BDS and potential ODS

For those few among you so cut off from civilisation that you don't know what BDS was (and is), it is Bush Derangement Syndrome. Somehow, the folksy, down-home preppy George W Bush sent large numbers of lefties into a rage so profound many are still fully engaged with it - see commenter on previous post. President Bush was not a complex character - he was a well-read, God-fearing gentleman with very few genuinely conservative instincts in a job that requires more front than he possessed. On most big issues he veered towards the left of centre- the non-assimilation of immigrants didn't seem to concern him, he refused a border fence with Mexico until very very late on, government spending during his terms increased dramatically, a steady drizzle of new government programs were initiated under his aegis. Only on US security was he a stalwart conservative.

So how did he manage to turn many American and international lefties into purple-faced incoherent cauldrons?

Thats a puzzle few can really figure out. Perhaps he was too close to the east coast blue-blood archetype liberal, and his refusal to keep to the script made him much more dangerous than a southern redneck ever could be...

We shall not tarry over this psychological conundrum. Suffice it to say, it has badly affected the civility and continuity of American political life.

So, will ODS emerge? Is it already emerging? Will it be paybacks for Bush, or has it got its own peculiar pathogenesis? Will it really be mostly discreet racism?

Until a few days back, I didn't think there really was any ODS. Then I read a piece on the Pajamas Media website which argued that ODS was a scourge worth avoiding. Some of the commenters didn't agree:

Nomad:
The first “MUSLIM ” president Of a “CHRISTIAN NATION………. FORMED ON CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES!! Notice how he speaks: “”Tally bahn”" ………”paakey stun”

Thats definitely ODS. Many of the other comments revealed people teetering on the edge of it. Does that mean that eventually tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of Americans will join up? Certainly not. But it did get me to thinking.

Then last night I was watching Glenn Beck on Fox. He had Daniel Hannan on, the British MEP currently doing a vastly better job of being a conservative than anybody on the opposition benches at Westminster. Glenn Beck doesn't like Britain. He only had Hannan on because he is a YouTube celebrity for saying things no American would or could say in public (mainly due to the disastrous state of American public speaking). At the end of his 'interview' (Beck doesn't listen to the answers to his questions), Beck insulted Hannan for daring to criticise an American President for his lofty incivility to our visiting Prime Minister. He said something along the lines of 'I liked you when you were criticising the EU.... remember, we kicked your British asses once and we might just do it again'.

Why do Americans feel they can insult Britain as much as they like, and not provoke anti-Americanism? Why do Americans feel that treating their pretty-much only decent ally like crap is a good plan? If Britons stop fighting alongside America, that will leave exactly no one who will. Does the increasingly brittle, coarse dialog in internal American politics feed into increasingly bizarre behaviour towards the rest of the world?

Today President Obama chose to shit on the heads of the rest of the world leaders at the G20 by having his own press conference. Thats right- all the other world leaders had one press conference, and President Obama had one by himself. He also gave a long answer to a question where he listed why America rules the world. Now anybody who knows this blog knows that I have fought tooth and nail against unreasoned, ignorant prejudice against the United States. But I can't defend that. I just can't. Its rude, its provocative and its a major hostage to fortune.

Here is a question for President Obama: will China always feel it is in its interests to fund Americas deficit spending on military programs and social programs? What will you do if they pull that rug from under you? What will THAT speech sound like? Will you use any of the same triumphalist rhetoric?

I will only defend an America I respect.