George W. Bush and the Bushist Fascists == America's Batterers

What is Domestic Violence in the Context of Politics?

Let's refer to some classic DV literature:

Domestic violence is a pattern of many behaviors directed at achieving and maintaining power and control over [others]. Power and control tactics certainly include acts of physical violence of varying degrees of severity. However, in many abusive relationships, abusers use a variety of other tactics directed at controlling their partners.

(Remember: you do not have to be physically hit to be abused.)

Emotional Abuse:
Abusers often speak to victims in humiliating and degrading ways geared at promoting a sense of worthlessness. . . (Karl Rove, are you listening? ) These messages are conveyed both blatantly and subtly, leading victims to question their own value and abilities.

Isolation:
It is common for victims of political domestic violence to become isolated from family, friends, and others who could provide them with emotional or practical support.


Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming:
Acts that serve to both distort reality and normalize abuse include minimizing or denying the seriousness of abusive acts and blaming the victim for "causing" the abuse (It's all the Dem's fault). Batterers often tell victims that "they were only kidding" about emotionally harmful or degrading statements. (Bush putting his hands on the female Chancellor of Germany).

Abuser Perceived Entitlement:
Batterers believe it is their entitlement to maintain power in a relationship and control their intimate partners. (Bush/Cheney treat the opposition party this way -- and use sexist language to portray their opponents as weak, nannystate, helpless). They believe that big decisions should be theirs to make. (No compromise on with the opposition -- only their way will do). Their perspectives about the relational roles of males and females tend to be traditional and male-dominant. They commonly believe it is their job to discipline their partners, physically, emotionally, and by denying victims necessities for themselves and the children.


Coercion and Threats:
Common coercive behaviors include: threatening to do something to hurt the victim; threatening to leave the victim; threatening to commit suicide; threatening to hurt her family members or friends; and threatening to report her to a welfare agency or the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Victims quickly learn that batterers have no qualms about carrying out their threats and batterers use the victims’ awareness of this fact and their fear to maintain control without having to commit acts of physical violence. (Compare the post-9/11 fearfulness of doing anything that might go against the Bushists' worldview for fear of being labeled soft, pro-terrorist, giving aid and comfort to the enemy. We are only now waking up from this post-traumatic nightmare that put us under their power and control).

Intimidation:
Victims learn to interpret and fear batterers’ looks, expressions, gestures or actions. (See: America's submissive press corps.) These behaviors may be so subtle that others may not notice. Batterers also commonly destroy victims’ property, especially those things that hold sentimental value. Batterers may torture or kill pets. Batterers frequently own weapons and tend to brandish them to intimidate their victims. Unfortunately, batterers also use these weapons far too frequently.

Do you see the pattern here, boys and girls?

Do you understand how Bush's pissing away of the surplus, and creating in its stead a massive, bleeding deficit is akin to an abuser taking away a victim's economic power?

Do you understand how Bush's wielding the weapon of fear over the American people has terrorized us? And disempowered us? Made us numb, frozen, barely able to call 911 and ask for help in escaping?

Did you notice how Bush blamed the victims of the sub-prime mortgage scandal for having been bilked?

Were the Republicans not intent upon making us feel powerless and making us be powerless?

Now, Americans feel a loss of autonomy, in their own lives and in the nation. Their politics are driven by the powerlessness they feel to control their financial well-being, their safety, their environment, their health and the country’s borders. They question whether each generation will continue to ascend the economic ladder. That the political system seems so impotent only deepens their frustration and their insistence on results.

As she considers this campaign, Susan C. Powell, a 47-year-old training consultant who lives in a Kansas City suburb, said that what she feels is not so much hopelessness as doom.

“I know plenty of people who are doing worse than they were,” Ms. Powell said, “and nobody’s helping them out. People’s incomes are not keeping pace with inflation. People can’t afford their homes. People in their 30s and 40s, middle-income, and they don’t have jobs they can count on or access to health care. How can we say that we’re the greatest country on earth and essentially have the walking wounded?”

NY Times on Dirty Bush's Battering of America, America's Dark Mood.




(Earlier work based on information from the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence)