Political Pathology 101 (from the Progressive Review)
Posted: October 18th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
In this Progressive Review item, Editor Sam Smith infers from Hillary Clinton’s bellicose stance regarding Iran that she is actually psychopathic. I’m not sure if she’s a psycopath or simply the most politically pragmatic (read: lacking any moral conviction) candidate out there. How could anyone possibly prefer this person to Barack Obama?!
SMITH - Given that so many politicians lie, equivocate, exaggerate
or change their positions, it is difficult sometimes to diagnose a truly
sick pol. But as with other psychopaths, there are a few clues. One is
the way they explain themselves when they’re caught. Normal politicians
may apologize and ask that we move on or they may say that new factors
had entered the equation and so forth. But a truly psychopathic
politician will give an explanation devoid of intellectual of moral
justification because it is enough for them that their new position
helps them do what they want to do. It doesn’t occur to them that
morality has anything to do with it.
In other words, ask a psychopath why he murdered a woman and he might
say, “Because she wouldn’t give me her purse.” The justification is
entirely self centered.
Bearing this in mind, read this by Helene Cooper of the NY Times:
|||| Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd voted against it. Senator Barack
Obama said he would have voted against it if he had voted. Former
Senator John Edwards implied he would have voted against it if he could
vote.
And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton? She voted in favor of the measure in
question, which asked the Bush administration to declare Iran’s
125,000-member Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist
organization. Such a move - more hawkish than even most of the Bush
administration has been willing to venture so far - would intensify
America’s continuing confrontation with Iran, many foreign policy
experts say.
Part of the reason for Mrs. Clinton’s vote, some of her backers say
privately, is that she has already shifted from primary mode, when she
needs to guard against critics from the left, to general election mode,
when she must guard against critics from the right. That means she is
trying to shore up her national security credentials versus Republican
candidates like Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney, and is trying to
reassure voters that she would be a tough-minded commander in chief. By
supporting the bill - sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman of
Connecticut and Jon Kyl of Arizona - Mrs. Clinton is also solidifying
crucial support from the pro-Israel lobby. ||||
In other words, we might end up in World War III because President HR
Clinton was trying to shore up her rightwing support as she moved from
primary to general election mode. It doesn’t get much more psychopathic
than that.
