Card says president sees America as a child needing a parent

[tuvor]

Card says president sees America as a child needing a parent
By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | September 2, 2004

NEW YORK -- White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said yesterday that President Bush views America as a ''10-year-old child" in need of the sort of protection provided by a parent.

Card's remark, criticized later by Democrat John F. Kerry's campaign as ''condescending," came in a speech to Republican delegates from Maine and Massachusetts that was threaded with references to Bush's role as protector of the country. Republicans have sounded that theme repeatedly at the GOP convention as they discuss the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq.

''It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said. ''I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children."

The comment underscored an argument put forth some by political pundits, such as MSNBC talk-show host Chris Matthews, that the Republican Party has cast itself as the ''daddy party."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/09/02/card_says_bush_sees_us_as_a_child_needing_a_parent/

Oh, good. He thinks of you guys like Jenna and Barbara.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. Pretty much how America sees the 'President'.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. I want a parental divorce.

:puke:

[Journeyman]

3. Oh, lord, and now he's playing he's a grown-up . . .

'Poppy' must've left his shoes and jacket on the chair last night and the lil' boy's playing dress-up again.

[Gloria]

4. Do they mean a "stupid child" ? This is the most insulting thing I've

ever heard....but not unexpected. They have always sneered at the American public...and the public is too stupid to know it........

[NMDemDist2]

5. who's your daddy?

[Sugarbleus]

6. LOL...if He is the daddy and we can look at his kids as an

example of his "fathering"...we be in deep doo doo...

[tuvor]

7. At least it looks like Kerry's responding quickly and not pulling punches.

[still_one]

8. yeah, well this parent molested us!!!

[alfredo]

9. That is how a dictator sees his subjects

A democracy assumes the people are adults, fully able to understand the issues and act on those issues.

In a a dictatorship, the people are like children that have to be told what is good for them.

Bush did say he wants to be the dictator.

[Swamp Rat]

13. You broke it down to the essential elements. How about this?

Dictator is to subjects
as
Father is to children.

[alfredo]

19. yep

We can't say were weren't warned.

[Odd Little Man]

10. If Bush is everybody's daddy,

he should be arrested for child abuse

[Judi Lynn]

11. So Andrew Card has taken up a sub-career in publically protecting Bush now

Bless his heart. He's out to tell us all what we saw in the film showing him sitting on his ### in the classroom while the towers burned.(((spin))) & ((((re-spin)))).

Further praise piled on the pResident:

''He has walked into a room, where a soldier tries to stand, to pay respect to the president," Card said, ''but he doesn't have any legs, to give an officer's salute, but he doesn't have any arms. And the president leans over and everyone stands at attention, and as the president presents a Purple Heart, tears flow.

''And I can honestly say that never once have I seen a situation where a soldier or a Marine or a sailor or an airman didn't say, 'Thank you for the privilege of serving, Mr. President, and I'm anxious to get back to help my comrades.' "
(snip/...)

Yeah, I know how much respect they have for men who have sacrificed so much. You have the obvious example in what they did to Max Cleland.

[TexasSissy]

12. Do I have to sit on his lap?

:puke:

[baby_bear]

15. Only when he is reading "My Pet Goat"

The concept of W as a father figure is so idiotic that it probably made even the twins laugh out loud (in their way).

eyes roll

s_m

[Swamp Rat]

14. They are telling us that this is a dictatorship.

What card really said: ''I know as a dictator I would sacrifice all my children."

This is the slow creep to a total fascist state. Little by little Bush&Co are telling us who they are and what they are going to do, yet we remain like deer in the headlights. If Bush retains power, this country, we citizens, this website will no longer be as it is now - free.

[Entente]

17. Cheney reminds me of Danny Devito's Penguin

When he was giving his speech at the convention I was thinking who does he remind me of. Even the way he was standing was familiar. And then it dawned on me. Watch the Batman movie and you'll see.

[Swamp Rat]

23. HAHAHA!

I couldn't stomach watching the RNC, so I never would have made that connection. Thanks for the laugh.

Too bad he just doesn't do this:

[shockingelk]

25. LOL

That picture gave be the best laugh I've had in a while.

[Entente]

16. Disgusting Father

Yuck!!!

[burrowowl]

18. Unfortunately

many repug sheeple use the argument he is like a father and doesn't need to tell us everything since parents for the good of their children don't tell them everything.... :puke:
It makes you wonder what part of democracy they don't undersand.

[goclark]

20. Bush ain't my daddy!

And who in the hell does Card think he is to us, our uncle Andyh?
He is not my Uncle Andy!

He better take a good look at his real child,the Chimp.Take a look at the video of Boy NoWonder reading the Pet Goat Story. You even had to come and tell him that the sky was falling and he didn't even move. You should tell your little nephew to stop looking at the pictures and laughing at the words in a 1st grade Primer.

While you're at it, tell your nephew that HE should be the Child Left Behind! Everyone else in that 2nd grade class was smarter than he was that day and this day.

How insulting can these people be?

[Dem2theMax]

21. -handing out the barf bags-

"It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said. "I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children." :puke:

OK, if * really feels this way, let HIM go to Iraq for all of his 'children.' Card can go with him. And heck, let Rummy, Rice, Powell, Ashcroft and oh, Cheney, he's never had the pleasure of the experience of war, let him go too. And no, they can't have bullet proof vest, or any other equipment that *'s 'children' were forced to do without, because of him. :mad:

[mark414]

22. well um...dad?

can i get my allowance back? ever since that saddam guy came into the picture you cut it off, and i have a really hard time financially and socially, cause no one wants to date a broke ass.

