Evolution of a Bush Hater

The BBQ Pit
21

first off, i’m a Republican (hey, put down the rotten fruit and hear me out m’kay? :wink: )
actually now that i thinbk about it, i’m more of an Independent with Republican leanings…classic Republican leanings, small government, self sufficiency, a strong defensive millitary, etc…

i was too young to vote back in the Reagan years, but i would have voted for Ronnie, both times, i did vote for Bush Sr., as they were mostly in line with my views

2000 election i voted Nader as i hated the other candidates and wanted to “send a message” to the two main parties (geez, look how effective that was, eh… :wink: ) back then, i saw Bush as a bumbling incompetent, good for a few laughs, but mostly harmless…

9/11 happened, and i generally thought Dubya did an… adequate job, not great, but not horrible, problem is, 9/11 did happen on his watch, so he was most definitely “asleep at the wheel” as it were, had the CIA/FBI/NSA/Reverse Vampires/Major Leauge Baseball :wink: all got their act together and actually worked together it may have prevented 9/11 from happening, hard to tell, always in motion the future is though…

where Dubya started to lose me was the runup for the current quagmire…errr war…in Iraq, even I, a lowly computer tech with NO government connections could tell we were being sold a load of bull and that Iraq was NO threat to us at that time, i figured it was Dubya throwing a “saddam is a bad man and tried to kill my daddy, i’ll show him!” temper tantrum, somehow i had a feeling that the WMD’s were nonexistent, at this point, i began to see Dub as more than just an amusing incompetent, he was quickly becoming a dangerous incompetent, and that’s where the hate began…

to be fair, i should clarify that i hate and distrust ALL politicians, always have, and likely always will, something about “absolute power” and it’s ability to corrupt springs to mind…

all the other reasons that i hate him have been covered by far more eloquent posters than myself, suffice it to say that in the last election, i did the unthinkable… this registered Republican came to the realization that i could not, in good faith, vote for Bush with a clear concience, so i held my nose and voted for the lesser of two evils in protest, Senator John “i have a plan, no really i do, and it’s good, by the way, i’m not Bush…” Kerry, didn’t like him any more than Dubya, heck, i found him smarmy and annoying, but Bush clearly needed to be fired, and i was trying to do my part as a good citizen…

fat lot of good it did, but i’m not bitter, no

and i still distrust ALL politicians, regardless of their political party or convictions, at least it’s easy to determine when a politician lies though…

their lips move…

if Dubya could alienate a voter who had previously and reliably voted Republican in every previous election, something was clearly wrong, the Party has lost it’s way and now no longer represents my interests…

okay, i’ll stop rambling now…

22

My evolution of dislike to hatred. I still don’t hate Bush, but I hate many of his actions and appointments. Deep down I feel he is a puppet and was best suited to being a baseball Team Owner.

…In the 2000 primaries, each party had a major candidate I liked and respected. John McCain was the candidate for my party the republicans and Bradley for the Democrats. I would have happily campaigned for either if they got the nomination.
…When Bush started making character attacks on McCain, I went from a dislike of the under qualified yahoo to a strong dislike. I hold republicans to higher standards than Democrats. I really don’t think republicans can be draft dodgers. (G. W. Bush and Dan Quayle). By making all out attacks on McCain I lost all respect for him.
…I was okay at first with the Cheney nomination. I thought it would bring some intelligence and experience to the ticket. I was disappointed they did not take Powell; it had looked like there would be a chance.
As the campaign went on, I found out about how deeply Cheney was tied into large businesses with questionable practices and I was nervous that both had terrible environmental records.
**I voted for Ralph Nader in the Green Party. **
…When 9/11 occurred I was extremely disappointed in the scared rabbit tactics employed by Bush & Cheney and said so that day and ever since. I know this is not a common opinion but I feel without Giuliani’s leadership there would have been panic and possibly reprisals against Arabs. *(Disagree with me, but please start another thread to do so and please invite me). *
…I liked the war in Afghanistan and I even like the attempt to remove Saddam from power, I always thought the worst mistake GHW Bush made was telling General Schwarzkopf to stop. What I didn’t like was the fact they rushed into the war and failed to build a real coalition like James Baker did for Desert Storm. The war was well executed but they lacked plans for the occupation, which I kept trying to explain to people. I said the war would be easy but occupation would be very difficult and take much longer than anyone expects. I guess I was just crazy though. :rolleyes:
…Cheney’s dealings with Halliburton and Enron moved me to full fledge hatred of him. Ashcroft and Rumsfeld are just plain evil. These three represented a power block in the cabinet that consistently over road Colin Powell the one man qualified to organize the Iraq campaign.
…My hatred of Cheney cannot grow anymore but on a weekly basis he reinforces it. This weeks defending of torture and plea to retain it as a tool is a good example. Bush’s picks for the Supreme Court are frightening. His appointment of Michael Brown as head of FEMA might be this administrations single greatest disgrace. There is more to my very strong dislike and I think he is the worst President in my lifetime. I rate him much lower than Nixon. Cheney is the most corrupt official I have seen; I think we need to go back to the Teapot Dome scandal to surpass it.

