Bush isn't fearmongering when he ways that there are Islamic extremists that are hellbent on destroying our country and our way of life. So, in a purely factual sense, what he is saying seems true enough. His rhetorical excesses (or terrible speaking style, if you prefer) does not appeal to people who follow politics, such as you and I. However, I would guess that there is a large demographic that is profoundly affected by the way in which Bush speaks about "evil" and "destruction", etc.
My conclusion, then, is that Bush is doing a poor job of articulating the true claim that we are undergoing a clash of civilizations that threatens the fundamental values of ours. Then again, some of the values Bush espouses have a similar effect of a much lesser scale... I would put the pitchfork by your bedside... just in case.
__________________
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
|