[Toucano]

24. Creepy - Al Franken put it similarly.

Al said the right loves America like a four year old loves his or her parent. We love America like a grown-up.

Card just reversed the parent/child identities.

[Eurobabe]

26. Read George Lakoff's MORAL POLITICS

How Liberals and Conservatives Think. It's all laid out in here, this hijacking and exploiting of the 'moral' metaphor to the advantage of Repukes.

Like we all need to be told what to do. They can go cheney themselves.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

27. Bingo. Lakoff's 'Strong Father' worship of discipline instead of nurturing

(This essay hits the nail on the head. Be sure to read cognitive scientist George Lakoff's writing about the family as template for judgements of right and wrong on a national level.)
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml



The Good Parent
By John Cory
t r u t h o u t | Perspective Friday 03 September 2004

"It struck me as I was speaking to people in Bangor, Maine, that this president sees America as we think about a 10-year-old child," Card said. "I know as a parent I would sacrifice all for my children."
-- Andrew Card interview in Boston Globe


I came across the above quote this morning, and felt the pangs of my long ago childhood.
After watching the Zell Miller/Dick Cheney show last night, and hearing their vitriolic version of this campaign, I tried to figure out what Bush would say tonight, and then it hit me. The Miller/Cheney routine was the "bad parent-good parent" introduction, so Bush could show up in the role of the gentle understanding and kindly guardian. That's what this was all about.
I was not so much born into the great American family, but more or less left on its doorstep. I was a knock-around kid, passed through the welfare and foster home system until adoption. But that adoption was anything but salvation.
The old woman, who raised me for the next ten years, was a devoutly religious woman and respected citizen, who baked bread for sick neighbors and organized potluck dinners for mourning church members and their families during funeral occasions. She was also a dark disciplinarian with an absolute sense of right and wrong; a side that was never revealed to the outside world.
Her idea of discipline, would today qualify as criminal. In those days, it was a secret. And one of her favorite punishments for failing to live up to her standards or violating one of a multitude of life rules, was especially effective on a kid looking for a home.
Grades that were less than A+, childish lies about eating forbidden cookies, or just rowdy behavior, would incur the car trip at night. Loaded into the backseat of the gray Oldsmobile, I huddled on the floor, not allowed to look out the windows until she stopped the car.
Upon arrival at the secret destination, I was told to get out. Rolling down her window, the old woman scolded me for whatever sin I had committed. "If you can find your way back, I'll think about letting you in the house. But you have to learn to live by our rules and our standards. I can protect you from the world, but only if you adhere to what's right and good." And then she drove off.
I was nine years old, watching the taillights disappear into the darkness, in a neighborhood I didn't know, on a cold winter night street, in a frightening world.
Sometimes I fantasized, through tear-streaked eyes; picking a house whose mellow glowing light seemed to warm the darkness, that if I rang the doorbell, maybe they would love to have a boy like me. Maybe I wouldn't be lost and alone any more.
Of course, the old woman always returned, and warnings of how she was the only one who could protect me brought my promise to be good. Life went on until the next sin.
It would be years before I learned that real parents did not abuse or threaten to abandon their children. That there were parents who actually encouraged their children to go out into the world, and be rowdy, and bend the rules, and explore.
Watching and listening to this GOP convention and the Bush administration, reminds me of that long ago childhood. You're either with us, or against us. You either belong, or you don't. We'll give you all the love you deserve, as long as you earn it by doing what we say. The world is a dangerous place and only we can save you from yourself, and the evil that is out there. Anything less, well, you're on your own.
No matter what George Bush says in his speech tonight, the fear mongering and the self-righteous hypocrisy of the last three days echo across America.
And like that nine-year-old kid of long ago, I wonder if the warm light inside that Kerry house might have a place for a boy like me.

[bacchant]

28. Andrew Card is racked with guilt and groping for a philosophy to justify

his involvement in 911. There's a scene in F911 with film of Card in the car after as they prepare to leave the school. I remember thinking I'd never seen a guiltier looking man.

[Bluebear]

29. I grew up with one dysfunctional drunkard father, I don't need another.

nt

[demoman123]

32. Me too, and I second the motion. n/t

[moondust]

30. Don't need a 10-year-old daddy.

I'd suggest sending him back to finish 6th grade.

[MsConduct]

31. I only have one thing to say

GAG!

[kodi]

33. this, from a lying SOB whose own daddy rescued him whenever he failed

that is about the most repugnant thing i ever heard.

[Judi Lynn]

34. The longer you think about what this mutant said, the sicker you feel.

How dare he try to push people to feel personally touched by this piece of crap.

We need a President who can do his job well. PERIOD. We just don't have the time for fantasizing about our make-belief new pops, _{George Bush,} Arthur, you cretin.

These people are such failures psychologically, because they can't stick to real business and do things correctly. They are deeply disturbed. Why try to personalize _Bush?

If he had done his job, we would have been satisfied. He's simply not big enough (inwardly) for the job.


Don't play it again.

[Moderator]

35. Dupe... locking

Please continue discussion within the original LBN thread on this topic, which can be found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=796505

Thanks!

DU Moderator