The problem with ideology is if you got an ideology, you already got your mind made up, you know all the answers, and that makes evidence irrelevant and argument a waste of time, so you tend to govern by assertion and attack. The problem with that is that discourages thinking and gives you bad results. This new Bob Woodward book, “State of Denial,” is well named, but I think it’s important to point out that if you are an ideologue, denial is an essential part of your political being, whichever side. Listen to me. You’ve got to — because if you’re an ideologue, you’ve got your mind made up. So when an inconvenient pops up, you have to be in denial. It has to be a less significant fact.
As Waxy.org notes, “once upon a time, we had a coherent, thoughtful President.”
If there’s any justice in the universe, we will again someday.
As much as I miss having a President who can make intelligent statements like this… The problem with calling Bush and co. idealogues is that it implies that they have ideals. I refuse to believe that there’s anything motivating any of them (except maybe Rumsfeld, who I occasionally think has an iota of shame) except greed, ambition, arrogance, and stubbornness. And in Bush’s personal case, apathy (if that can be called a motivator).