So who wants the Empire tamed, and who wants it to end?

For some time, I suspected that one of the motivating reasons why moderates and significant numbers of liberals hated Bush so vehemently has less to do with his egregious policies (these, by and large, are mere exaggerations of those administered during the Clinton regime) than it does with the fact that the neo-conservatives finally exposed the American Empire. Whereas those vaunted Cold War liberals managed to buttress their war crimes with benevolent domestic visions--all the while feigning respect for the rule of law--these fanatics are threatening to bring the whole thing down. To use a cinematic allusion: we know the Corleone Family is better off under Michael; alas, for the time being, we're stuck with that thug Sonny.

I'll leave it to progressive writer Joe Bageant, who, in his essay "It Ain't Easy Being White," obviously puts this across with far greater success.


--snip--

For the time being at least, American liberalism has George Bush to blame for everything. And much the same as a zoo ape enjoys even negative attention, George Bush, peeling his lips back and mocking the crowd, is having the time of his life. But one of these days we will have to deal with the real reason middle class white American liberals hate Bush. Liberals hate Bush because he is a traitor to the white classes. Bush revealed the true face of American power and exposed it as the corrupt hoax it really is. He is a "cowboy" imperialist as opposed to the more acceptable kind---the Kennedy, Carter, Clinton type who conducted their dark little murders at the edge of the empire in secrecy while Americans wasted most of the worlds resources. The Anybody But Bush crowd would have approved the use of force against Iraq if it had been presented by a senator from a Blue State with a bullshit UN resolution, as opposed to a simple 'Yeeee-ha' from a retard frat-boy from Texas and overwhelming international revulsion. Either way, the ruling political and corporate elites still maintain their privileges and status. The ABB movement was not about stripping anyone of those; it was simply about keeping self-serving appearances to preserve our Jabba the Hutt worldview and lifestyle.

--snip--


http://www.counterpunch.com/bageant03122005.html


On edit: Added link

"Liberals hate Bush because he is a traitor to the white classes."

Um,no. Some of us think he is a traitor to ALL of America, not just the "white classes".

The bush regime has instituted a sea change in American policy and in the values demonstrated by the federal government.

The real reason for illegal immigration is big business wants it that way.

it is somehow foolhardy to be building more bases all-over the world. Unless of course the USA plans to take off from land in the Americas and become a conceptual empire and rule the world with corporations. Dropping their people as citizens and including only those who have shares in the corporations... it might not be such a great thing for the average American. The citizens loose not only the luck they had of great economic times (which is over) but the historical idea of America. Orphaned by an empire that is really an apartheid in space... (except in south Africa some white were included in the empire) and has no touchstones on earth...Americas might want to see their empire reduced in size as multinational institutions grew in importance, in might and upped the accepted norms of behavior the world over.

I cannot actually see into the future... but I think that people just want lives for the most part. Megalomaniacs (corporations suffer from this psychological problem) & elites are the only ones who want Empire. That is why the USA refused to act like one until well into the 20th Century... You see America was a democracy and people didn't see how Empire would benefit them. In fact, seeing as how the rest of the West all got socialized (& more efficient) health care in the last 50 years... it seems as if Empire is not something that really benefits the average man.

Look at Europe. They are the least interested in Empire. Having finally killed the last vestiges of Elites who kept the people fighting for 1000 years... Europeans seem pretty happy to just be.

And I personally would be opposed to war in Iraq no matter who started it. In fact, we were pretty damn pissed of at our white-collar blue-state senators for being in favor of this, as I recall. Iraq is a fight that quite simply looked unwinnable beforehand and looks unwinnable now--it's not a nation, and never was a nation. It's three nations held precariously in one state, and all conflicts there have at their root millenia of fighting across the entire mideast. It's not a fight we have the resources to win, and so I oppose it. Not because GWB is a white man.

holocaust and pride is a good thing. This is just more of the ridiculous neocon hate of "guilt". They cannot imagine that people everywhere have feelings for their country, fellow man, neighbour, the poor, etc. etc.

Welcome to the world where we will be taught that our empathy is bad and that pride is a good emotion. Welcome to ADOLESCENCE! Welcome to the neocon world view. Do not feel for your fellow man. Feel only pride and we will all get along just fine.


How is the reframing of our empathy going????? ***holes!

half a Century. And it was done behind closed doors during the polar wars between Soviet aggression and the West. USA was the only big economy that had any legs after WWII.

Perhaps liberals would rather spend money on national health care (like all the other Western non-empire people have) and trust in the multilateral process.