Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

Wow. So the Right is being Bushwhacked now and they find that it isn't all that cool to be branded unpatriotic because you disagree?

Poetic justice lives!

I like these lines:

The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up."

...Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."

...Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens?

Why, indeed?
 

President Bush is the greatest Hypocrite ever to be President. He is a self distructive personallity. So why did the Republican base not think that sooner or later he would tun on them. I am sure that they are smarter than that. I mean, heck the boy is not even a conservative.
He is only really loyal to those he needs or have something on him.
He has only just begun.
Say, why did Dan Bartlett resign?
 

I think it's worse than we think. I've seen enough serious writers and friends of the GOP say that he's just effing losing it to start to believe it. He is apocalyptic in his personal theology, he thinks he really has been put in the place he's in at the time he's in by God Almighty, and, well, he's been a dry drunk for a long time (as opposed to a recovering alcoholic), which means he's full of disdain for others and himself. That's meant to be a diagnosis, not a piling on.

Check this out:

"Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of 'our country's destiny.' "

Read it all (had to break it up to make it fit):

http://www.dallasnews.com/
sharedcontent/dws/dn/
opinion/viewpoints/stories/
DN-geyer_31edi.ART.State.
Edition1.4370227.html
 

I wonder GW would say our destiny was if asked by Congress.
 

Its not so strange... You aren't agreeing with Peggy Noonan as much as SHE's (and other republicans) are coming around to agreeing with you. And the rest of us.
 

Surprise, Surprise! I agree as well.

And that's DE-structive, lobo. I think you meant his 'policy' is destructive. His personality isn't any more destructive than, say, Bill's, Hill's, Edwards', Obama's, Pelosi's [OMG!], Reid's... Hell, Rudy's!! But this immigration/amnesty bill is a travesty and he knows it.

Why he's sticking this nation's neck out like this is beyond me, especially since he's also taking a page out of Clinton's book and importing Iraqi refugees and settling them in Detroit, of all places! Quick is there a military base anywhere near Detroit? Great Lakes Naval station? Another Fort Dix scenario in 10 years?

Where have all the Newt Gingrich's gone?
 

ER, your 'dry drunk' diagnosis is a stretch, and seems derived more from personal animus than critical thought.

Stick to what you know for certain. For example: I won't argue with you on the 'apocalyptic theology' or the 'God's man in such a time as this' bit. And since this is true of every man in every era and age...
 

EL said: "And that's DE-structive, lobo. I think you meant his 'policy' is destructive. His personality isn't any more destructive than, say,...."

Thanks EL for corectin my spellin, but indeed I did mean that he is a "narcissistic self destructive" personality.

Let me quote from a real Dr.:
"The narcissist loves an image which he projects unto others and which is affirmed by them. The projected image is reflected by others to the narcissist and, thus, he is reassured both of its existence and of the boundaries of his Ego. This continuous process blurs all distinctions between reality and fantasy.

A False Self leads to false assumptions and to a contorted personal narrative, a false worldview, and to a grandiose, inflated sense of being. The latter is rarely grounded in real achievements or merit. The narcissist’s feeling of entitlement is all-pervasive, demanding and aggressive. It easily deteriorates into open verbal, psychological and physical abuse of others.

Maintaining the distinction between what we really are and what we dream of becoming, knowing our limits, our advantages and faults and having a sense of true, realistic accomplishments in our life are of paramount importance in the establishment and maintenance of our self-esteem, sense of self-worth and self-confidence.

Reliant as he is on outside judgment – the narcissist feels miserably inferior and dependent. He rebels against this degrading state of things by partly escaping into a world of make-belief, daydreaming, pretensions and delusions of grandeur. The narcissist knows little about himself – and finds what he knows to be unacceptable.
.......
The narcissist then "envies" his self. He seeks to destroy and devalue his own self. He seeks to punish himself and to motivate others to punish him ("projective identification").

It is just one of the paradoxes of this disorder, a veritable mirror hall, where nothing is what it seems to be. Love is reason for envy and destruction. Self-love leads to self-annihilation and self-defeat. Welcome to the narcissist's topsy-turvy universe."

From:
Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Self Love and Self Destruction
by:Dr. Sam Vaknin
 

Well, that was a nice description of "narcissist" and a great explanation of what Bush isn't. It seems pretty clear to me that Bush is not motivated by public opinion or polls. This immigration bill is proof of that for sure. If there's any image he's trying to project, it is that. But he doesn't require any feedback to validate it. To that extent, every leader seeks to project an image. That is not a bad thing. How can a leader lead if his image does not attract a following? Bush is one who acts based on the belief that he is doing the right thing. It is doing the right thing that motivates him more than anything else. Doesn't mean he IS doing the right thing, but that he acts out of conviction, not polling data. This pisses off his opponents more than anything, even when his opponents are, like now, part of his own party.
 

I notice you accepted the first half of the syndrom discription and ignored the collary "self destructive" half.

First, what Bush says about what he thinks about polling data, newspaper and TV opinons, etc. is probably not the truth.

Secondly, I was thinking in relation to this definition, that it was the sycophants with which he has insultated himself that serve the function of affirming his projected image. His pursuit of the "imperial presidency", and their lip service and encouragment of it is very symptomatic of this. This may in fact be the reason that he is so doggedly supportive of Gonzoles, in that Gonzales has been one of the major legal architects of such thinking. Such a diagnoisis would also explain why he is willing to abondon his base on immigration. Their attack will also fit the pattern, as will the political attacks he engenders by pushing the Democratic Congress beyond a reasonable political limit. Thus inviting censure or impeachment. It the perverse way of the narcissistic he is inviting these attacks and hoping they succeed.

Bush is not the only president to ever exhibit these tendencies, nor are they abscent from all of the Democratic aand Republic contenders for his position.
But Bush has pushed it harder and further than anyone that has come before. You would have to go into the military ranks with people such a Curtis LeMay and Douglas MacArthur before you even approach this level of sickness at this level of American Government.

Then again I got my doctorate of psycology from a vending machine at a Texaco station in New Mexico in 1957. So my diagnoisis might be off slightly.
 

Your last paragraph sums it up nicely.

What you are truly doing is projecting what you "think" is happening within the White House. He surrounds himself in the same manner all presidents do, with those he believes will offer wise counsel. You have no idea how much agreement or disagreement goes on before a path is chosen. But it's typical for Bush-bashers to be so arrogant as to "know" exactly what goes on. It's convenient to think as you do. It gives you that false sense of political understanding and superiority. All we can really do honestly is to agree or disagree with a given policy position. To pretend we know the motivation behind it, that we know he's "bowing to the neo-cons", or any other such "insight", is ludicrous, a little arrogant, and a lot of bullshit. Of course eveyone's entitled to their opinions, but opinions such as your psuedo-psycho analysis are totally baseless.
 

You have cold intellectual insight, sir marshall art, cold intellectual insight, and the analytical understanding of the true believer. You're correct, I don't "know" any of this, and never will "know" what's in GW mind. I just don't cut him the miles of slack that some people do. I guess what I have read of him and what I know of his times of life have given me my positions about him. I'm still trying to understand the puzzeled thinking that I think I see coming from that quarter.
Oh yes, and thanks for elaborating on my deficiencies that I had already admitted too. Ad Hoc is always available when we don't really know what to say.