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Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron - Daniel Clowes »

Kevin Phillips is a former Republican strategist so when he details everything that is wrong with George Bush's Republican Party I guess it carries a little weight. Most of what he goes into here isn't news but it's certainly scary when laid out the way Philips has done here. Basically his arguement is that the country is on its way to ruin because of three basic problems - obsession with oil, Christian fundamentalism, and a culture of debt - and he backs it up with historical precedence, comparing these issues with those that fell the Roman, British and Dutch empires.

Philips sometimes goes back too far with the history lessons making for a long read (or long listen, in my case). I was more interested when he was bringing it home with sharp repudiations of the current administration. Especially when he talks about things like The Left Behind series of books that he read for reseach purposes and found that the events in those books bear a striking resemblance to the state of affairs in the world today - a middle east dictator in a war with the US, a United Nations crippled with scandal, an untrustworthy French government - all familiar current event items and all familiar GOP sabre-rattling points from the last few years. He claims that many members of the administration, including Bush, have read and swear by those books. Could they be causing life to imitate art in order to help bring about the Rapture? And does this Christian Armageddon fantasy explain the lack of interest on the GOPs part in saving the enviornment?

Posted at May 23, 2006 05:15 PM

"...Could they be causing life to imitate art in order to help bring about the Rapture? And does this Christian Armageddon fantasy explain the lack of interest on the GOPs part in saving the enviornment?"

God, that explains so much, it's scary.... I'll have to add this to my summer reading list now...

Posted by: Amanda at May 24, 2006 08:31 PM