Soccer Dad

Hate america first

via memeorandum

Author Phillip Roth weighs in on the American political scene with Der Spiegel.

SPIEGEL: What will remain of the current president, George W. Bush? Could he be forgotten once he leaves office?

Roth: He was too horrendous to be forgotten. There will be an awful lot written about this. And there's a lot to be written about the war. There's a lot to be written about what he did with Reaganism, since he went much further than Reagan. So he won't be forgotten. Someone has said he's the worst American president we've ever had. I think that's true.

SPIEGEL: Why?

Roth: Well, the biggest thing would be the war, the deceptions surrounding the entrance into the war. The absolute cynicism that surrounds the deception. The cost of the war, the Treasury and the lives of the Americans. It's hideous. There is nothing quite like it. The next thing would be the attitude towards global warming, which is a global crisis, and they were utterly indifferent, if not hostile, to any attempt to address it. And so on and so on and so on and so on. So he's done a lot of harm.

SPIEGEL: Since your book is set in that week during the 2004 elections, can you explain why Americans voted for Bush once again?

Roth: I suspect it was the business of being in a war and not wanting to change, and political stupidity. Why does anybody elect anybody? I thought highly of John Kerry when he began, but he couldn't stand up against Bush. The Democrats aren't brutes, which is too bad, because the Republicans are brutes. Brutes win.

In response David's Medienkritik-Online observes:

This repeated presentation of one line of American thought with little to counter it - essentially creates a mentality among readers that makes meaningful dialog with non-leftist Americans difficult to impossible. After all - they represent a quasi-evil movement to many Germans.

One has to wonder how much longer the Bush Derangement Syndrome can continue to act as a substitute for original political thought.

He's got a point. Has Roth really thought his positions through? 65 years ago, would a German magazine be interviewing a Jew? How did that situation change? Did Nazi Germany simply decide to stop seeking lebensraum? Did Nazi Germany simply tire of persecuting Jews? Or did some nations have to take arms against the tyranny and stop it?

Caught in his unreal world Roth lashes out at President Bush. Still he sees some good in America. All is not lost, earlier Roth is quoted earlier:

SPIEGEL: What made you interested in Obama?

Roth: I'm interested in the fact that he's black. I feel the race issue in this country is more important than the feminist issue. I think that the importance to blacks would be tremendous. He's an attractive man, he's smart, he happens to be tremendously articulate. His position in the Democratic Party is more or less okay with me. And I think it would be important to American blacks if he became president.

SPIEGEL: It could change society, couldn't it?

Roth: Yes, it could. It would say something about this country, and it would be a marvelous thing. I don't know whether it's going to happen. I rarely vote for anybody who wins. It's going to be the kiss of death if you write in your magazine that I'm going to vote for Barack Obama. Then he's finished!

True, as Tim Blair writes, this is awfully condescending. He gives himself too much credit and as Bookworm Room notes, he seems 60 years behind the times, considering Sen. Obama a credit to his race.

Next to Doris Lessing though, I'd have to say that Roth is absolutely enlightened. (also via memeorandum)

If Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated, British Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing predicted in a newspaper interview published here Saturday.

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president in US history, "would certainly not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would murder him," Lessing, 88, told the Dagens Nyheter daily.

Somehow, we've had black (and Hispanic and Asian) cabinet secretaries and the angry, white Neanderthals haven't come out with torches and pitchforks insisting that they ought to know their place in society.

Heck, Jules Crittenden notes that the American record is a lot more enlightened that the European one.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Britain has even had a black candidate for prime minister. In fact, I’d be happy if someone can name the European country that has even entertained the notion of someone of non-European descent for any top post, where the local skinheads wouldn’t start rioting in the streets while the local burgermeisters go into a panic, if such an idea were floated.

(And while you're there check out this comment.)

Getting back to President Bush, I just saw Leon Fleisher's, My White House Dilemma Mr. Fleisher, a 2007 Kennedy Center honoree writes:

What made me unhappy and continues to trouble me was that I was required to attend a White House reception on the afternoon of the gala. I cannot speak for the other honorees, but while I profoundly respect the presidency, I am horrified by many of President Bush's policies.

In the past seven years, Bush administration policies have amounted to a systematic shredding of our nation's Constitution -- the illegal war it initiated and perpetuates; the torturing of prisoners; the espousing of "values" that include a careful defense of the "rights" of embryos but show a profligate disregard for the lives of flesh-and-blood human beings; and the flagrant dismantling of environmental protections. These, among many other depressing policies, have left us weak and shamed at home and in the world.

Thus he bravely treads on new ground:

Therefore I am making known the dilemma I faced during my most celebrated hours. Perhaps speaking about my internal struggle will loosen the ties that bind future honorees -- not to mention the generations of artists they mentor and for which they serve as models -- from the code of silence that has pervaded this pinnacle of artistic recognition.

There's a word for Mr. Fleisher - ingrate. If part of the honor involved a celebration of his accomplishments at the White House and he couldn't abide by the "protocol of slience" and be honored by this President, let him graciously reject the honor and state his reasons for doing so. Had he done that, I could have respected his opinion.

But after accepting the accolades of the nation, for him to complain about being honored is simply discourteous. But it was apparently too important to him to receive the honor; he couldn't turn it down. So instead he accepted the honor and then repaid the President with an insult.

I'm a bit late to the party, but Cheat Seeking Missiles is holding a contest to find the best 6 word slogan for America. I've been struggling to find one. (I had been trying to do it in haiku.)

But after reading all of this unctuousness, I need an antidote. So, here's mine:
The freedom to insult us gratuitously.
No, it's not the most positive one. But it serves as a rebuke to these ingrates (OK with the exception of Doris Lessing) who benefit from America and see nothing wrong with spewing hatred of its leaders and its citizens. They wouldn't have reached their high perches if not for the freedom that America afforded them. And yet they won't let their sheltered view of politics keep them from spitting at the country, affecting a sense of moral superiority towards the very people whose tastes have spawned their successes.

BDS, america, president bush.