US politics

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bigotry, Civil liberties, US politics
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Ampersand is furious:

There’s no way a white person would have been shot the way James Perez (or Kendra James before him, or Jose Poot before her) was shot. And if by some miracle a white person was shot on a pretext pull-over, there’s no way the Portland DA’s office would cheat the grand jury system to make sure that the cops were spared the discomfort of a trial. And if that did happen, the mainstream papers would at least report it.

Mike Schrunk and his boss John Bradley looked at the color of the victim’s skin and said, “screw it! Blacks aren’t human; the shooting of an unarmed black person doesn’t require a trial, because black lives aren’t worth that much.” A hundred years ago Schrunk and Bradley would have gotten their rocks off participating in lynch mobs, but since they can’t have that pleasure nowadays, they have to settle for gaming the justice system to make it legal for cops to shoot blacks.

It drives me up a wall that Schrunk and Bradley are still being treated with respect. Why aren’t they spit on by every decent person, everywhere they go? Why aren’t they turned away from restaurants and stores? Why aren’t their houses and cars vandalized every day? Why isn’t the mayor – or any of the folks running for mayor – calling for them to resign or be thrown out of office?

The fake patriotism of Bush apologists

Manufacturing consent, US politics
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Crooked Timber has two posts up about
Ann Coulter and Mark Steyn’s smears against Max Cleland, one by Ted Barlow and
a followup by Chris Bertram.
Both drew a lot of Bush and Coulter apologists trying to excuse the smears; reading them made me think about how Bush and co use patriotism.

What I (once again) realised is that Bush and his apologists for the most part only use patriotism as a political weapon, rather than being genuinely patriotic. A genuine patriot would respect Cleland for going to war for their country and would respect him even more so for the sacrifices he made by doing so: the loss of three of his limbs. Genuine patriots would not belittle these sacrifises in order to glorify their own side.

But clearly, this is what Bush and co have been doing. Bush and very many of his cronies have never had to make the same sacrifices as Cleland made and in fact have gone out of their way to avoid having to do so. At the same time, they have also gone out of their way in creating the image of Bush the uberpatriot, while bludgeoning political opponents with it.

Which is why John Kerry and Max Cleland are so dangerous to Bush now. Because they have made sacrifices and their patriotism is more than skindeep. Because they’ve learned their lesson
when Cleland lost the Georgia senatorial election in 2002 when he was smeared as anti-American.
Kerry and Cleland know that Bush will again try this strategy and as recent events have shown, they are ready for it.

The fake patriotism of Bush apologists

Media, US politics, Wingnuts
Published on

Crooked Timber has two posts up about Ann Coulter and Mark Steyn’s smears against Max Cleland, one by Ted Barlow and a followup by Chris Bertram. Both drew a lot of Bush and Coulter apologists trying to excuse the smears; reading them made me think about how Bush and co use patriotism.

What I (once again) realised is that Bush and his apologists for the most part only use patriotism as a political weapon, rather than being genuinely patriotic. A genuine patriot would respect Cleland for going to war for their country and would respect him even more so for the sacrifices he made by doing so: the loss of three of his limbs. Genuine patriots would not belittle these sacrifises in order to glorify their own side.

But clearly, this is what Bush and co have been doing. Bush and very many of his cronies have never had to make the same sacrifices as Cleland made and in fact have gone out of their way to avoid having to do so. At the same time, they have also gone out of their way in creating the image of Bush the uberpatriot, while bludgeoning political opponents with it.

Which is why John Kerry and Max Cleland are so dangerous to Bush now. Because they have made sacrifices and their patriotism is more than skindeep. Because they’ve learned their lesson when Cleland lost the Georgia senatorial election in 2002 when he was smeared as anti-American. Kerry and Cleland know that Bush will again try this strategy and as recent events have shown, they are ready for it.