Evolution of a Bush Hater

The BBQ Pit
41

When I was a Teen, I was very Conservative. I listened to Rush Limbaugh, I had no use for democrats or liberals and was very angry when Clinton wasn’t convicted after his impeachment.

When 2000 rolled around, I voted for Bush with no hestitation. During his first year, I felt he was doing alright. I felt the jokes were sour grapes for losing the election, and felt the left/democrats were whiners because Bush could seemingly do no right during that first year. Whatever he did, it was horrible.

Then 9/11 happened, and the world changed. I changed too. Well, I didn’t fear terrorist like everyone else seemed to, and my disenchantment with the right began. Some of it was the calls to Nuke the middle east, but it was more concrete for me. I used to spend a lot of time in a chat room requented by righties who I was quite friendly with. The end came when one guy said that anyone with a turban should be shot. I voiced by opposition to that and suddenly I was “A fag”, “A terrorist” and any number of other things. So I left. At the same time, I was a member of various e-mail lists with a rightward slant, and I exprienced much the same thing, so I dropped those too, because apparently not belieiving the the genocide of muslims means “I want terrorists to kill my family”. Good riddence.

I still gave Bush the benefit of the doubt, though. I wholly supported afganistan, and collartal damage got a “meh” from me. Then the adminstration began to lose me. They began this “With us or againest us” shit, this implication that if you don’t agree with them on everything, you want the terrorists to win. Even worse was the constant echoing of that theme from the right, the shit from Ann Coulter, Limbaugh, etc. Then came the Iraq thing. I believe intially that we had to go in and stop saddam, that a lack of a united international front(Thank you, France)was enabling saddam. But as time went by, due to a shift in friends and no longer living in the right wing echo chamber, I began to doubt(I dropped one of my right wing friends after a discussion about “The Majestic” prompted one to tell me that communists should be considered tratiors to the US)I still gave bush the benefit of the doubt on WMD’s, but the Powel UN thing was…not impressive at all. By the time the war finally started, I was of the attitude that they’ll eventually find WMD’s, and at least we’ll finally be rid of saddam.

The war seemed to go better then expected, but no WMD’s. As time went on, it slowely dawned that there weren’t any, and that Bush had seemingly no idea how to run this war, despite having ample time for planning. I still had little patience for the other side, which was no doubt exerbated by protesting idiots holding “Bush is a Nazi” signs, and the constant hyperbole of Bush declaring himself King. I felt Moore’s 9/11 film was propaganda, so I didn’t see it.
And still came the “Muslims=Terrorists” from sections of the right with no visible attempt from the rest to shout them down. I was also somewhat disturbed by the fact that the adminstration could declare someone an “enemy combatant” and make them dissapear. The fact the adminstration’s only answer to any ecomomic question was “Cut taxes”. I don’t like paying taxes either, but damnit, enough already.

When 2004 rolled around, my faith was waning. It was hurt badly by Bush’s insistance on writing “No Gay Marriage” into the constitution, for a number of reasons, not he least of which is that by this time I didn’t see what the problem was with Gays marrying(wereas years before I was homophobic). Abu Garib disturbed me greatly and I couldn’t by the Right’s BS that it was a “fraternity prank”(Ironically, the same righties who downplay Abu Gharib seem to insist that homosexuals are ruining the fabric of the american family :rolleyes:). But the Democrts got Kerry to run, who annoyed me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that his foriegn policy ideas were a mystery to me throughout his campaign(No on 1991 GW, but yes on 2003 GW. WTF?), as well as his bullheaded insistance of taking very a vocal stand an issue I was somewhat passionate about. The vietnam thing should have never been an issue for either side, though Kerry wasn’t exactly undeserving because I was getting rather sick of him talking about being in Vietnam(Yes, you were, Kerry, and we’re very proud fo you. Now, quit telling us about it and tell us what the hell have you done since then?) Eventually, it turned out that Bush had pissed me off so much that I didn’t vote for him, but I couldn’t throw the lever for Kerry either. Not that it would have mattered if I had, since my state was Blue. When you can’t outdebate alfred E. Newman.

For the past year, my faith in Bush and my disgust with the right has pushed me even farther away from both. Plamegate, the continually abysmal performance in Iraq, the shifting reasons for the war, Terri Schivo, secret CIA prisons, Bush:"We do not toture"Cheney:“But don’t stop us”, Micheal “Heckofajob Brownie” Brown, Harriet Miers croyism, the Nuclear option, runaway spending,the fact thay any soldier who speaks out againest the war is instantly smeared, etc, etc. 6 months ago, I was willing to wait another year to see if the troops could be pulled out of iraq. Now, I believe that they should start bringing them home at christmas and complete the withdrawel in a year or so. If the Iraqis can’t get their butts in gear and pick up the slack by then, too bad. “You got what you want, we’re going, good luck”.

