Evolution of a Bush Hater

The BBQ Pit
61

I just can’t find much to respect in him.

One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned is the No Child Left Behind disaster. It sounds really nice, but it doesn’t take into consideration individual students and their needs or individual schools and the services they provide. What is does is mandate without proper funding.

What kind of idiot would set up a system where schools for autistic children are expected to meet the same academic standards as schools for gifted children?

And what if the schools for the autistic children are closed because they continue to fail his standards? Where will the children go? If they are sent to the “good” schools, what will happen to the standards at the “good” schools? How will there be room for them? Who will pay for the extra space? Who will teach them? What will happen to those schools when the standards drop?

And all the time he makes such a mess of the language and he brags that he doesn’t read newspapers.

The President needs an exit strategy from NCLB and a better understanding of what education is. (And I’m all for higher standards for teachers!) He shouldn’t pretend to know about things that he is very ignorant of and then surround himself with other ignorant people.

62

This says my feelings about the best that I have seen. However some days the NCLB gets the better of me. I don’t know if i am getting into tinfoil hat area here, but I am begining to believe the entire purpose of the NCLB was to destroy the public school systems. If you add NCLB to some of the experiments of Choice schools, it sure seems to be what the outcome is going to be.

I hate that my students get the short end of every stick. I hate that one of my favorites signed up for the national guard last week. I hate that two more are intent on joining the marines. I hate that for some of them it is very possibly the only way they will get to go to college. I hate that short of a major miracle, my students will be sent off to fight a war they absolutely do not believe in. I hate that my kids will be cannon fodder and his will not even know anyone in the military.

I can’t blame George W. Bush for the fact that my students were born poor. I can’t even blame him for the fact that so many of today’s military comes from their ranks. I do however, have to blame him and his cronies for starting a war to kill other people’s children for reasons that I still canat figure out.

63

I never liked the “idea” of Bush2. IMHO the US of A should not have primal geneture. GWB is where he is today solely owing to the fact of his father was President. Went to prep schools, university legacy, cushiest draft dodging job during 'Nam, sure he got into biz school based on Daddy’s connections, busted an oil company, was given a sweatheart deal into the Astros (do I have the right team?), all whilst being an alcoholic cokehead.

On the one hand, GWB is living proof that anyone can grow up to be President. On the other hand, his entire life has been one sweetheart deal. GWB has no experience or reference point for 99% of Americans. Unlike his father, he never went through a trail by fire and in fact did the opposite.

I can not respect or admire someone like this. Heck, Teddy Roosevelt III did work for Lehman Brothers as a consultant. In other words, he got paid 6 figures for lending his name as a Lehman Brothers front man I think 2x per year for 2 weeks. Teddy was absolutely professional, articulate, suave, well spoken, friendly, hard working, interesting, diplomatic, etc and he put in 14 hour days on the gig with a smile on his face. Teddy came from an equivalent pedigree and lived off the name, but I know who I’d rather work with, party with, and have running anything requiring more responsibility than a Rotary Club.

64

I was indifferent from what I saw of GWB as Governor here in Texas. I was raised Republican by an unwavering father who disliked the fact that his own father (equally dogmatic) would vote only for Democrats regardless of what they did. As a teen I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. I hated Clinton because the talking heads told me to, because he lied about something I’d probably lie about too, because it was all I ever knew. This was the time of Bush I though; I was too young for Reagan and generally I still think Bob Dole is alright - he’s a funny guy, he’s a smart guy, I think he would’ve been a relatively harmless President. However I don’t believe the Republican party I used to casually support is what it is today. Since GWB and 9/11, it has mutated into some kind of monstrous parody of itself.

I did not vote for GWB in 2000, but I voted for no one, I just went in and spoiled my ballot. I didn’t really like Al Gore, I didn’t like the third parties at the time, I didn’t want to vote for Bush because I was generally dissatisfied with how he completely ruined John McCain (who I like) in the primaries. Up until 9/11, I thought of him mostly as a doofus, most likely to just maintain the status quo and I can live with that. On the day of 9/11, I panicked and called a friend. I said that day we would end up attacking Iraq and starting a horrible war, possibly what would become WW3. I don’t know how, I’m not claiming to be psychic, it was just a horrible, sinking, disgusting feeling I had in my stomach. Of bad things to come.

The fact that I feel a lot more awful things coming, at GWB’s doing, disturbs me greatly.

Since they started making rumblings about Iraq, my apathy has turned to disgust and I suppose you could say hatred. The fact that Republicans seem to be hypocrites of the highest order doesn’t help. They want to deny rights to gay people in the interest of protecting marriage, while divorces and affairs are no big deal (unless it’s a Democrat.) They claim to be the party of smaller government, more fiscal responsibility, and they’re anything but. Personal responsibility? Please! Talk to a Libertarian about what personal responsibility is. Other posters have gone into much more detail of specific turning-point events but suffice to say I agree with many here.

It’s really quite sad, I agree with a lot of Republican ideas in theory, if only they’d actually practise what they preach. Until they route the corruption and hypocrites out of their own party, and excise the Religious Right, I will continue voting for Democrats and (in local elections) third parties to remove as much power as I possibly can from them.

65

I notice that a lot of you think Andrew Jackson was the worst US president ever. Don’t forget that he is on the $20 bill, one of our most commonly used currencies. Now how do you think history will treat Bush?

66

The $3 bill is available, from what I understand.

67

History is beginning to treat Jackson quite poorly, and I expect he will come off the $20 eventually. It was the Battle of New Orleans and the common man’s president thing that made him looked upon favorably, and as history reflects, it is finding that the bad parts of him outweigh the good. Hopefully, it will not take 200 years to consign Bush to the bottom of the barrel.

