How To Beat Bush

[indigobusiness]

Liberal and Conservative are terms that are thrown around around without much significance or insight. Norman Mailer discusses his perspective on conservatism and defines Bush as a 'flag conservative'.

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/rnc/9574/index2.html

I’ve been saying for a couple of years that Bush is not a conservative. He’s what I call a flag conservative, a Flag-Con. He’s not as interested in conservative values as in empire-building. The classic conservative, someone like Pat Buchanan or, to a more complicated degree, Bill Buckley, does believe that certain values in society must be maintained. The classic conservative believes in stability. You make changes grudgingly and with a great deal of prudence. Don’t move too quickly, is the rule of thumb, because society, as they see it, is essentially a set of compromises and imbalances that can be kept going only by wisdom and, to use the word again, prudence. So you don’t go off in wild, brand-new directions. None of this characterizes Bush. As a Flag-Con, he is surrounded by the tycoons of the oil industry, plus neoconservatives, plus gung-ho militarists who believe that since we’ve created the greatest fighting machine in the history of the world, it’s a real shame not to use it.

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How to Beat Bush...

(This is a great read!)

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/rnc/9574/index2.html

[Dancing_Dave]

1. Now go back and read "The Armies of the Night"

Norman Mailer is a truely insightful guy...even now that he's over 80! Right now I'm re-reading "The Armies of the Night", which is Mailer's account of a major protest against the Vietnam War that occured by the Pentagon in 1967. Just AMAZING.

[soupkitchen]

3. I haven't read it in quite awhile, but remember it as being right on

[LiberalVoice]

2. All I can say about the entire conversation is...

Wow.

He is so poetic..

[indigobusiness]

4. Ain't it so?

Calling Bushco 'shallow as spit on a rock'...well, that slew me.

[volosong]

5. New Anti-Bush Slogans

Kerry-Edwards The Right Stuff

Kerry-Edwards Right, Not Radical

George Bush - More Flop than Flip

Vets for Kerry-Edwards - The Army of the Future

Geo. Bush - Terror in the Heartland

[indigobusiness]

7. Good ones, Volosong

Welcome to DU.

[newyawker99]

8. Hi volosong!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[indigobusiness]

6. This part is scary...

NM To win this war will take at least 50 years and a profound revolution in American values. We’d have to get away from manipulation. What we’ve got now is a species of economic, political, and spiritual brainwashing, vastly superior to the old Soviets, who were endlessly crude in their attempts. Our governmental and corporate leaders are much more subtle. Remember years ago, when you were around 15, you were wearing a shirt that said stüssy on it? And I said, “Not only do you spend money to buy the shirt, but you also advertise the company that sold it to you.” And you said, “Dad, you just don’t get it.” All right, you were right, I didn’t get it. But now, I notice, you don’t wear logos on your shirts.


JBM I try my best not to. It’s hard to find a shirt that doesn’t have a logo these days.


NM There’s one more point I’d like to make. I don’t sneer at people who enter protest movements. At the least, it can be good or even necessary for their personal development. But I would like these kids to disabuse themselves of the idea that they are going to have some immediate, exciting political effect. If they have any, it could be negative. And if Bush wins, we’re a most divided nation. Kerry can put it together better than Bush. Bush can’t solve any of our problems. He never was able to. That may be the main reason he looked to empire-building. He had nothing to offer but world conquest. So, if he’s reelected, what will he do if things remain bad in Iraq? You’ll look back on the Patriot Act as being liberal and gentle.

[Dancing_Dave]

9. Norman Mailer Actually Seems to have Mellowed Out ...

Since he wrote "The Armies of the Night". The word "peaceful" is very rarely used in that book even though it's about an anti-war demonstration. Norman Mailer came off there as a wisened old WWII vet with perceptive and sceptical sense of humor. And he was most especially sceptical about the Vietnam War and he was willing to get thrown in jail along with the hippies just to prove to everyone that it was not JUST young hippies who were completely against the war!

I've heard a similar tone from some Vietnam vets who showed up at anti-Iraq war events. Bring our boys home out of that hell.

Now this new piece by Norman Mailer, it's extremely intelligent like always. Who he is most directly addressing is young people who are going to protest the RNC in New York. He say's you're invovled in a noble long term struggle and this is great for YOU to do, but try not to create something that the corporate media and the Republicans can spin into looking like a riot. No matter how they bait you, try not to make this into something that could be twisted around to the benefit of this terrible and disasterous Bush Administration.

[indigobusiness]

10. He has mellowed with age

but still sharp as a razor.

Interesting insight, thanks.

[Zen Democrat]

11. Mailer kind of lost me with his "Oswald acted alone" book. n/t

[indigobusiness]

13. What was he thinking?

Nobody's perfect.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. How To Beat Bush - just let the bastard keep up his

shit for another 2 months. "Good Progess" will speak for itself.

[indigobusiness]

14. The enduring support of *

bodes ill for America...and speaks volumns to the argument that it has lost its way. What a waste of so much promise.