What's stopping him?
LEIGH POMEROY
It's Easter Sunday, which should be a happy day. But I'm depressed.
No, it's not the rain outside, which is actually a lovely spring shower, regreening everything and encouraging young buds to peek out from tree branches.
It's because I've just finished reading Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy.
If you've seen Kevin Phillips on TV he isn't exactly a happy-go-lucky guy. He doesn't look like he's just climbed off a 48-foot sloop, all tanned and glowing with sea spray. It seems like he once had an athletic build under his ubiquitous suit, but in sum, with his horn-rimmed glasses and all, he looks like an academic, which he must be, having written the many books that he has, all replete with mounds of research.
There are the pundits who scoff at his conclusions, which basically say that the approaching end of oil, the influence of religious fundamentalism on government, and the mountainous personal and private U.S. debt all combine to signal the fast arriving and inevitable death knell of the American Empire.
But Phillips' logic is compelling, not so much because of his arguments but because his is one of many voices from across the political spectrum that are clarioning the same message. This is what's scary. And this is what has me depressed.
Though Phillips' message is hardly joyful, on TV he's not dower or down. Perhaps it's because of the "high" of being in the spotlight. Or perhaps it's because having slogged through all the research and written his weighty (462-page, including endnotes) tome he's finally free to get out in the world. Or it could be that he's just an even-keeled guy. But in any event, he's not depressed.
Perhaps it's because he feels he's having an impact, and that's keeping him going. I don't know.
But my note today is not about Phillips. It's about the man whom Phillips portrays as hastening our nation's decline: President George W. Bush. What's really scary is that this man doesn't have to wait for the last days of the American Empire. He could easily "cut to the chase," as it were.
How?
Remember the trigger? The black box with the red button?
Okay, it's not that simple. It takes a series of decisions, a series of escalations, a series of desperate moves to end a perceived crisis. But if God is telling him that he's the one, who knows how he will act?
Just as a Muslim jihadist feels the divine lightness of being to strap that bomb pack around his waist, so too might feel an embattled President who believes that God's will must be done.
Just that thought alone is enough to ruin an Easter Sunday, rainy or not.
It's Easter Sunday, which should be a happy day. But I'm depressed.
No, it's not the rain outside, which is actually a lovely spring shower, regreening everything and encouraging young buds to peek out from tree branches.
It's because I've just finished reading Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy.
If you've seen Kevin Phillips on TV he isn't exactly a happy-go-lucky guy. He doesn't look like he's just climbed off a 48-foot sloop, all tanned and glowing with sea spray. It seems like he once had an athletic build under his ubiquitous suit, but in sum, with his horn-rimmed glasses and all, he looks like an academic, which he must be, having written the many books that he has, all replete with mounds of research.
There are the pundits who scoff at his conclusions, which basically say that the approaching end of oil, the influence of religious fundamentalism on government, and the mountainous personal and private U.S. debt all combine to signal the fast arriving and inevitable death knell of the American Empire.
But Phillips' logic is compelling, not so much because of his arguments but because his is one of many voices from across the political spectrum that are clarioning the same message. This is what's scary. And this is what has me depressed.
Though Phillips' message is hardly joyful, on TV he's not dower or down. Perhaps it's because of the "high" of being in the spotlight. Or perhaps it's because having slogged through all the research and written his weighty (462-page, including endnotes) tome he's finally free to get out in the world. Or it could be that he's just an even-keeled guy. But in any event, he's not depressed.
Perhaps it's because he feels he's having an impact, and that's keeping him going. I don't know.
But my note today is not about Phillips. It's about the man whom Phillips portrays as hastening our nation's decline: President George W. Bush. What's really scary is that this man doesn't have to wait for the last days of the American Empire. He could easily "cut to the chase," as it were.
How?
Remember the trigger? The black box with the red button?
Okay, it's not that simple. It takes a series of decisions, a series of escalations, a series of desperate moves to end a perceived crisis. But if God is telling him that he's the one, who knows how he will act?
Just as a Muslim jihadist feels the divine lightness of being to strap that bomb pack around his waist, so too might feel an embattled President who believes that God's will must be done.
Just that thought alone is enough to ruin an Easter Sunday, rainy or not.
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