Fareed Zakaria- Bush...lays out vision...ignores reality

[Rose Siding]

The Democrats could take a lesson or two from President George W. Bush. The president gave a superb speech accepting the Republican nomination. He has come to deliver formal speeches with confidence and poise, quite different from his normal clumsy, gaffe-prone speaking style. But its success was not simply stylistic. Bush's speech had a powerful central theme: the connection between the United States and the progress of liberty worldwide. He celebrated that link and rejoiced in its successes.
.............
Bush does not seem aware that the intense hostility toward him in every country in the world (save Israel) has made it very difficult for the United States to be the agent of freedom. In every Arab country that I have been to in the last two years, the liberals, reformers and businessmen say, "Please don't support us. American support today is the kiss of death."

The Republican convention had two alternating approaches toward foreigners. On the one hand, it repeatedly ridiculed them. The cheapest applause lines in New York last week were ones that ended in "the French," "Paris" or, worst of all, "the United Nations," which was probably meant to conjure up images of envious Third Worlders plotting against America. On the other hand, Republicans constantly declared they were going to deliver the blessings of liberty to the far corners of the world. This is the party's dilemma -- it wishes to spread liberty to people whom it doesn't really like.

http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/ezak8_20040908.htm

[shrike]

1. "it wishes to spread liberty to people whom it doesn't really like"

that pretty much sums up the republicans I know.

[ixion]

2. keyword is 'liberty'... the neocon definition is much different than what

is traditionally accepted.

'liberty', according to the neocons, is the privilege of having Pax Americana add you to the 'coalition of the willing'.

[teryang]

3. Straussian literature- foreigners have no rights

and lies are permissable in the manipulation and dominance of foreign and domestic audiences. The foreign audiences because they don't have rights and the domestic audience because it's for their own good. In the latter sense, it is similar to Leninism in its elitist approach. In the former, it is the result of the traumatic influence of fascism which is often confused with "being realistic about the realities of power."