Monday, January 19, 2009

A FRENZY OF 'UNDOING'

Over at Ace of Spades, Dave in Texas is discussing the 'pound of flesh' that the Democrats and the left are demanding:


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Fox News Sunday says she's open to the idea of prosecuting Bush administration officials....

Even after winning the election, they cannot be satisfied with their victory:


Not when the Democrats staked so much on losing, and lost the bet. They have no intention of losing the argument. Instead they demand the house invalidate the spin of the wheel, and redo with new odds. They weighed "it wasn't worth the cost", realized that was a losing argument, and instead chose the "crimes were committed in the execution of this flawed policy" path. They will do everything they can to make certain the Iraq war is bathed in shame and self-loathing.

It's what they do. And while I hate to say so, they're pretty fucking good at it.


Dave has hit on a very fundamental necessity for being able to remain on the [psycho]path of denial: the Democrats and the left have staked so much--their entire self-concept, in fact--on losing in Iraq and the evil of George Bush and the Republicans, that they cannot be satisfied with merely winning the Presidential election. 'Hope and Change' was just a motto for them, it was the only way they could continue to keep their eyes closed.

You can sense this dissatisfaction in the unseemly giddiness of the the Inaugural hoopla and the 24 hour a day coverage of the Man who would be King. You can see it in the unbelievable excess and inappropriate costs in a time of financial crisis (didn't we just condemn AIG executives for doing something similar?); and you can see it in the unrealisitic, nearly psychotic fantasies that are emerging as The Holy One ascends to the throne of God Presidency of the U.S. The childrens' books are already printed (it's never too soon to indoctrinate the next generation) and the silliness of the comparisons (at least some of us have not forgotten that Barack Obama has accomplished NOTHING of any consequence in his entire career as yet--except get elected to be President).

As Victor Davis Hanson observes:


...[T]he charm, youth, non-traditional multiracial persona, and rhetorical eloquence, when combined with shrewd megalomaniac sets (the Victory column, the convention plastic Greek temple, the vero possumus presidential seal, the 'oceans will recede' lingo, the retracing of the Lincoln route to the inauguration, etc.), create a sort of national frenzy of good will and media trance for hope and change.

Indeed, it is a frenzy. This is not normal excitement or enthusiasm over an inauguration--even a very special or historic one. This is not even normal relief that now things are somehow going to be different. This is emotional excess that disguises a severe, disabling anxiety; an anxiety that has been tenously held in check by the psychological denial that came before. It is as if the bizarre national depression the media have been hyping for the last eight years suddenly flipped into a full-blown mania--with all the euphoria, grandiose ideas and plans, delusions of grandeur, wildly impulsive spending, irritability and inappropriateness one sees in an acute manic episode.

It is the Greek temples and the Obama Presidential Seal to the nth power. And it is symbolic of the lengths to which many in this country, led by the political left and the Democrats, will go to in order to maintain their psychological denial at all costs so so as to continue to be oblivious to the danger in our world. They will even go so far as to erase any evidence of events that have transpired since the beginning of the millennium when Bush took office and including 9/11--especially 9/11--so as to pretend they never happened.

They will simply 'undo' the last 8 years; rewrite the history and take us across the bridge back to the 20th century.

UNDOING is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person attempts though contrary behavior to ward off threatening thoughts or feelings. Undoing can also be a convenient way to 'explain away' habits or behaviours that are not considered in line with an individuals' (or group's) personality; and, finally, by using the defense of undoing, one can rid oneself of gnawing feelings of guilt by compensating the injured party either symbolically or actually. Undoing can be thought of as the behavioral component of reaction formation, a psychological defense in which any unacceptable thoughts or feelings are turned into their opposite.

The Democrats and the left have a lot of undoing to do. They must, in short, wipe the Bush Administration off the map; as if it never existed. Because if they do that, they can go back to pretending that there is no real threat from terrorism--only from BusHitler and Darth Cheney.

