If the person in question is Cho Seung-Hui (or Saddam Hussein) we recognize them for the sociopaths they were, though we still happily arm them to the teeth and miraculously express genuine surprise at the fireworks that ensue.
But if the sociopath in question is George W. Bush – and who can deny that he precisely fits this definition, for no amount of Rove’s marketing magic has prevented evidence of these symptoms from ultimately bleeding through to our consciousness – if it is George W. Bush, then we dress him up with all the accouterments of presidential power and prestige and allow him to launch wars of massive destruction, willy-nilly.
Bush has no more compassion than does Nancy Reagan or Matthew Dowd. They, and their ilk, know only self-interest, and if they’re ever able to miraculously find their way to favoring stem-cell research or ending the Iraq war it is only because they are personally affected and can therefore begin to start imagining other people’s suffering. But still, only on that one issue. Otherwise they remain as oblivious – as sociopathic – as ever.
How did these people – the very worst amongst us – come to speak for America?
