourselves -- from the violence of fascism and the vicissitudes of capitalism alike. And he handed us the tools to do the job. We built the better part of the American century on the back of an aristocratic, polio-addled cripple. Now that was a man.It's interesting what motivates people, and how bright people exploit it. I suspect there are a number of people I know that were politically influenced by the idea that George Bush has a pair of balls. Somehow John Kerry, even though he did actually serve in combat and was wounded, had smaller balls.
But the essential argument, once again like it always does, comes down to the fact that Americans are really fucking stupid people.
It's not really so easy to pin down the one central cause that changed our nation from a place where an effete man in a wheel chair could lead a victorious nation in the greatest war the world has ever witnessed, to a place where a complete idiot wins elections just so long as he clears brush, and wears a flight suit like a man. Stephen Colbert was right. Bush could stand on rubble and use a bullhorn.
There are hundreds.. thousands.. millions of reasons why we need the perception of a father figure in office. Even Hollywood has played it's part. Who wouldn't want a masculine badass like the Terminator as governor?
Which of course all goes back to the idea that conservatives are idiots. Not like "idiots" in the sense that I just think they're wrong. I'm speaking of "idiots" in the sense that they are simply dumb people. Liberal and progressives recognize that it's not the size of the dick on the president. It doesn't matter if he says "dead or alive". What matters is substance, intellect, wisdom, judgment. Certainly the man in the wheelchair humiliates the chest thumping gorilla.
It must suck for him if he knows it..
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