One Man's Storm is another Man's Stab in the Back

MyDD :: The 'Blame-Firsters' Start the Stabbed in the Back Narrative: Rush Limbaugh: "This Haditha story, this Haditha incident, whatever, this is it folks, this is the final big push on behalf of the Democratic Party, the American left, and the Drive-By Media to destroy our effort to win the war in Iraq. That's what Haditha represents -- and they are going about it gleefully. They are ecstatic about it... Folks, let me just put it in graphic terms. It is going to be a gang rape. There is going to be a gang rape by the Democratic Party, the American left and the Drive-By Media, to finally take us out in the war against Iraq. Make no bones about it. "

This blog has been a sundry attempt to occasionally chronicle the rhetorical anticipation of the consequences of ill-advised Republican policies. Politics is partly drama, from which the body politic, as observer, draws moral lessons. Bush has pursued policies, which are inadvisable on many levels, not least of which are the inevitable political and moral consequences for the nation, but it is never clear what conclusions a largely ignorant and inattentive electorate will draw from events, as they happen. Proximity counts for more in politics, than actual cause-and-effect.

Bush and the Republicans have been quite deliberate in adopting policies, which do not have immediately catastrophic consequences. The timing of tax cuts, in particular, was conspicuous in putting off the greatest consequences for 2009 and later. Ditto for the Bush proposals on Social Security. The prosecution of the War in Iraq has become a holding action; with no clear endpoint in sight, the objective appears to be to keep a weak Iraqi government on a knife's edge, where they cannot afford to ask us to leave.

If the Republicans have miscalculated, and one or more catastrophes visit the U.S., while Bush is still in the White House, Bush may be blamed. The Right-Wing is ready with narratives, which will displace blame, for whatever is coming.

One such narrative is the idea that Bush is a liberal. (Don't laugh.) That's right, Bush is not a true, blue conservative, and his policies were actually liberal policies, so his failures should be blamed on the liberals.

The other narrative is that Bush's failures are not his fault, but rather the fault of the liberal Media and the powerless Democrats, who have made him fail in Iraq, by reporting that failure and criticizing his destructive policies.

It is weird, but it might work.