We Celebrate War Criminals When They’re Charming!
I watched a little bit of the first game of the recent World Series between the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. They had the Rangers’ former owner, George W. Bush, throw out the opening pitch. Watching Bush walk to the pitcher’s mound, I remarked, to no one in particular, “Oh look, there’s a war criminal!”
My eight-year-old daughter, who was also watching the game, asked me whether Bush was a “bad guy.” Even though Bush was every bit the “war criminal” the Brandon regime now accuses Putin of being, I suddenly felt a strange reluctance to condemn him. Why? What stopped me? As bad as it sounds, Bush had turned on his jovial charm for the cameras, and on a visceral level, the spell was working. I felt a twinge of cognitive dissonance — could someone who projects such a warmhearted, likeable image really be bad?
It took the G.O.P. many years, and the iconoclastic …
