Competent but Corrupt?
I saved this little observation from Avedon Carol some time back, and I'd thought to write something on the theme, about how so many of us liberal types talk about Bush and Cheney and their neo-con goons as though they were incompetent at running government, which presupposes that actually running the government were what they were trying to do. Like Ms. Carol, I've thought for awhile that it's probably to our disadvantage not to recognize that they might be having great success, accomplishing just what they wanted to accomplish while ignoring what we think of as their administrative duties and priorities. As she says, it's high time we realize this.
I just want to say: The trouble with the "incompetence" meme is that it assumes Bush/Cheney/GOP are operating on the same theory of government as the rest of us are. And while it's true that they hired people who were not competent to run government according to the agenda of the US Constitution, and that they have not run government competently if that was there intention, it is not at all reasonable to assume they have been incompetent at achieving what they wanted. I still think people should talk more about the fact that they are running the country into the ground just the way they wanted to.
[Avedon Carol, "I've Been Thinkin' ", the sideshow, 7 February 2007.]