I’m not so sure about the Bush hating thing any more. I use to say to my self that I don’t hate Bush (certainly not the way my friends in the real world and on these boards hated, and apparently still hate, Bill Clinton, his wife, his kid, his dog, cat and gerbil).
What I hated was what BW Bush was doing to my country. I hated the social Darwinism, I hated the simplistic approach to education and the insistence that with enough standardized tests all children could be made to be above average and discard those who were not, I hated the shifting of the wealth of the nation to people who already had more than they could ever use by regressive tax rates and borrowing to meet deficit budgeting, I hated the obvious contempt for the opinion of the rest of the world, I hated the smarmy smile when ever he managed to pronounce a word correctly (and sometimes when he did not), I hated the tendency to go to the simplistic solution as long as its effect was to transfer more wealth to the wealthy, I hated the insistence on war with Iraq on what seemed to me inadequate grounds, I hated the homophobia, I hated the view that the Good Lord put the earth here expressly so that it could be used up as fast as possible, I hated the influence that social reactionaries had on him and the insistence on appointing those people to the federal courts, I hated the half truths and the slight of hand on things like limiting access to the courts and limiting rights of recovery, I, in short hated lots of stuff GW Bush was doing and looked like was about to do.
In my geezerhood, however, I have concluded that you cannot separate the man and his works. I realized that I cannot hate the works but remain open minded about the man. Its not like he is just doing his job like the poor slob who makes me walk around the airport in my stocking feet. The President’s works are things he has deliberately chosen to do. He was not forced to invade Iraq instead of go after the Jahidists because he would lose his livelihood and not be able to feed and cloth and house his kids if he didn’t. He did not revise the income tax rates because otherwise he would not be able to fix his car. He did not beat the drum for oil drilling on the reserved northern slope because his wife needed new shoes. He did all those things because he wanted to–because each one of them somehow gratified him.
No, its not that I just hate the works of GW Bush–its because of those works I hate, distrust and suspect the man himself. I can’t assume that what he is doing is good for the country any more. I can’t take it as a given that what he tells me about himself, his plans, his accomplishments, his motives or his critics as honest and credible any more. He has fallen into that class of persons who, as an old friend once told me, are to be taken as lying sons of bitches until they prove otherwise.
Don’t just dismiss my opinions as those of a Bush hater. Ask yourself why it is that I might hate the President.
