"You are either with us, or against us" now looks like the campaign slogan of the Bushies for 2004.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2097369/
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/opinion/19KRUG.html
As Salentan and Krugman point out, this rallying cry has the great advantage of insulating the policies in question from factual analysis. It frees the rulers who use it to lie with impunity in order to reach their goals, and to charge opponents of their policies with anti-patriotism and even treason. It is the classic call made by monarchs to rally the ignorant, but patriotic rabble to the cause, however dubious. For example:
Kaiser Wilhelm II
"From this point forward, I recognize no political parties, only Germans!"
This was a proclamation made in the Reichstag during August 1914, as initial accusations of an illegitimate invasion and atrocious behavior by Germany in Belgium began to surface.
Wilhelm, however misguided his policies and antidiplomatic his methods, was at least a Hohenzollern. Bush is just a Bush. They both use(d) an Imperial, deeply antidemocratic technique to keep the support of the people.
My question: Will it work for Bush in America? Have we become as ignorantly bellicose as our Great Leader? Will we play his game? Are we essentially the same as the German public of Wilhelmine Germany?