US and the World

Molly Strikes Home!

The Uncompassionate Conservative

Molly Ivins thinks the clue to understanding W is to realize that there are 3 strands of Texas tightly blinkered by class at work. The strands are religiosity, anti-intellectualism, and machoisms. She assumes that his religiosity is genuine. She demonstrates that the anti-intellectualism is genuine, and explains its roots. It is the machismo that she suspects is phoney. She concludes with:

Okay, we cut taxes for the rich and so we have to cut services for the poor. Presumably there is some right-wing justification along the lines that helping poor people just makes them more dependent or something. If there were a rationale Bush could express, it would be one thing, but to watch him not see, not make the connection, is another thing entirely. Welfare, Medicare, Social Security, food stamps -- horrors, they breed dependency. Whereas inheriting millions of dollars and having your whole life handed to you on a platter is good for the grit in your immortal soul? What we're dealing with here is a man in such serious denial it would be pathetic if it weren't damaging so many lives.

Bush's lies now fill volumes. He lied us into two hideously unfair tax cuts; he lied us into an unnecessary war with disastrous consequences; he lied us into the Patriot Act, eviscerating our freedoms. But when it comes to dealing with those less privileged, Bush's real problem is not deception, but self-deception. [Emphasis added]