Nation cringes as the worst president ever continues long, p

[Iris]

George W. Bush Is Dead To Me
Nation cringes as the worst president ever continues long, painful slog to the end
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, July 7, 2006

It is like some sort of virus. It is like some sort of weird and painful rash on your face that makes you embarrassed to walk out the door and so you sit there day after day, waiting for it to go away, slathering on ointment and Bactine and scotch. And yet still it lingers.

Some days the pain is so searing and hot you want to cut off your own head with a nail file. Other days it is numb and pain-free and seemingly OK, to the point where you think it might finally be all gone and you allow yourself a hint of a whisper of a positive feeling, right up until you look in the mirror, and scream.


George W. Bush is just like that.

Everyone I know has had enough. Everyone I know is just about done. There is this threshold of happy deadened disgust, this point where the body simply resigns itself to the pain, a point where the disease, the poison has seeped so deeply into the bones that you just have to laugh and shrug it all off and go for a drink. Or 10.

I was having cocktails recently with a group of people, among whom were two lifetime Republicans, each in his 60s, corporate businessmen, one admittedly slightly more moderate than the other (to the point where, after once hearing a senator read off a long list of Bush's hideous environmental atrocities, actually let his conscience lead his choice and ended up voting for Kerry) but nevertheless both devoted members of the party.

Bush came up, as a topic, as a cancer, as a fetid miasma in the air. They were both shaking their heads. They were sighing heavily. They were both, in a word, disgusted. The more staunchly conservative of the two even went so far as to say he was so embarrassed and humiliated by this president, by this administration, so appalled at all the war atrocities and the wiretapping and the misuse of law, the fiscal irresponsibility and the abuse of the lower classes and the outright arrogance, that if the Dems could somehow produce a decent moderate candidate with a brain, he'd have zero problem switching allegiances and voting for him. Or her.

It may not sound like much. It may not seem like a major shift. But it is, in its way, sort of massive. For thoughtful Repubs with a conscience (they actually exist, I have seen them), there is little left to defend. There is little this administration has done among all categories of ostensible GOP values that they can look to with any sort of pride. Medicare? Shrinking the budget? Smaller government? Less intervention in our lives? Reduced spending? Increased respect in the international community? Responsible international citizen? Ha. Name your topic, BushCo has failed. Spectacularly. Intentionally.

Indeed, countless Dems were disappointed with Clinton's behavior during Monicagate. Many were ashamed that he would cheapen the office so badly by such trashy moral behavior.

But that was just a cheap little affair (our allies never understood all the fuss anyway). This was never the attitude toward Clinton's politics, his capacity to understand complex issues, his astounding political savvy. No one anywhere doubted he made the country richer, more environmentally conscious, more stable, more respected and admired. Clinton was globally adored not only for his charisma but for his contributions to world peace. Plus he could actually point to Afghanistan on a map.

What a difference a handful of years makes. Now, overseas, we are a joke. A threat. A toxin. We are considered reckless and arrogant and ignorant, dangerous not just to the rest of the world but to the overall health of the planet. No one anywhere understands how a man like Bush can be the leader of the Free World, stolen election or no.

Sure, smarter Europeans know full well that the United States is deeply divided between the pseudo-religious right-wing warmongers who control a tiny cadre of the powerful elite, and, well, everyone else. It does not matter. America's reputation as a powerful and respected diplomatic peacekeeper, as the nation that sets the standards for human rights and economic freedom and choice, is hobbled. Crippled. Is very nearly dead. How quickly can we recover? How much damage has been done? History will tell, and it will be ugly indeed.

Interesting feature interview with Al Gore in Rolling Stone recently. Gore mentions two amazing things: one is the discussion he's had with generals regarding Iraq, with one coming right out and admitting that Bush's disastrous Iraq war will go down as the worst invasion in American history, our greatest misstep, our most costly and debilitating mistake. Among top brass in the know, of this there is little question.

The other was about the discussions Gore's had with various major corporate CEOs about Gore's pet issue, global warming, and how obvious it is that 15 minutes after BushCo leaves office, we will have a radically new global warming policy. In other words, Bush won't do a thing about it in the next two years, despite how obvious it shall become that we are in crisis, simply because he can't risk finally coming out and admitting yet another enormous policy disaster. Not to mention how nearly six years of enviro policy abuse, from air quality to water to forestry to pollution deregulation on all his industrial pals, can't be undone with a smirk and a prayer.

Which is just another way of saying we are currently stuck. We are swirling around the bottom of the drain, clinging on to anything that might hold us from going under for just a little while longer. We have to let the neocon disease run its course, and just pray that at the end of it all the scarring and the pain and damage will not be so permanent, and so hideous, that we can't be seen in public for a decade.

This is where it stands: Bush can in no way risk alienating the ultra-right-wing bonk-job contingent that put him in office (they are, considering Bush's 32-percent approval rating, the only ones left even remotely supporting him -- even though, according to many estimates, they're starting to abandon him, too), and hence all policy and all agenda items from here on out will be even more vicious and desperate in an attempt to shore up the base. Hence trying to mutilate the Constitution to ban gay marriage. Hence attacking the New York Times and claiming newspapers are endangering American lives.