Jim

BTW: I really hate their alliance with the religious right and anti-stem cell research and Intelligent Design and generally their anti-science policies.

23

I voted for Bush the first time, as I didn’t like Gore one bit.

Now I frankly hate Bush and his actions.

24

What is it about Bush & Cheney you still like and respect. I simply cannot understand this?

Jim

25

Lots of excellent posts laying out why I regard Bush with contempt. Hate? Naw, contempt is more like it. That, and unabashed schadenfreude at watching his wheels come off. If only so many innocent people weren’t paying most of the price for his astounding incompetence and arrogance…

26

Before the Election: Having grown up surrounded by the blatant hypocrisy of the Bible Belt, I have misgivings about any politician who has their support. Add to this Bush’s inability to utter a single articulate, let alone eloquent, sentence (an important ability for a president) and his completely casual attitude towards the death penalty in his own states (whether you’re pro or anti death penalty, it’s not a light matter) and the blatant hypocrisy of the right wing pundits regarding his past (Clinton’s lack of service in Vietnam and the fact he tried marijuana in college were fair game and vitally important to the nation per their opinions, but Bush’s far more conspicuous draft dodging, his bad grades in college, his alcohol and drug problems [including a deliberately concealed DUI arrest] were all completely unimportant) only added to my dislike for him. When the election was handed to him by the Supreme Court and the SORE/LOSERMAN bumper stickers came into play I was furious: had the election been given to Gore (who got the majority of the popular vote and we’ll never know what the fuck happened in Florida, the state run by the new boy’s BROTHER) the same people would have been carrying torches and pitchforks.

Interim: I watched an interview with lame duck Clinton when he spoke to British college students (Oxford?) originally aired on BBC.
slight hijack: Few things irritate me more than the fallacious “If you hate Bush then you must have loved everything about Clinton” nonsense- it is not a moral dichotomy that you can say “I think Bush is incompetent, ignorant and amoral” AND “I think Clinton was wrong to lie about his extramarital affair”. Clinton had flaws, no doubt about it, but the Starr Investigation was the most ridiculous moment since McCarthy.
Anyway, in this interview Clinton was speaking without notes or a list of questions. One of the students asked him a question about whether or not he believed the government should fund nanotechnology research and he answered the question completely spontaneously but in such a way that you knew for a fact he knew exactly what he was talking about. Another asked him about U.S. intervention in Rwandan genocide and he spoke at length, without notes, about the Hutus and the Tutsis (Dubya would still be giggling or mentioning “Tutus and Hooties”). Around the same time Dubya was asked in a meeting with college students who his favorite political philosopher was and after a stall said “Jesus Christ.”
Not only a stupid answer (Jesus said “render unto Caesar” yadda yadda, the reverse of Bush’s theocratic ambitions) but it was clear from his vacant expression he said Jesus because he couldn’t think on his feet of another political philosopher. This drove home the imbecile we had accidentally elected.
Bill Clinton is the public school educated son of a lower middle class mother in the Deep South and can respond to questions on advanced topics. Bush was the son of a very rich and powerful father, was educated in the most expensive prep schools and attended an Ivy League university (as a legacy, because the U of Texas wouldn’t admit him to their law school) and came up with “Jesus”.
And he said and says “Nukular”. God help us.

So I already loathed the smirking spoiled chimp before he was ever sworn in.

After election: His refusal to ever admit he was wrong or change course on anything, his continuing and blatantly obvious ignorance and his pandering to the religious right (how the fuck can you appoint Ashcroft?) showed that I hadn’t misjudged him. I had a bout of “get behind the leader” patriotism after 9-11, completely supported the invasion of Afghanistan and even generally understood the invasion of Iraq, but the total clusterfuck of the war and the bungling of everything he touched and the continued smirking chimp persona and the continued halleluia chorus, encyclopedic ignorance and toadying to corporations and the Cheney-Halliburton scandals… I recanted of my pro-war status.

