from The American Prospect of 21May,2006 -- Democrats R Us Returns

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Date Posted: 18:44:53 03/13/10 Sat
Author: Bob
Subject: from The American Prospect of 21May,2006

"After the U.S.S. Maine sank in Havana Harbor in 1898, President McKinley was called upon to prove it. When at first he refrained from retaliation against Spain, McKinley was subjected to the jingoes' feminizing derision. Editorials cited a �great need of a man in the White House� and �manly and resolute� responses to Spain's treachery. Teddy Roosevelt, eager to make manliness the fulcrum of any drama, complained, �McKinley has no more backbone than a chocolate �clair.�

McKinley eventually demonstrated his backbone, bending to the jingoes' demands for war. Though the proximate cause of the conflict resided in Cuba, the American defeat of Spain led McKinley to annex the Philippines. The White House had hoped U.S. troops would be greeted in Manila as liberators. Instead, U.S. forces were soon engulfed in a bloody, extended fight against homegrown insurgents. More than 2,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and hundreds of thousands of Filipinos slaughtered. An occupying army far from home, U.S. troops were frightened and enraged by their inability to tell friend from foe. They soon resorted to unconventional measures. The American public had been encouraged to view the war as a character-building exercise for its virile young men. It was shocked to discover that some U.S. soldiers were systematically torturing the prisoners under their control.

When Karl Rove cited McKinley as his inspiration for Bush's presidency, the Philippine-American War wasn't what he had in mind. Instead, Rove, who focused on McKinley in graduate school, noted that the 25th President had ushered in a Republican reign of 36 years, interrupted only by the two terms of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Rove envisioned Bush at the head of a similar juggernaut."

The juggernaut was ended in November of 2006

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Replies:

Forum ..Oh forum -- SC, 18:48:54 03/14/10 Sun
- Re: Forum ..Oh forum -- Bob, 00:05:53 03/15/10 Mon