Which brings me to today. I still have little love for the left, and whenever I feel sympathy for them, they find another way to piss me off. I was ready to march in an anti-war protest But I’m willing to tolerate them because Bush has exhausted my nearly endless reseviour of faith, patience and “benefit of the doubt” I had for him. I just can’t take it anymore. While some things don’t bother me (Alito=meh), I just cannot stand Bush or the right anymore. I find it annoying that I actually agree with DtC, Evil Captor, Elucidater suprisingly often.

Make no mistake, it was Bush and the Right that turned me from a hardcorp right-winger and Bush fan into somebody who feels that the sooner Cheney is covicted of Treason, the better. They had a good thing(control of the government, 80% approval raiting after 9/11) and they insisted on acting like jackasses. They did what the left could never do, make me hate them.

Actually, I don’t really so much hate Bush, because I feel he’s a puppet. He doesn’t seem like he’s smart enough or aware enough of the world around him to do be hated. Instead, it seems like he does what Cheney and Rove tell him to do. I can’t hate him, but the adminstration in general.

42

I don’t even think he likes the haves, just the have mores and the have huge ungodly amounts.

Larry Borgia I consider Rove to be Cheney’s pitbull, I really thing Cheney is the ring leader and the most Evil.

Jim

43

Crap, to add to my last post, near the end

"I was willing to march in an anti-war protest last week but still have a hard time with the “Bush is a Nazi” people, so I didn’t go. The next day I heard some of them were blocking the local light-rail tracks by lying in front of them.

Way to go, jerk-offs. Piss off people just trying to get around town by tying up traffic for no good reason. I want the war to end too, damnit, but if you can’t control your own people, you just make it so easy for the right to paint you as idiotic anarchist losers. I’m sympthtic to your cause but I was thinking much the same thing when I heard that. Exile the Anarachist people who have a tedency to throw rocks at windows the cops(this way, they get their heads bashed in, not you), and maybe suggest that the idiots with the “Bush is a Nazi” signs please take a less idiotic one from the pile.

And For that matter, focus your attention when protesting the war. Don’t go all over the map bringing up Racism and the enviroment and fur being murder. It diminshes your message"

Sorry.

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I occasionally even **THINK ** Cheney is the ring leader and the most Evil.

Jim

45

I focused my displeasure, by voting. Unfortunately, there were just enough people who think everything Bush does is perfectly wonderful. Votes count. I think. Maybe. I’ll get back to you.

46

Second worst. Ethnic cleanser Andrew Jackson is the champ.

47

You’ve brought up one of the things that frustrates me most about the left. It often seems that they’re a hermetically sealed mutual affirmation society, rather than people trying to change this policy or that. I’m against the war (Although I’m conflicted on how best to exit this morass) but why does that mean I have to support freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal? Because I don’t support Mumia Abu Jamal. I think he’s a cop-killing scumbag–albeit an articulate and intelligent cop-killing scumbag–who’s right where he belongs.

Again, by linking pro-choice messages to anti-war protests, the left drives away people who might be against the war, but might have serious moral reservations about abortion. Catholics, for example.

Too many anti-war protests seem to me to be not so much anti-war protests as “here’s a bunch of logically unrelated issues we’re pissed about” protests.

48

That you can actually type that last sentence with a straight face is proof of your delusion. He got a pass from the liberal media??? On what planet?

49

Go on, everyone, look it up.

50

In all seriousness, you’d have to have been exposed to a very, very limited perspective to hold this view. You really should poke around a little deeper. Read Blinded by the Right, a kind of political “coming of age” by the guy who was, in his day the head propagandist for the conservative movement. David Brock wrote the book trashing Anita Hill, but when he took on the task of trashing the Clintons, he gradually came to see how much more dishonest and spin-oriented the Republicans were than the Democrats. You may not agree with everything you read in the book, but I think you should expose yourself to it in the interest of absorbing a wider perspective.

This sounds to me like there’s no one checking in so far who fulfills your expectations of an irrational, frothing Bush hater. You might consider the possibility that this might be because your expectations are unreasonable; and that someone can “hate” Bush and still be rational and relatively unfrothy.

I hope you take this opportunity to readjust some of your expectations and stereotypes.

51

Yeah, I meant to address that too. You’d have to be extremely sheltered from the range of perspectives that make up the real world to believe that Clinton got a pass from the liberal media. The right wing very successfully manipulated a compliant media to achieve its coup-by-spin.

