We Americans are like recovering addicts after a four-year bender

[Sapphire Blue]

We Americans are like recovering addicts after a four-year bender

Bush made his white constituency feel good about themselves, but no longer. Citizens are rediscovering democracy

Naomi Wolf
Monday November 7, 2005
The Guardian

In the US comic strip, Peanuts, there is a little boy who is always followed by a cloud of dust. Wherever he goes, his cloud follows him. George Bush can't shake his personal cloud. The until recently eerily untouchable president has now lost his mojo. The man to whom the entire US press corps has been on its knees for four years is finally in the doghouse.

It is almost a cartoon of karma. First, hurricane Katrina hit - and the sight of black and brown bodies floating in what had been the streets of a US city, of babies crying for water, of old people shrouded in their wheelchairs seemed to rip right through the collective fantasy of US goodness and infallibility constructed by Dick Cheney and his cabal and hyped by a crotch-strapped Bush in a flightsuit.

How did he get away with so many lies for so long? After 9/11, Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove successfully used the fear of more terrorist attacks and the intoxicant of ruthless jingoism to sedate the country and make it compliant.

<snip>

Well, Katrina was like the end of the Wizard of Oz: the tiny, fibbing man was revealed behind the great big voice and the inflated ideals. Scene after scene of the failure of the US to act like the US held a mirror up to our faces. It was like an intervention for a drug addict: suddenly the lies, the hype, the intoxicants, the bad company, looked as destructive to our true selves as Americans as they really had been all along. "This is not who we are," we realised inwardly, in revulsion at our own long bender.

Continued @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1635925,00.html

[MojoXN]

1. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

Or the guy who has been pulling his marionette strings. Besides, for all intents and purposes, I'VE been on a four-year bender, and you don't see me raping democracy, starting wars of conquest, alienating the rest of the planet, and denying the obvious, now do you? :)

MojoXN

[Geek_Girl]

2. I hope Americans are really waking up from their bender

of ignorant bliss and don't fall of the wagon again.

[kweerwolf]

3. Waking up next to * after a four-year bender ...

... would certainly make me swear off the sauce.

Hell, it would probably drive me to a monastary and a lifetime vow of chastity.

[BlueIris]

23. I feel almost ashamed at having laughed at this post...

nice.

And what an adroit assessment of what many people are doing. Swearing off "addictions," including unhealthy, destructive relationships and leading "purer" lives more about community service and doing the right thing.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. This is an excellent piece of writing

no hype, just painful truth. Exceptional. I'm keeping it.

[Lex]

5. We DU'ers have been freaked out the whole time.

I'm just glad the idiots who actually thought things were hunky-dory are finally waking up.

Welcome back to reality.

(I think these people who thought Bush made things wonderful are the same ones who buy stuff off the TV and they think it will change their lives.)

[walldude]

9. That was my thought

Great article but don't count me in as "We Americans". I've been awake through this whole nightmare..

[Arugula Latte]

18. It was like being in a horror movie where you're the only non-zombie

and the zombies are walking toward you with arms outstretched, eyes glazed, craving your blood ...

[Inland]

6. There was a cartoon during the Reagan years

of a man in a striped top hat (America) waking up surrounded by bottles labled "Old Morning in America", and clearly hung over, with a bill of several thousand billion dollars.

It happens every twenty years or so.

[Olney Blue]

7. Thank you for posting this powerful article.

It brought tears to my eyes.

[babylonsister]

8. Great read - thanks! NT

[Vogon_Glory]

10. Sorry, But The Electorate Is Still On Its Spree

Sorry, but I think that the American electorate, the folks who chose GW Bush and his fellow Banana Republicans, is still out on its spree. While the polls look like they could be hopeful for future progressive candidates, right now they more resemble random thoughts of a drunk thinking "maybe I ought to quit--tomorrow."

I won't believe that the spree is over until there's the sort of voter turnaround seen in other countries where voters are so fed up with the ruling party that it finds itself going from majority to minority status overnight. I don't see any sign of that happening here in the USA yet.

The only polls that count are the ones cast at the ballot box--and that's assuming that the votes haven't been electronically corrupted.

