Just a few brief words. The events that have unfolded over the last two weeks have revealed just how flawed Bush's character is and why he is unfit to lead. A person of high character 1) surrounds himself with those who are best suited and qualified for the position, not those who are friends or have done him favors. Brown does not meet these criteria. The fact that Bush has stocked his administration with figures such as brown indicates a fundamental lack of
wisdom on his part. 2) A person with character seeks
honesty,
forthrightness, and
realism among those who advise him. Bush, apparently, has surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear, not what he
ought to hear and what the country
needs to know.
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As Bush has demonstrated time and again, he doesn't have forthright advisors (just witness the echo chamber surrounding Iraq and the leadup to Iraq), and he refuses encounter real American citizens and public events. Bush is a man constitutively bent on insuring that he doesn't hear truth or realistic evaluations of our situations and problems.
Finally, 3) a real leader holds himself accountable for mistakes that he has made, and doesn't attempt to shift blame. This is because a real leader places the welfare of those that he leads above himself, and is above all concerned with solving problems and leaving the country better than he found it. Bush has demonstrated a consistent behavior of evading accountability and a refusal to learn from mistakes. Hurricane Katrina fundamentally demonstrates just how little the administration learned from 9-11 and that the touted Department of Homeland security is more a piece of political propoganda than a real institution designed to protect Americans.
During the last couple of elections character and values have been fundamental issues. Republicans seems to believe that character has to do with the oral acrobatics our elected officials engage in, whereas true character pertains to those virtues necessary for a person to lead: honesty, accountability, wisdom, etc. Bush and the republicans have revealed a fundamental deficit of character in their evasion and lack of these virtues, and are for this reason unfit to lead. A lack of character in a leadership position such as the presidency is not simply the lack of a charismatic feature we'd like our leaders to have, but it is also fundamentally dangerous and menacing to the American people.