This passage Armando quotes is embarrassing. I mean, if I were in
charge and surrounded by sycophants, really, it would be best if their
flattery were thoughtful and did not provoke immediate laughter.
Powerline disturbs me. It's the tone, really. They're like groupies.
It
must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary
vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to
notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his
time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception
that, when not bored, is hostile.
Hyperbolic? Well, maybe. But consider Bush's latest master stroke: the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.
The pact includes the U.S., Japan, Australia, China, India and South
Korea; these six countries account for most of the world's carbon
emissions. The treaty is, in essence, a technology transfer agreement.
The U.S., Japan and Australia will share advanced pollution control
technology, and the pact's members will contribute to a fund that will
help implement the technologies. The details are still sketchy and more
countries may be admitted to the group later on. The pact's stated goal
is to cut production of "greenhouse gases" in half by the end of the
century.
What distinguishes this plan from the Kyoto protocol is that it will actually lead to a major reduction in carbon emissions! This substitution of practical impact for well-crafted verbiage stunned and infuriated European observers.
I doubt that the pact will make any difference to the earth's
climate, which will be determined, as always, by variations in the
energy emitted by the sun. But when the real cause of a phenomenon is
inaccessible, it makes people feel better to tinker with something that
they can control. Unlike Kyoto, this agreement won't devastate the U.S.
economy, and, also unlike Kyoto, the agreement will reduce carbon
emissions in the countries where they are now rising most rapidly,
India and China. Brilliant.
But I don't suppose President Bush is holding his breath, waiting for the crowd to start applauding.
Reminds me of a documentary I once saw in which they interviewed a guy
who was in a Russian gulag on the day Stalin died. He said all the
prisoners in the gulag were weeping at the announcement of the death of
the man who had sent them there -- because Stalin had made himself so
huge and important and synonymous with their country that they
literally could not imagine the world without him.
This is what the Right is trying to do -- and it scares me to death to see how close they come.
True believers (and there were plenty) said the same things about
Nixon. And, in fact, some of the same folks (e.g. Noonan) still do. But
it's important to distinguish those who rhapsodize over their chosen
demigod hypocritically, and those who are actual believers. The latter
will continue to redouble their fervor right up until the moment that
their faith evaporates, while the former never had any actual faith to
begin with, and will simply bend with the political tide.
Stated
differently, self-delusions are often clung to hardest when the
evidence supporting them is least. But once brought to the breaking
point, the delusions will evaporate, with some former believers
opportunistically joining the hypocrites (perhaps to save face as much
as any other form of self-interest) while others will flee to the
"enemy" camp. Such people do exist -- I know some of them -- and we need to be ready to welcome them.
