Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Nuance is for Girls

Bush doesn’t do nuance -- apparently out of the conviction that to admit that an issue may be complex or require thought is, somehow, girly.

So Bush says abortion is simple – it's all either yes or no.

The question about whether a 14 year old who has been raped by her father and is pregnant by her father ought to be required to get her father’s permission before she seeks an abortion – that’s a stupid question, says Bush.

Or whether partial-birth abortion bans ought to have exceptions built into them for the health of the mother – so that, for instance, a mother pregnant with a terminally deformed or dead fetus could abort it through the D&X extraction method* to avoid the possible life-threatening, fertility-threatening complications that can result from forcing her to carry that dead fetus around until her body “naturally” expels it – one of the many sorts of abortions that would be made illegal if that ban went into effect – well, that question is also stupid, says Bush.

It’s simple, says Bush. You’re either for partial birth abortions or you’re against them.

Bush says the answer to the Iraq war is simple, too: Either Bush was right or we’re siding with the terrorists. And if he was right, we have to back him.

“Seems pretty simple to me,” says Bush.

Likewise: You’re either rich or poor. If you’re poor, you deserve what happens to you. If you’re rich, you deserve to be bailed out. You’re either white or you’re not. If you’re white, you deserve all the help you want. If you’re not, you don’t. You’re either Christian or you’re not. If you’re Christian, God is on your side. If you’re not, you’re going straight to hell, and meanwhile it’s pretty much okay for us to call you roaches and evil and bomb the shit out of your country. Nothing difficult to understand there!

Bushco wants a simple, binary world like this.

Why? Because the other sort of world is too hard for him? I doubt it.

Because it’s the simple binary word he’s always lived in? Maybe.

Because he knows it will fly with his voters? That’s the puppy I’m putting my money on.


* the actual correct name for what the Wingers like to call “partial-birth abortion”

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