Andrew Golis

It was, well, quite a disturbing read. I think Andrew Sullivan put it best (although I disagree with his policy positions):

The good news is that Bush seems genuine about tax reform and social security privatization in his second term. Here’s hoping. The bad news is that he thinks he’s Moses.

Yeah, that is bad news. Granted, the piece was clearly skewed, Suskind doesn’t exactly claim pure political objectivity. But if even half of it is true, wow. When you get quotes from Republican operatives (who worked for Reagan no less!) like this, thing’s is scary:

”Just in the past few months,” Bartlett said, ”I think a light has gone off for people who’ve spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he’s always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.”

I’ve begun to wonder if this is what it’s like to live in a country that is taken over by an extremist ideology. First, a wealthy ideologue posing as a lovable country bumpkin gets elected President having convinced everyone that he’s a moderate just like you and me. Then, a national tragedy allows that leader to demand loyalty, and fear and patriotism deliver it. Then, gradually, what used to seem extreme no longer does, after all, it’s just that lovable country bumpkin…

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