May 8, 2007 7:17 AM

Governing with smoke and mirrors (Or, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain")

(cross-posted to The Agonist)

Bush 101: All Talk, No Management

Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © rode into Washington wanting to use Ronald Reagan as his model- the hands-off President, the President as CEO- identifying problems, delegating responsibility downward, and then using the brainpower of his organization to identify and implement policy. President Figurehead would set the course, fight the battles that needed to be fought, while generally remaining above the fray until the power of the bully pulpit was needed- much as he did while Governor of Texas. Unfortunately, things haven’t worked out quite as planned- and for two very simple reasons.

First, Washington is not just Austin with more snow and bigger mosquitoes. Austin is a small town rife with political intrigue that most of the state simply ignores. The vast majority of what happens in Austin is irrelevant to the day-to-day lives of Texans, so why shouldn’t they ignore what happens there? I certainly do. Washington, though, is a small town rife with political intrigue that Americans simply cannot afford to ignore. To ignore what happens in Washington means we get saddled with things like an illegal war in Iraq, US Attorneys hired and fired for purely political reasons, and a federal government run by the credo, “What Would Jesus Do?”

Second, though Ronald Reagan was every bit the Right-wing ideologue, he at least surrounded himself with capable people who understood how government works. They were intelligent enough to understand that ideology and theology simply could not be one and the same thing if you wanted a viable, effective government. King George the Worst’s © Administration was assembled, and has been maintained, with one goal in mind- making the President look good. The end result is that this Administration is filled from top to botton with Right-wing religious zealots who understand that their careers and fortunes are directly linked to Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © . “What Would Jesus Do?” is not just a personal philosophy; it’s the unspoken motto of virtually every appointed bureaucrat in Washington today. To call these folks sycophants wouldn’t begin to describe the depths of their depravity and studied indifference to the plight of the everyday Americans whose tax dollars pay their salaries.

Bush, he says, “talks about values like freedom and democracy in Iraq and tries to pep up his subordinates during Katrina,” like when he told ex-disaster chief Michael Brown, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” But, he adds, Bush “doesn’t do nearly enough managerial work such as planning for the postwar occupation of Iraq or getting the supplies to New Orleans.”

No reputable business school would use this Administration as a teachable model…unless they’re trying to teach students the Enron, Tyco, or WorldCom management models. For the past six-plus years, the federal government has been turned into the personal playground of born-again Christians whose most fervent desire is to turn the American system into a functional theocracy.

They came to Washington promising to clean things up, but the results don’t begin to match the rhetoric. What most of these folks discovered early on was that, while power corrupts, absolute power can be all sorts of fun. When you can force your religious beliefs into education, child care- even space science- why clean things up when you can remake the world into a benevolent theocratic monarchy?

What would Jesus do? He’d preach abstinence and cut off funding for family-planning programs in Third World countries, of course. After all, it doesn’t cost anything to keep it in your pants, does it?

Of course, I have nothing against born-again Christianity. This being a free country, people are free to believe what they deem a good fit for themselves. What they are NOT free to do, however, is to use the federal government to shove their prejudices and beliefs down the collective throats of Americans, not all of whom believe as they do.

There’s a reason for the separation of Church and State. It’s to keep religious zealots like those who’ve infested the Bush Administration (150 graduates of Pat Robertson’s Regent University??) from having their way. This isn’t to say that there aren’t Christian beliefs that wouldn’t mesh well with political philosophy, but there’s been precious little evidence of that sort of thing since Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © stole the 2000 election.

(What would Jesus do? That’s an easy one. He’s round up a collection of rabid, zealous college Republicans, and he’d convince them to invade the Miami-Dade County elections office, forcing the halting of vote counting…’cuz Jesus votes Republican, don’tchaknow??)

Since Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © took office, we’ve seen less leadership than we have propagandizing. How many times have the buzz words used to sell the war in Iraq been changed when they no longer test well with focus groups? It’s all about the propaganda

No, this Adminstration is not a business model you’ll see featured in business schools- except perhaps at Regent University or Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Corruption, xenophobia, anti-intellctualism, and religious intolerance normally don’t make for successful organizations…which, if you think about it, is a perfect explanation for the mess we’re in.

NOW CAN WE IMPEACH THE INCOMPETENT, LYING BASTARD??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on May 8, 2007 7:17 AM.

People unclear on the concept.... was the previous entry in this blog.

Time for a slight change of course.... is the next entry in this blog.

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