Now that they are indisputably in charge, they can easily segue from expressing their dysfunctional emotions about this to actually acting on those dysfunctional emotions. It will even be ok to fly the flag again, since, ya know, it doesn't represent oppression and evil anymore!

In the last 2+ months we have just seen the tip of the iceberg of all the undoing they are planning as they take us back to the good old days of the 20th century (have you noticed all the Clinton Administration people who are back; including even Clinton's wife) when we were all happy and completly clueless about the rising tide of barbarism that would engulf the planet.

Let's look at just a few of the undoing strategies that have already become apparent:

-The Bush Administration MUST be seen as a failure. No ifs, ands, or buts. Thus this is now about the 3rd or 4th "poll" that has been published all with the same thrust: i.e, Bush is a failure; he's the most unlikable President ever (as compared with the popularity and uncritical adoration the public is bestowing on the Messiah, upon whom all our hopes and dreams now rest). Does it matter that President Bush and his Administration kept another 9/11from happening on his watch. Apparently not.

-Even further, as Ace of Spades notes, they have a compelling urge to prosecute members of the Bush Administration for their "crimes". This is not just political payback (though there is an element of that present)--it is an obsession of many on the left who will never be satisfied until Bush and all that he stands for is entirely and formally discredited so that there is not the least possibility that they could have been wrong about terrorism, Iraq, or anything else. You see, they want to shut down history and make sure that the historical record says only what they want it to say. They don't need no stinkin' facts like the Surge, the success of which threatens to make all their arguments about losing and facing reality look pretty stupid and traitorous.

- As part of the new "realism" of hope and change, the new Obama Administration will engage though dialogue and diplomacy the regimes of Iran and Syria. The same Iran and Syia who have been rearming Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon for the last several years. This certainly will be welcome by those regimes who have responded in an appropriately peace-loving and conciliatory manner. Yeah, appeasement will definitely work. Iran's leaders are probably trembling....with laughter.

- It is necessary for the Democrats to put the military back in its "appropriate" low place in the heirarch American society. The Democrats wouldn't want a military made up of people with valor and courage; they prefer a military of victims and losers.

-Plans to repeal various laws and cancel executive orders that are considered evil and fascist (but look closely and you might just see that many laws and orders that have been railed against for years are only going to be repealed rhetorically and not in fact, since they actually kept us safe)

And, don't forget about all the new committees the Democrats will now set up to impeach, blame, deny and distort--not only about foreign policy, but domestic as well. They can always count on the MSM's devoted support, and in moments of extremis, they can always use the same talking points of the Islamic fanatics they hope to peacefully engage in dialogue and diplomacy. You know, those talking points that inevitably blame America and Israel for everything. I'm sure you, dear readers can think of even more ways that history can be written over and undone. After all, the last thing the Democrats and the political left want would be to wait for history's verdict on Bush and his transformative Presidency (and I mean that literally--Bush in 8 years has managed to transform foreign policy to prepare America for meeting the potentially catastrophic dangers of the 21st century). What they want is to make sure 'history's verdict' is cast in stone now.

In short, the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Democrats and the left, as well as their ongoing appeasement, enabling and outright support of the enemies of western civilization (just another oppressed victim group from their perspective) continues to reach new lows every single day. And, there is every reason to expect that they will always find a way to dig deeper and with ever more manic hysteria. We are in for a wild frenzy of 'undoing'.

Psychological denial, triumphant and in-your-face.

As a psychiatrist and blogger, I look forward to observing and commenting on their ever-increasing psychopathological behavior which will shift into full hysteria mode tomorrow. From that perspective, the next four years should be quite fascinating as the Democrats strive to undo the last eight. I can only hope that Barack Obama has enough common sense and instinct for survival that he doesn't allow the idiots Pelosi and Reid to triumphantly open the gates of civilization to the barbarians waiting just outside.

Fun times.

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