The Exploitive Political Distraction: How President George W. Bush and His Administration Used Oppression for Political Gain

Abstract

The exploitive political distraction is a political maneuver that uses fear and prejudice to achieve special-interest goals and gain power for politicians and special-interest groups. It methodically attacks a vulnerable stereotyped group through a manufactured social crisis, thereby diverting attention from hidden political agendas. This article uses President George W. Bush's call for a constitutional definition of marriage as an exemplar to diagram an exploitive political distraction. Diagramming the process provides social work policy practitioners with potential entry points for both proactive and counteractive advocacy intervention for populations-at-risk.

KEYWORDS:

• same-sex marriage
• political distraction
• oppression
• at-risk population
• political manipulation
• Iraq war

A draft of this article was presented at the Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting in New York, NY, February 28, 2005. The author thanks Kenneth Wedel for his support and feedback on the manuscript.