When I commented yesterday on the obnoxiousness of Bush’s speech to the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, I had not yet seen the transcript of the speech in its entirety.
As turns out, the speech was more obnoxious than I knew.
Besides addressing questions of honesty, Bush brought in questions of responsibility. He said: “The American people know the difference between responsible and irresponsible debate when they see it,” he said. Then came the continuation: “”They know the difference between honest critics who question the way the war is being prosecuted and partisan critics who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, or because of Israel or because we misled the American people.”
These obnoxious remarks are not addressed at people who already realize that Bush’s policies are not the best imaginable ones for our security. They are addressed to his supporters. And while they discuss the subject of debate, their intent is to stifle debate.
Their scant proclivities towards critical thinking reinforced by Bush’s remarks, his supporters will tune out all rationally presented criticism of Bush’s policies by thinking or remarking, automatically: “Criticizing Bush’s policies is irresponsible.”
The word ‘responsible’ has various meanings. For example, it can refer to one’s being legally accountable for the care of another. It can also refer to one’s being the cause of something.
I could go on listing accepted understandings of the various nuances of the word ‘responsible,’ but none of them make me comprehend precisely what Bush meant.
What is “irresponsible debate” anyhow? Is, for instance, arguing against the teaching of the use of condoms in public school health classes irresponsible?
And applied to voters iterating and then defending their stances on important issues of the day, who is to decide at what point they become irresponsible in doing so? I’m irresponsible if I mention that Bush misled the American people? I’m irresponsible if I back up that contention with evidence that he had seen definitive proof there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to his making major speeches that there were such weapons, speeches he made to justify his invasion?
Irresponsible is staffing FEMA with cronies. Irresponsible is having no reaction to an August, 2001 memo titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within U.S.” Responsible, on the other hand, is calling into question poor policies that are inflicting massive harm to one’s country.