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Andrew Sullivan pycho-analyses Liz Cheney’s approval of torture

Andrew Sullivan has taken some time to consider why Liz Cheney would approve of the use of torture. For one thing, torture is (amazingly) not shameful to the far right; rather, it’s red meat to them. Sullivan quotes Adam Serwer on this point:

For the GOP, torture is no longer a “necessary evil.” It is a rally cry, a “values” issue like same-sex marriage or abortion. They don’t “grudgingly” support torture, they applaud it.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Image: Wikimedia Commons

They celebrate it. Liz Cheney’s unequivocal support for torture methods gleaned from communist China has people begging her to run for office.

And thus, Liz, is given a second reason to defend her father, who should be treated as the war criminal he is. Her first reason, of course, is family loyalty:

Family members are always, and understandably, the last defenders of the criminal. The Cheneys’ natural inability to see Cheney in any reality-based perspective renders them psychologically able, even eager, to defend evil as a force for good in ways more forthright than others. Why this should be a plus for Cheney among the GOP rather than an obvious conflict of interest is part of the right’s current derangement. They too cannot hold the concept of their own moral fallibility in their fearful, clenched minds.

Sullivan’s entire post is well worth a read.

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About the Author

Erich Vieth is an iconoclastic attorney, musician and writer living in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. He and his wife Anne Jay have two daughters, aged 9 and 11.

Comments (1)

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  1. Tim Hogan says:

    Yep, there she goes, again!

    http://dangerousintersection.org/2009/08/11/there-oughta-be-a-law%e2%80%a6/

    Just bein’ herself and takin’ care of the family business…supporting torture!

    http://dangerousintersection.org/2009/04/09/rush-limbaugh-is-a-%e2%80%9cbrainwashed-nazi%e2%80%9d/

    Dun,dun, dun, dun da, dun, dun da dun…

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