68

Wouldn’t that be sweet.

69

Bush is NEVER responsible for ANYTHING. At least with Reagan or Schwarzenegger, they were/are willing to accept blame when they fail (Reagan over Iran Contra and Arnold over his failed initiatives). Bush all through his miserable life, has always blamed someone else. No fucking balls.

70

That’s not true.

He’s responsible for our great economic sucess, for us not being attacked by terrorist again, for bringing peace and freedom to Iraq.

He’s not responsible for the bad things though. If you think so, you’re a “Hate America-firster”

71

Damn. I never got the memo :smiley:

72

How could Bush be responsible for “bad things?” He only does what God tells him to do. God wouldn’t tell him to do a “bad thing,” now would He?

73

I’m in the UK where the machinations of US party politics doesn’t have any direct impact on my life, and I still can’t stand the guy. I don’t understand how a man who appears to fly in the face of every classic American value of hard work and sacrifice to one’s family and country can find favour with republican voters. He has no discernible talents and has been shilled in to every job he ever held. From an outsider’s perspective he comes across as a man who has never paid the price.

We have our own collection of talentless buffoons in whom we invest great wealth and deference, of course. We do, however, draw the line at giving them any responsibility.

74

I’m going to get personal. (The politics have been covered well already.) I have an innate loathing for the guy. He’s a smirky piece of shit. 2000 was the first election I’ve ever for for a democrat (and my first vote was for Nixon.) Everything since has just deepened my disgust.

I despise his lack of curiousity. Does he really believe that his aides are going to give him a broader view of opinions than a range of newspapers? This culminated in the DVD he needed to figure out what was going on in New Orleans. Did he lie about WMD, or was he too stupid to ask the hard questions?

The third thing is his unwillingness to ever admit a mistake. He’s a very stereotypical incompetent son of a successful man. Yes, I liked his father, who is looking smarter and smarter as the years go by.

Fourth is his inability or unwillingness to follow through. NCLB is one example - but in many others he promises money for great things, never to come through. Afghanistan is another example - he did an excellent job in the invasion, but Osama is still at large. He starts things and makes messes for others to clean up.

It gives me great pleasure that he is now considered less trustworthy than Clinton. Have a drink with him? Yeah - but I’d throw it at his face.

The only good thing - I was a Republican, but his administration has shown me what really happens when they get power - so I’ve switched to the Democratic Party.

75

I have little tolerance for hypocrites, liars, incompetents, and assholes. GWB has all that, and more, in spades.

I’m sure he’s a halfway decent guy in person, and I’ve long maintained he’d be well-suited for a job as a greeter at the local Wal-Mart. But “leader of the free world” material he ain’t, not by a long shot.

76

I forgot about the executions. Okay, I still don’t hate him, but that’s reason enough to despise the guy. Not because he signed execution orders; almost every governor does that these days (if I recall, Clinton made a quick trip back to Arkansas to sign one during the 1992 campaign). It’s because Bush didn’t take the time to even read through the files for the people he passed on to the needle (Alberto Gonzales is partly to blame for that).

When Texas was about to execute its first woman since the return of capital punishment, a reporter asked Gov. Bush something like, “What do you think she might say, if she got to speak to you?” Bush smirked (more than his usual smirk) and said mockingly, “‘Don’t kill me!’” Whether or not you believe in capital punishment, it’s despicable for a governor to express that attitude regarding that part of his job.

So, fuck 'im. Twenty years from now, the fact that he was (sorta) elected twice will seem like a bad joke.

77

I’ve been thinking about this thread for a day or so. I think the only reason that I haven’t brought myself to talk about all of my feelings for Bush is that in my religious faith, hatred is against the teachings.

But I’m just not being honest with myself. Hatred is just a technicality. In the spirit of the teachings, I’m sure that contempt and judgment are along the same line as hatred.

I try to tell myself that I just hate what he does, but I’m not very good at separating what he does from who he is anymore.

Some of my feelings started with Guantanamo. But I think maybe the turning point for me was when I found out that he had to be shown a DVD of what the rest of us knew had been going on in New Orleans for days – with people dying “on his watch.” What happens to soldiers who are asleep when they are supposed to be on guard?

I hope to find my way back out of these feelings, but yes, now I hate him. May God forgive him for what he’s doing and me for my anger. I just can’t see my way clear to getting past this yet.

78

The death penalty was where he lost me back all those years ago. Bush basically signed every order of execution that was put in front of him. As you said, in many cases he never even bothered reading them.

I could respect this is he really was a staunch supporter of capital punishment - or if he was a staunch opponent of capital punishment. Of even if he had ever stopped to think about what his position on the issue was. But he was running for office in Texas, and the majority of Texan voters are pro-capital punishment, so George was pro-capital punishment. However when he decided to run for national office, he was told that on a national level, there wasn’t overwhelming support for capital punishment. So for the first time since taking office, Bush commuted a death sentence - apparently almost at random - so he wouldn’t look like he always sent condemned prisoners to be executed.

However, as far as anyone can tell, Bush never gave the matter a moment of real thought. He did whatever looked more politically expedient and if the numbers changed, he just shrugged and changed his position. And this was when he was dealing with a matter literally of life and death. I don’t care what your position is on capital punishment - I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a trivial issue. Except George Bush. And I decided that any man that shallow didn’t have what it takes to be President.

79

I wouldn’t go that far. I think Bush would have done okay in many lines of work. Like a corporate vice presidency as long as there was a CEO to watch over him. Even in politics, he would have been okay as the mayor of a medium sized city - the city council and the governor would have kept him in check and he could run the day-to-day operations with some help from competent staff members. He just shouldn’t have been placed in any position where he’s responsible for anything really important.