Both George Bush and Barack Obama believe in freedom.

[NinetySix]

No, I'm not trying to be conciliatory or diplomatic.

George Bush believes in a particular species of freedom. As an example, let's say I'm the Pharoah of Egypt. I don't like the look of you. I don't like what I perceive to be your unseemly lack of deference to me. You've done nothing specifically wrong, committed no transgression, but your existence offends me for some reason. I just can't put my finger on it. Oh well. Guards! Dispatch this miserable wretch immediately. I'm the Pharoah, after all. I have nothing but freedom. It takes the form of privilege. This is the kind of freedom that George Bush means every time he utters the word. It's the kind of freedom he's struggled all his political career to further. It is the kind Bush loves because it is the only kind of freedom that he has ever known.

Barack Obama, to my great delight, explicitly spelled out the meaning of his species of freedom in his inauguration speech. He stressed equality. Egalitarians ALWAYS require the aspect of equality as the foundation of freedom, and in this form it is known as Liberty.

Don't doubt that both of them love freedom. And know that Bush expects his form of freedom (privilege) to exempt him from another, vital aspect of Obama's (and our) preferred variety: responsibility.

Just hope and pray that one of the first acts of this new Administration is to provide the equality that has been so lacking in the former president by holding him to his requisite portion of responsibility.

[niyad]

1. when I heard about his "freedom institute" this morning, I almost spit out my coffee

[NinetySix]

3. He means it!

When he talks about the Ownership Society, he is talking about the privileged owning everything, essentially making us all serfs by stealing the commons. When he invaded Iraq, he ensured that freedom would reign by turnung everything in the whole godforsaken country over to the corporations.

I have no doubt that the Freedom Institute will continue his visionary project. The goal? A counterrevolution against the American project of "The World Turned Upside Down."

Once the commoners are all back in their place, with the noble elite in theirs (bestowed by Divine Right), all will once again be right with the world, in their view.

[louis-t]

2. I always felt like stupid hijacked those words.

When he spoke them, it was to SELL something rather than because he actually had respect for the concepts.

[NinetySix]

4. If by "sell" you mean "swindle," then you've got it spot on.

The American people, the electorate, would never have cast so many votes for him if he had spoken honestly and straightforwardly about his vision for the country. He knew that, "If I really say it, The radio won't play it." That's why he talked about the "fairness" of his proposed tax cuts on the top marginal rates in terms of percentages during the 2000 election. it was more than just a convenient elision when he glossed over the fact that a) the rich pay their taxes out of the gravy, b) the middle class pay theirs out of their hopes and aspirations for themselves and their children, and c) the poor pay theirs out of their hides. It was deliberate deception. Privilege will brook no impediment, legal, moral, or otherwise, in acheiving its goals.