52

I can never keep up with these things… is it determined by whether or not they wear a kilt, or how they prepare their porridge?

53

It’s the sporran.

54

Actually I’m a veritable Bush-lover compared to my father, who literally will not even listen to Bush. If the Prez is on TV my Dad will either change the channel or leave the room. He can only put up with hearing Bush on the clips Jon Stewart plays, because he knows Stewart will skewer whatever Bush just said.

55

I hated Clinton and Democrats, not for anything particularly reasonable or specific, but because I grew up around Reagan and Bush I supporters and in my innocence saw the opposition as “the bad guys” (I haven’t decided on Reagan and Bush I, well, how did Gary Trudeau put it? “A paragon of moderation and decency” in comparison with his son? I digress). The Lewinsky affair gave me something to grasp onto in my disdain for the Democratic Party, and I was pissed when the impeachment yielded nothing.

Still, as my social liberalism grew with age, I maintained sympathy for the Republicans. I was 19 during the 2000 election and saw McCain as a good guy, and found it dubious how my parents so freely dismissed him as “too much of a democrat.” As a freshman at my college I was surrounded by downright fervent anti-Bush Democrats. Given my Republican sympathies and indoctrination against the Clinton administration I got on board with Bush, even though I knew virtually nothing. Out of spite and sympathy for the underdog (Good god, what a reason to cast one’s vote! Excoriate me, please!!!), I voted for Bush in 2000, justifying it in a more concrete way by supporting tax cuts that would help my parents out a little.

Throughout 2001 I couldn’t really be bothered to care about the president. In August of that year, I reluctantly accepted his decision on stem cells as a compromise (I never saw it your way, Menocchio,but that’s a damned good point), but I was disappointed by limiting its promise to medical science. When 9/11 happened, I wanted to see some properly-executed ass-kicking, and I approved of the invasion of Afghanistan. That’s where they were, that’s where we needed to go. With that and his speech to workers on the wreckage of the World Trade Center, I thought that Bush had come into his element.

Then, during the 2002 pledge of allegiance thing in California, my support for him dipped much as it did with the stem cell issue because he said something to the effect of “what we need to understand is that this IS a nation under god.” As an atheist, I saw that at least in this Bush most certainly didn’t represent me ideologically.

I conditionally supported the invasion of Iraq, and dismissed naysayers because the government, of course, is privy to information the general public is not, right? I dutifully rolled my eyes at the antiwar crowd and “the left” until the summer of 2003 when the SCOTUS struck down the Texas sodomy laws. I was pleased with that decision. I saw the Republican backlash and thought, “what the fuck do you care if Bruce and Gregory want to get wet and wild together?” During a press conference in the Rose Garden that I watched with my housemates, I saw him react to that and stumble to respond to questions about the war and saw him for the pathetic, ill-spoken tool of imperialists and the religious right that he was. Just think: that was before Iraq was TRULY stuffed into a handbasket and sent on its way.

Since then, I’ve shared outrage with many of you over Iraq, defense of marriage, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Valerie Plame, intelligent design, Katrina…, there are just too many things to list. I think Bush is a terrible president. Perhaps the worst, if not for Jackson actually being genocidal. But Bush is at best only partially responsible for pretty good number of my grievances. What despairs me the most is not Bush himself, but that he was reelected despite all the fuckups that happened on his watch from the very beginning. George W. Bush is a symptom of something very wrong with this country. A symptom of people who give allegiance to money, heirarchies, and a red, white, and blue piece of fabric before they do the ideology and the document that the aforementioned fabric is meant to symbolize. Bush is a symptom of fanatics who want to destroy my country. Of hoodwinked people who admire his compassion, conviction, and firm, decisive leadership.

At this point I don’t give a rat’s ass if the Democrats don’t have as unified a plan as the Republicans. I’d rather stop and figure out just where the HELL we are rather than “staying the course” (to oblivion, it seems). I don’t care if they would increase taxes, support the assault weapons ban, or would cancel the procurement of fast, pointy things that look neat and make other things go kapow. Those are things that can be sacrificed in the interest of holding onto something that is so much more important.

Bush crossed the line with me nearly 3 years ago and he’s just kept on going.

56

I vote with my brain not my emotions. I never loved or hated Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr, or Reagan. Heck, I never even met any of these men - why should I have any personal feelings about them?

But I realized early on that Bush would not make a good President. And his actions since being elected have proven I was right. If anything, he’s been worse in office than I thought he would be.

