Fallout

It's interesting to watch the political hemorrhage that is taking place in Washington. All of the moderates, the cautious folks who aren't in lock-step with Bush's narrow foreign policy, they're being excised like unwanted tissue, kicked out in favor of the True Believers. Not that changing so many cabinet members is anything unusual, it always happens at the beginning of a new term, but its the contrast between those going and those staying that is telling. I mean seriously...our top diplomat is Condoleeza Rice? What? She is one of the Born Agains, for whom Apocalypse is a goal, not a catastrophe. You can tell from the way she speaks that she is 100% incapable of understanding the viewpoint of another person. Which is fine in-itself, but as a diplomat you need that rare combination of empathy and patience. Watch her face any time a reporter asks her a difficult question....her face scrunches up, her head tilts a bit sideways and her voice shoots up another octave...she's genuinely confused that anyone could even begin to question her actions, which to her are so obviously infallible and sanctioned by god.

I actually find her to be more frightening than Cheney or Rumsfeld, because they, at least, you can understand. They're type has been around for thousands of years, they're just another mob of wealthy elitists paying lip service to civilization as they bomb and kill in a senseless power-grab (type "hydraulic despots" into google for a broader historical context). Cheney I get. Rice, on the other hand, is a bit different. She is a Fundamentalist. God is working through her, meaning that the people of this country aren't her concern, world stability is irrelevant....she's looking out for an invisible deity who probably talks to her, whose voice comforts and soothes her whenever annoying details (like reality) get in the way. Fundamentalists the world over share one trait in commom: they're actions, as far as they're concerned, have no consequences. Everything they do flows from god, so if people die, if suffering results, well...it's all apart of gods mysterious plan. Fundamentalists are like children, striking out blindly when they're upset, screaming at the world when they're toys are taken away, and utterly oblivious to the existence of others. These are the people who protect the right to life...by killing abortion doctors. And now we have ourselves a fundamentalist diplomat. Wow. This will be interesting.

To be fair, she is a brilliant lady, super smart, so it's not her mind I question. It's her world-view, her ability to think critically about consequences.