I couldn’t stand John Kerry but I voted for him because he wasn’t Bush. I’ve yet to see one thing that makes me say “good job” about Dubya and I don’t think that’s the filters I’m seeing him through, and I think he will go down as the worst president since Grant. (This is edited, incidentally, as the full story of my loathing would require a book length post.)

27

I’m not sure I hate the man, but my simple disagreement with his politics became something more when he started pushing for war and there seeemed to be no way to appease him without bloodshed. It’s difficult for me to hate somebody who hasn’t personally wronged me, but I find him and his cabal contemptuous because of their insatiable bloodslust.

28

The evolution of a Bush-hater? Intelligent design. Only possible answer. Its the Will of the Goddess.

29

“In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey”

30

Gorilla my dreams.

31

Perhaps, but he’s a cheetah, it seems.

32

You’re talking apples and orangutans, now.

33

Hate? No. I don’t hate Bush, and every day I hope for his survival because I don’t want Cheney or Hastert to be President. It’s not about Bush, the man.

I was very critical of Clinton, the man, but I never thought his policies were part of an agenda to harm the US - or the world. He harmed the democratic party for sure, he flirted with the corporatists and the neocons - so there is blame there - but it wasn’t a direct, concerted effort to harm the nation or the world. A smart but personally weak man who did a lot of stupid selfish things that caused unintended harm - that is how I believe history will see the Clinton era.

I believe the agenda behind Bush is a direct concerted effort to cause harm - to dismantle or bankrupt domestic policies from FDR and LBJ, and to establish the neocon vision of a new world order abroad. I said it (to whoever would listen) then (2000), and everything I said then has been realized.

But as I said, it’s not about Bush the man. I almost pity the conservatives, who worked long and hard to obtain power going back to the Goldwater era, only to be saddled with Bush, the unqualified know-nothing, at the apex of their power. The innocents and true believers were sold out and duped, by the corporatists and the neocons. They swallowed Reagan and lived to fight another day, but ultimately they will choke on Bush.

George Bush is just an image made-to-order, a symbolic figurehead of how things could be made to go wrong in the US, and how Americans can be duped and manipulated by their own ideals.

34

Or apes and oranges.

35

Just as soon as I realized he had no concern for anyone not in his “base”.

You remember, the “haves” and the “have more”.

36

Why are you lion to me? :dubious:

37

I’ve heard claims that Cheney is a living fossil.

38

T. rex, no doubt.

39

No, Copralite.

40

For me it’s his utter incompetence, his profound–well stupidity is probably the wrong word–so let’s say incuriosity coupled with inflexibility, and his commitment to ideology over reality.

Some examples:

1.) The war in Iraq. Not only was this a bad idea from the get-go, it was also shoddily executed. If we were going to go into Iraq, one would think it would have been wise to have contingency plans to prepare for any eventuality. “Pray for the best, prepare for the worst,” as the saying goes. As James Fallows pointed out in an Atlantic article about a year ago, it’s not that there weren’t plans, it’s that the administration completely ignored them, utterly convinced by it’s own neo-con ideology.

2.) A constitutional amendment barring gay marriage. Seriously, why is anyone behind this hateful idea? Even if, for whatever reason, you are opposed to Gays getting married, why does this require a constitutional amendment? This is the most glaring example of Bush’s being beholden to some, IMO, very scary people. People who are barely removed from the Taliban in their ideology.

3.) The cronyism. Micheal Brown and Harriet Miers. Bush seems to regard the presidency as his personal toy, not as a grave responsibility. What sort of person appoints their personal lawyer to a seat on SCOTUS?

4.) He spends like a Democrat on a meth binge. I’m not a Republican, but I used to value them for keeping us honest on taxing and spending. Bush seems to have forgot this hallowed Republican virtue. And at least the Democrats realize that if you’re going to spend you have to tax. Otherwise we’re ammassing debts our kids are going to have to pay off.

5.) Karl Rove. An absolute amoral piece of fecal matter. The Valerie Wilson outing is just the most recent and visible of his perfidies. I don’t think people realize how mcu dmamge outing a covert CIA operative can cause. In the cold war this could have led to people–agents inside the Soviet Union–being killed. The stakes may be less high today, but many people’s lives have become much more difficult because of this act of treason. Thanks to Libby’s perjury we may never know the full story, though I hope that it may come out at trial. I’m astonished that pro-defence conservatives aren’t outraged by this.

I don’t know enough about nineteenth century presidents to say conclusively that GWB is the worst President we’ve ever had. I understand Buchanan flubbed a chance to stave off the Civil War. But Bush has got to be in the top five. And given that the U.S. role in the world is so much larger than it was a hundred or two hundred years ago, the consequences of having an absolute moron like Bush in charge are much worse.