Karen Hughes, American Rube

Jeff Koopersmith

A National Embarrassment: White House Rebuked By the Very Arab Women They're Trying to "Save"
By Jeff Koopersmith

Special to American Politics Journal

September 28, 2005—WASHINGTON (apj.us)—Today, I learned that the spine-chilling Karen Hughes is in Jidda, Saudi Arabia this week instead of home with her children. She's been activated to contribute to the impossible task of resurrecting President Bush's falling national and international "f-scores", which put him in first place among the most loathed political leaders on Earth.

What is she doing there, this Texas country bumpkin who pretends to be one of the geniuses who put George W. in the White House despite the fact that he is a dry drunk, a consistent destroyer of his own business interests, the biggest spender in Presidential history and, of course, the dumbest President ever?

Well, Ms. Hughes, yesterday, was lecturing five hundred Saudi women at a local university, spreading the Bush line of absurdity that whatever's American is better than anything else.

While I agree in principle that the United States is the most splendid nation on earth, and that Americans are the finest population history has known, I cannot help but laugh at the pure naiveté of Ms. Hughes and Mr. Bush who actually believe that the world is beating down the door so as to assume an American mantle and American "democracy." As we hear consistently, "All politics is local," and so it follows that most nationals believe their way of life is best.

The most obvious and prominent reason for the Bush Administration's lack of common sense is that everyone closest to this President is as rube-like as he. Most of them, including the former Texas governor himself, had never traveled beyond America's borders during their pitifully shallow lives, preferring instead to hide out in Austin, Houston or the oil suburbs plotting the takeover of the world—a world with which they had and have little familiarity.

Hughes, like everyone else in the Neocon cauldron of callowness, thinks that Arab women aren't happy being Semitic. The truth, of course, is that the vast majority of Arab women are quite happy, with some reservations naturally. These sentiments are sort of similar to the feelings of American women, don't you think?

Face it, countrymen and women: other people resent proselytizing by Americans about how wonderful we have it and how horribly they suffer.

It's kindergarten psychology.

People are proud of who they are, and a national family is as unapproachable by strangers as is the American family, resistant to suggestions from anyone but their closest members.

Can you imagine the reaction of American women if Arab women began lecturing them about the marvelous rewards of living in families where men are men and take the lead in most interpersonal relationships within the home? The typical American woman would be insulted to have it suggested that her place is in the kitchen with the meat and potatoes and the younger children. However, amusingly, a Neocon woman like Hughes might cleave to the social conservatism of the Arab male-dominated society inasmuch as American conservatives have been stuck in the rut they call "family values" for nigh-on twenty years.

The question, of course, is, "Whose family values?" That's a question I've asked over and over again during the past two decades.

More alarming than Hughes' impolitic words of "advice" is the Saudi government's decision to choose the most liberal and privileged women in Saudi Arabia to listen to Hughes' claptrap. These are sophisticates who treated Hughes well, but impatiently questioned her views that were critical of Saudi society. If the most urbane Arab women lose patience with us, what might we find among the middle and lower class women in these nations?

These days, Hughes is carrying the credential "Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy"—but it goes without saying that she is not widely known for her diplomatic talents or for her intellect or curiosity. She's better labeled as a know-it-all and has had that reputation follow her throughout her career.

The point is fully supported by the facts: Hughes, for instance, has never traveled to the Middle East before this week, yet she demonstrates—on behalf of Americans, mind you—the impudence to be disapproving of another culture. Like her boss Bush, Hughes lives in a bubble that includes barbeque parties, too much liquor, and too much everything that defines Texas, the only state in the nation where property values fell rather than rose over the past decade.

Ms. Hughes was knocked for six by the questions thrown at her by at least half a dozen university women who tutored her that they were not "barred" from talking to men as Hughes assumed during her talk.

The hucksterism of Hughes is a national embarrassment. She is running around the most dangerous (to Americans, at least) region of the world introducing herself as "a mom" when most of the world laughs at the proposition that moms and children are the only important things on earth.

While this line works well in the United States where women are tiring of carrying such heavy burdens and seek relief from working and raising children simultaneously, Hughes and her boss Condi Rice do not seem to understand that Arab women do not face these tough choices between career, husband and children—and to them, this is a good thing.

Hughes, however, is fully aware that in order for an American-style pressure-cooker economy to survive, both women and men must be employed to pay the colossal bills that Madison Avenue lures them to incur.

IN another demonstration of her absolute stupidity, Hughes went on and on about her ability to freely drive an automobile in the United States. She actually said this: "Driving a car is an important part of my freedom."

Most Arab women do not drive, nor do they care to. They are chauffeured-either by male family members or drivers employed for the purpose. The men drive the women to protect them, as much as to "trap" them as Ms. Hughes parenthetically suggests. The New York Times' Steven Weissman reported that Dr. Siddiqa Kamal tore a strip off Hughes at this lecture reminding her that the American and European medical community is far more chauvinistic than the Middle Eastern.

"I don't want to drive a car," said Dr. Kamal, "I worked hard for a medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?"

In her defense, journalists covering Hughes say that Arab audiences at least believe she is open to differing opinions.

Nour Sabbagh, a 21-year-old university student said it best however, "She's trying to understand," according to the Times.

My question is why Hughes is simply trying. She is an embarrassment. Hughes should know, not try to know. Any business traveler learns quickly to respect and to appreciate the differences between societies. They also take the time to study different populations in advance of their visits.

Hughes, demonstrably, is absolutely unprepared to be a mouthpiece for the United States.

Mr. Bush should recall her immediately and perhaps appoint her "Undersecretary of Moms and Kids" where she might do a superb job convincing American women that their place is at home.

(Not.)

JEFF KOOPERSMITH is a political consultant, opinion research authority, policy analyst, and self-described "renegade lobbyist."