The US may have to be like a long-term drunk and hit bottom before it realizes just what the Banana Republicans and so-called "Conservatives" have done to it. Too many Americans want to believe the bunk that the GOP and its propaganda organs are pushing. We may yet have a long way to go before our fellow citizens wise up.

[spooky3]

11. Agreed--an "awake" electorate would be outraged by Alito

because he is so out of touch with the mainstream--and a symbol of the arrogance of this administration. And a Supreme Court comprised of 7 white males, 1 woman and 1 minority--and five Catholics--is nowhere close to being representative of the population.

But I hear little outrage or even concern from the average person.

Just one of many examples.

[Sapphire Blue]

14. Oh, ye of little faith... you will see the turnaround in November 2006 : )

[Vogon_Glory]

21. I'll Help Work For It, But Seeing Is Believing

I very much want to believe that my fellow countrymen and countrywomen have wised up and I will work a lot harder this autumn to help the Good Guys send Banana Republicans back into obscurity, but I won't believe that enough of us have wised up until incumbents and would-be Banana Republican officeholders are wearing the looks of defeated candidates soundly beaten. I've had my hopes raised and dashed thrice these last few years, and I want real victory.

[Sapphire Blue]

27. There comes a point in time when the truth can no longer be hidden....

... can no longer be ignored, can no longer be denied. I truly believe that we have reached that point. Witness the courage of our leaders (finally) speaking out... and being heard... speaking the truth and demanding answers. Witness our fellow citizens waking up and demanding the truth. Witness the indictments coming down, one after another. This, in itself, is a victory. This country will no longer accept the lies, treason, greed and corruption that has become SOP of this administration & the RW repubs.

[Vogon_Glory]

30. Still Too Many Citizens Camped On The Banks Of The Red Denial, Though

[Sapphire Blue]

31. Then came the floods... of truth... and those who survived camping...

... "On The Banks Of The Red Denial" found themselves digesting muck; many are regurgitating that muck... and are now swimming in the beautiful blue ocean... of truth.

[lyonn]

12. Sedated, true but not all of us

I do believe many politicians were traumatized by 9-11, like they didn't know exactly what to do about it and allowed bushco to oar the boat. This weekend has been so refreshing watching Carter all over the talk shows speaking out so perfectly against this admin. Then Brian Williams on MSNBC did a terrific but terribly sad resume of what happened in New Orleans. Gawd, the peoples eyes he kept saying, and it was true, the fear and hopelessness of their situation. NO ONE CAME TO HELP THEM!! Rise up America and demand answers. Talkin to the choir again but it feels good to repeat.

[Sapphire Blue]

16. It WAS great seeing President Carter on the news/talk shows.

I wonder what, if any, impact he might be having on bush's 'Christian' base? Could he be getting through to some of them?

[JJackFlash]

13. We're stuck with him until freaking 2009!

More than enough time for the BFEE to complete the destruction of America.

[Sapphire Blue]

15. Democratic Congress in 2006, impeachment in 2007

[stevedeshazer]

17. Love the comparison of Pigpen to Bush

[ananda]

19. I'm white and Bush never made me feel good..

.. about anything, including myself.

And I know a LOT of white people who feel the same way.

[mzmolly]

20. Oz is an apt analogy.

I adore Naomi Wolf.

[ComerPerro]

22. I wish I had that kind of optimism.

But it doesn't matter how he or the GOP polls right now.

They still have another year. And that's only midterms.

Most people aren't even contemplating next year's election yet.

By the time it comes time to vote, many Americans will be brought back to the Republicans by methods such as swift-boating, slander, threats of terrorism, and promises of tax cuts.

[Sapphire Blue]

29. We MUST have that kind of optimism...

... the alternative is negativity, despair, defeatism... and we can't give in to that. I don't know what most people are contemplating right now, but people have witnessed the reality around them... reality that no amount of WH or RW spin, swift-lying, slander, threats, or promises, can or will alter. The truth is out now.

