Norman Mailer called George W. Bush a "flag conservative." Like Teddy Roosevelt, he was a blueblood male in his own way obsessed with the idea of aggressive expansive Empire as a way to save his vision of a troubled, floundering America.
"Flag conservatives truly believe America is not only fit to run the world but it must," Mailer wrote in 2003. "Without a commitment to Empire, the country will go down the drain."
Back in 1896, Roosevelt and Cabot Lodge lobbied their neurasthenia-obsessed Republican hearts out for the saving power of manly war. The question now in such circles is can the US still cut the imperial mustard? Better yet, should it still try? Or should it give the lure of Empire up for the sake of the Republic's soul and survival?
Mailer again: "Patriotism in a country that's failing has a logical tendency to turn fascist."
The knuckleheads on the right fantasize a return to the days of John Milius' Teddy Roosevelt charging up the San Juan Heights to save American manhood from the mugwumps of indecision. But we now live on the backside of Roosevelt's Empire. Thanks to powerful historical figures like the South American Hugo Chavez, the glory days of bully imperial adventures are waning. As Mailer suggested, for the United States, in the future it's either humility or it's fascism. And we know what the knuckleheads want.
So in the annals of imperialism and South American history, all there is to say is: Hugo Chavez -- Presente! History will show he was a great American.
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