57

I don’t hate GWB, although I can’t listen to his speeches because it causes me profound embarrassment for my country. Now, his administration as a whole is certainly hate-worthy, but with George himself, there’s just not much there. He’s Cheney’s creature for foreign policy, Rove’s creature for domestic policy, and on his own, his most noteable characteristics are a stubborn unwilligness to deal with reality, and a twelve-year-old bully’s idea of what leadership means.

58

From the moment that Bush started campaigning for the Presidency, it was immediately obvious to me that among all humans on this Earth, he was close to being the last one that I would want to have the job. He lies. He has never once told the truth about anything, no matter how large or small, except on the extremely rare occassions when he benefits from doing so. Sometimes he lies for no apparent reason other than that he enjoys doing so. He is an idiot. He lacks the mental facilities to do the job of Presidency. He has enough brains to be a janitor or possibly a truck driver, but not certainly he couldn’t do any job that requires real mental effort. His record in the business world confirms this. He is astonishly mean-spirited and viscious. There is no slander he would not stoop to if it was necessary to win an election or push through his agenda. He is cruel. He laughs at pain suffering and death, regardless of whether the people dying are innocent Iraqis or American soldiers or anyone else. His only morality is greed. He has never ever ever done anything that makes big money interests unhappy. He always sides with corporate interests again the little guy.

I knew all of these things from almost the first moment that he stepped onto the stage. And they were all confirmed when his entire strategy in the Republican primary was to tell people that John McCain has an illegitimate black child.

Lying: check
Slander: check
Appeal to racism: check
Shamelessness: check
Dishonesty about who was behind this tactic: check

Everything that Bush has done since then has confirmed my beliefs about him. Everything. There have been a tiny handful of moments when it looked like he might be showing some humanity, but he invariably backed down and changed his mind.

59

FWIW, I’m a liberal and seldom have any real points in common with Republican ideology.

I never liked GWB. From the get-go, I found his smirking, frat-boy, son-of-privilege-playing-at-being-a-good-old-boy demeanor off-putting. I’ve not yet been able to understand what it is about him that would make anyone “want to have a beer with him.” His obvious inadequacies as a speaker of English and his mind-boggling, utter and total lack of intellectual curiosity (coupled with his presentation of this lack as if it were virtue) did not somehow miraculously bring me to the conclusion that this was a sensible choice for leader of the sole remaining superpower. Oh yeah, and the whole record number of executions in Texas under his watch thing really didn’t endear him to me either.

That said, Gore didn’t really charge me up either. Like at least one other poster in this thread, I have to confess that I failed to vote in 2000. I’m really ashamed about that. I watched the returns, prepared to be pleased at Gore’s election because he was so clearly (to me, at least) the better qualified of the two.

The whole Florida recount/Supreme Court deciding the election thing, I found very, very disturbing. I’m not sure that it actively contributed to my disdain for GWB, though.

Like others, during the first 8 months of his presidency, I didn’t pay him that much attention. I still thought he was a doofus; I was embarrassed that he was our president and was glad that his approval rating was going down month-by-month. The stem-cell thing pissed me off.

All right, now I’ll try for more brevity. I thought he did OK with 9/11, I supported the action in Afghanistan with some reservations, I believed that Iraq was a terrible mistake and that the country was being deliberately misled into a war that had nothing to do with the “war on terror” (which I also found problematic, conceptually, despite supporting the invasion of Afghanistan – how do you wage war on an emotion?), I found the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Department offensive in name and in fact, and thought Ashcroft was an abomination. I believe gay-marriage bans are hateful wherever they are passed and would be particularly repugnant in our Constitution for reasons already covered by others.

The latest round of scandals, cronyism, etc., just makes me tired, except for the torture thing which makes me actively hate myself for being a citizen of a nation members of whose democratically-elected administration are publically going on record saying that we have the right to treat ‘detainees’ in cruel, inhumane and degrading ways if we see fit. I find this beyond unacceptable. It makes me nauseated.

All that said, do I hate Bush the human being? I certainly try not to. It’s a daily struggle, actually. Hating him would damage me and leave him unscathed, so I frequently include him in my prayers (informal as they are). I try hard to wish him well on a personal level, and I definitely pray for God to guide him, because I really think he needs it.

60

I don’t hate Mr. Bush because I don’t hate any human. However, I’m deeply disgusted with most of his policies. Posters to this thread who have much more eloquence than I do have made most of the points that I would have liked to make.

I’ve gone from mild irritation of him to a sense of fear and dread as to what will come next. It is a good thing that he cannot be elected for a third term. I think it will take a good 20 years to undo all the damage he has done to this country.

I am pleased beyond my ability to express it that I had the good sense to vote against this most incompetent man. I plan to use his Presidency as a referendum in the mid-term elections next year.

History is going to be a very severe judge against Mr. George Walker Bush.