The Divider and Decider

I don't agree with Joe Gandelman on everything all the time but his labor day post is why I read him daily. In Baggage, Fighting Fascism And Donald Rumsfeld he gets to the very essence of the Bush administration. Go read the entire thing but I'm going to give you a few snips here.

As America celebrates Labor Day — a holiday where national unity is traditionally coupled with the official start of political campaigns marked by Americans debating freely without being accused of being traitors — the country has again witnessed the spectacle of an administration that seemingly does not have the word "unity" in its political vocabulary.

The attempt to demonize Americans who differ as basically fellow travelers of terrorists and modern day enablers of fascism came from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Rumsfeld and the Bush administration seemingly believe "unity" signifies weakness, something that only empty-headed, naive political wannabees talk about — a concept reflecting a misunderstanding about how politics and retaining power really works (you must demonize and divide to retain power).

He goes on to point out that instead of taking advantage of the National (and International) unity following 911 to truly unify the country and the world saw it instead as an opportunity for an unprecedented power grab. Remember "with us or against us", little did we know they were talking about Americans.

President George Bush, who ran in 2000 as "a uniter not a divider," had an unprecedented opportunity to nurture unity in the immediate aftermath of 911. Instead, he and his political operatives seemingly interpreted the Democrats' cooperation as weakness and began to use terrorism policy and national security as a political bludgeon.

That pretty well sums it up but do go read the entire thing.