In other words, Bush's latest nasty, Rove-designed salvos and upcoming attacks to save a sliver of power and pride and sneering GOP control are just the beginning.

However -- praise Jesus and pass the scotch -- they are the beginning of the end.

[Lockhart77]

well put, cannot argue at all....

[moonchild2]

I am watching a move right now called "The World According to Bush". It showed Norman Mailer saying that Bush is the stupidest pres that the U.S. has ever seen. He said that the half of the country that supports him are stupid and that's why they support him as they are comforted by the fact that stupid people can become President.

Don't think I would go that far as IMO there are some people on this forum that support him and they do not come across as being stupid. Blindly loyal but not stupid.

[mudwoman]

Originally posted by moonchild2
[B

Don't think I would go that far as IMO there are some people on this forum that support him and they do not come across as being stupid. Blindly loyal but not stupid.

Don't you think that being blindly loyal is stupid?

[moonchild2]

Don't you think that being blindly loyal is stupid?

LOL. Definitely debatable! Prolly smart in other areas.

[Iris]

Perhaps some folks should learn to avoid things at which they have no skills... like voting. :p

[moonchild2]

Perhaps some folks should learn to avoid things at which they have no skills... like voting. :p

[Lord Moon]

After the civil war, those that were for succession became southern Democrats, and spend several generations trying to re establish privledge and limit civil rights....

But when the northern Democrats passed the voting rights act, those same folks became Republicans....

They gave Nixon and Regan the white house and elected W. president...

The same issues we have been fighting since the civil war, are the same ones we're fighting now, just re packaged and called by something else...

when politicians are unable to settle things peacefully then violence is the likely outcome....America's second civil war had it's beginnings in the first...

[Iris]

Yep -- they were known as the "Dixiecrats" and were against emancipating the slaves. They later joined the Republican party, as you said.

The same issues we have been fighting since the civil war, are the same ones we're fighting now, just re packaged and called by something else...

That's a very interesting thought. Care to expound on it?

America's second civil war had it's beginnings in the first...

Second? Do you think the country is headed to blows over this?

[Iris]

I am watching a move right now called "The World According to Bush". It showed Norman Mailer saying that Bush is the stupidest pres that the U.S. has ever seen. He said that the half of the country that supports him are stupid and that's why they support him as they are comforted by the fact that stupid people can become President.

Was that a rented movie? It's hard to imagine that on TV. Was it good?

[HB3]

After the civil war, those that were for succession became southern Democrats, and spend several generations trying to re establish privledge and limit civil rights....

But when the northern Democrats passed the voting rights act, those same folks became Republicans....

They gave Nixon and Regan the white house and elected W. president...

The same issues we have been fighting since the civil war, are the same ones we're fighting now, just re packaged and called by something else...

when politicians are unable to settle things peacefully then violence is the likely outcome....America's second civil war had it's beginnings in the first...

A highly suspect interpretation. The Democratic Party's betrayal of the Southern Democrats marked the beginning of the Democratic Party's downfall as the party of identity politics. The rats continue to flee the sinking ship.

The analogy between the Reconstruction and present day illegal immigration is particularly egregious. The fourteenth amendment, and, much later, the Civil Rights and Voter Rights Acts, were designed to protect the rights of a group brought here against their will and subjected to involuntary exploitation. This is not equivalent to the situation today, and, in fact, there are several key differences. One can make the same point about Affirmative Action. Since it was created to compensate for a history of prior exploitation, why do Mexicans qualify for AA? The only possible rationalization lies in the recent invention of "diversity" as an end in itself, the province of the New Democrats.

[HB3]

Was that a rented movie? It's hard to imagine that on TV. Was it good?

Must've been cable...Mailer doesn't make it on network television anymore -- unless it's "Gilmore Girls."

[Lord Moon]

Must be on your mind...

But since you brought it up, the same foks who oppose workers rights, used immigration to destroy the union.

Their also the ones that oppose amnesty, and raising of the minimum wage... they like paying slave wages....

Yes Iris, I do think we're headed for civil unrest, because I see so much frustration on the part of people with the political process...

When there is so much polarization, and when the parties keep going at each other with hammar and tongs, and still no solution is found then, people begin to believe that resolution cannot be found in the politcal process....

[Ninerism]

Perhaps some folks should learn to avoid things at which they have no skills... like voting. :p

Iris, GOOD ONE! LOL

Ninerism

[moonchild2]

Was that a rented movie? It's hard to imagine that on TV. Was it good?

It wasn't a movie, bad choice of words on my part, it was a documentary aired on CBC TV Canada. The program is called "The Passionate Eye" and is very popular up here. This documentary was I think, made by the British but I missed the credits. In any event, it painted a very negative picture of Bush and the boys and was far more critical and informative than even the "The Dark Side", PBS's expose. If you are able to get CBC, there is another one to be aired on July 16th called "The Rise of Political Fear". You might find out more about last night's film at cbc.ca