[Sapphire Blue]

34. PS - Don't just wish it... CLAIM it! OWN it! LIVE it!

[EuroObserver]

24. black and brown bodies floating in what had been the streets of a US city:

Suggestto Naomi, edit to add: and the private images in our own minds of the unseen, many infirm and elderly, dead in their own homes as the waters rose above their ability to rise ahead of them with no way out and no help not even on the way.

Shit.

[Sapphire Blue]

25. And let's not forget Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's...

... interview on Meet The Press (http://www.canofun.com/blog/videos/JeffersonParishonMTPviaDU.wmv)...

"We have been abandoned by our own country."

"... nobody's coming to get us."

"... for God's sake, shut up and send us somebody."

His words, his anger, his grief remain in my soul.

[EuroObserver]

26. Yep. See also discussion here:

"New Orleans: Gentrification by Genocide" http://www.sfbayview.com/

[Sapphire Blue]

28. Thank you for this link... outstanding articles!

[Carni]

32. I wish I could believe the opinion in this article is the case

I am not sure that I do believe that people are waking up from their bender...

I hear people bitching about their gas prices and the loss of their jobs in my everyday (non-online) travels, but I am still not seeing the *outrage* that should be present (IMO)

Indeed everything bush and company has touched has been corrupted, twisted, made evil and turned on it's head and yet I still see people slogging around acting like it's business as usual from DC.

It is NOT business as usual--this isn't an economic slump caused by incompetence, this isn't just a matter of a few politicians who accidentally didn't do a very good job...this was a takeover of the country and the shreading of our constitution BY DESIGN and people by and large should be VERY ANGRY.

Frankly I am still just seeing anger from people that have know since the get go that bush was lower than pond scum--and that makes me even angier than I already am!

On the plus side Harry Reid really does seem to get it--I just heard him talking on CNN about the fact that bushit will pardon Libby and the other pigs...I am thrilled that Reid seems to be covering all bases!

[Sapphire Blue]

33. Harry Reid does seem to get it...

... and his voice appears to be perceived as a voice of reason, more so than many of our other leaders... a voice that 'middle America' is more likely to actually hear... and they are listening.

[EuroObserver]

35. Latest from Gary Younge: "We'll return for your sister's body..."

"We'll return for your sister's body, the rescuers said. Two months on she was still in the house"

(Will post fresh thread tomorrow if necessary).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/hurricanes2005/story/0,16546,1636599,00.html

<snip>

Gary Younge in New Orleans
Tuesday November 8, 2005
The Guardian

Nobody knows how long Deborah "Bodie" Fisher, 85, had been trapped in her home with the corpse of her younger sister, Delia "Sis" Holloway, 82, upstairs, and 2ft of flood water downstairs when help finally floated by on September 2.

It was five days after New Orleans's levees had broken. Bodie waded downstairs to tell the rescuers to leave her alone. "My sister is upstairs," she told them. "Let me die here with my sister." Then she slammed the door and went back in.

The rescuers overruled her. They broke in through an upstairs window, went past Sis's body and let Bodie pack a bag before they took her to the makeshift hospital at New Orleans airport. They said they would come back for her sister.

Two months later two family friends, John Gaines and Stacey Martin, went to the house. Ms Martin used to clean for the women and Mr Gaines thought taking her to the house would give her some closure.

"I left Stacey alone to get her memories," Mr Gaines says. "She went upstairs and after a while she screamed, 'Sis is in here. Sis is in here.' I thought, 'Here we go. She's hallucinating.' So I went upstairs and sure enough, there was Sis."

Two months after she was first seen, Sis's body lay decomposing in a townhouse in the business district. Mr Gaines says she died with one of her feet on the floor, as though she was trying to get out of bed. The foot had rotted from the leg. Someone had covered her body with clothes. But when Ms Martin tried to remove the clothes, Sis's face started to come off with it. Just as downstairs bears the flood's watermark, so the headboard shows the stain her hair made as it splayed out above her head. "She had no face," Mr Gaines says. "The skin had shrunk right up to the bones on the body and was jet black. All the fluids had run out of her."

</snip>

[Sapphire Blue]

36. Please do consider posting this in its own thread.

Here I sit, crying again. Time to write more letters & make more calls.