In September 2001, I delineated Bush’s insane January 2005 inaugural address

In an e-mail written six days after the September 11 attack, a year before the declaration of the Bush Doctrine, and three and a half years before Bush’s second inaugural address, I described with near exactitude the logical extreme of neoconservative thinking that, as it happened, President Bush laid out in that address—a speech so arrogant and detached from reality that it made Peggy Noonan, who had previously been fond and admiring of Bush, turn away in disgust.

Lawrence Auster, September 17, 2001:

If we continue to define ourselves as some universal abstract idea like “freedom,” then any attack on us is an attack on “freedom,” which can only be answered by our imposing “freedom” on the whole world.

President Bush, January 20, 2005:

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands….
Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self government….
Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation’s security, and the calling of our time….
It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world.

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Also, from that same week (the entire week of VFR starting January 16, 2005 can be seen here), see Robert Kagan’s response to Bush’s 2005 inaugural speech. Kagan lauds Bush for saying that America is a revolutionary power, unhinged from any limited purpose, spreading global revolution.

And here is other commentery on Bush’s second inaugural and on conservatives’ response to Bush’s inaugural (to see the below, you could also just browse through the weekly archive for January 23, 2005):

A new religion is born

The bigger he [Bush] talks, the more phony he is

Terror murders as bumps on the road [How Bush followers are like self-blinded Communists.]

Is it wrong to call Bush “Boilerplate”?

More on my nickname for Bush

The fundamental irrationality of Bush’s democratism

Kesler on Bush’s distortion of natural rights

Noonan stands by her severe criticism of Bush inaugural

Bush’s new language

Does our freedom depend on Moslems’ freedom?

The silly syllogism that justifies Bush’s policy [Daniel Henninger on Bush’s speech]

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John M. writes:

On the night before his second inauguration, President Bush made reference to “a call from beyond the stars to stand for freedom” in a speech given to military/NASA personnel. When I heard that line, I turned to my wife and said the USA is over as we know it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 12, 2008 12:08 AM | Send