REASSESSING GEORGE W. BUSH
By Peter Fredson
March 24, 2006
Ever since George Bush came upon the political scene I have been trying to divine the source, or sources, of his certainty. I realize that he has been anointed by friends, cronies, parents, fundamentalists, corporate executives, neoconservatives, and by the Old Testament God of his faith, and wrapped in cotton batting so that no critic or heretic can harass him.
In his bubble of comfort and security, he can suck his thumb and contemplate the pleasant spectacle of dressing in purple robes with a golden crown atop his head and Karl and Dick patting him on the head.
There is not the slightest doubt but that Bush prefers to live in a world of fantasy, in which all his dreams of glory and grandeur come true, in preference to the cold reality of making a living on his own, serving his country like a trooper, and feeling some empathy for other creatures not in his circle of wealth and power.
He is known to possess little true curiosity, but seems to be amenable to indoctrination by several dozen advisors. Once he has fixated on an opinion it would take dynamite to move him from it. His staying the course is an artifact of his absolutist belief system.
Once he is assured that his God, or Karl Rove, or Dick Cheney, or some fundamentalist activist approves of his course, he will stick to it like glue. He was quite taken aback when, after appointing his private secretary to the Supreme Court, some True Believers objected strongly and forced him to revise his appointment.
This attitude extends to loyalty to cronies, old fraternity friends, and to his Republican Guard. Despite assertions that he would fire anyone guilty of leaking information, Karl Rove is not only still in great favor but has been given wide latitude in managing billions of dollars in flood disaster aid. So it takes a lot of double-talk to the public to keep Bush seeming to be above the fray.
One aspect of the Bush character is beyond any question. He is a liar. He lies habitually, maliciously, knowingly. Any reporter or blogger worth their salt has documented hundreds of lies. There are a number of web sites dedicated to exposing the Bush lies. Everyone in the country that is not brain dead or a gullible fundamentalist knows that Bush and his cabinet lied our country into a completely unnecessary, immoral, and illicit war against Iraq.
The question is, why? Why does Bush prefer lies, deceit, stealth, surreptitious action, and arrogant imposition to honest action? Where does this double-dealing come from? Do his supporters really want him to perpetually obfuscate, prevaricate, and slander?
For several years I leaned to the view that Bush suffers from some mental pathology, probably as a result of his early alcohol and cocaine use. The "dry-drunk" syndrome is still in the running as a reasonable explanation. So is Egomania.
Lately I saw signs that Bush is a kind of sociopath. I remember Ted Bundy, a fine sociopath. Ted was a charming person, looking very much like George Bush. He was likeable, mixed well, ingratiated himself easily.
His one fault was that he killed women. Then he brutally dismembered them and performed fantastic and revolting acts upon them. But to look at him, he was well groomed, walked with a slight swagger, smiled easily, was great with hand-shakes, handsome and seemed like a hot catch to women.
If you don't believe me, look up Ted Bundy in Google.
But lately, looking at all the bubble-wrap around Bush and at all the contradictory statements he has made, hundreds of them, and at all the ebullience he shows by swaggering, strutting, smirking, smiling, blinking, staring intently, hand-shaking, easy joking, I wonder if he is not delusional.
Surely, with the depressing polls, the enormous criticism of his brutal actions in Iraq, the failure of his "strategery", and the fact that lately he has confessed to abject failure in Iraq whereby our nation will be forced to spend billions of dollars, expend the blood of our troops, kill thousands more Muslims, before Bush thankfully leaves the scene to the mercies of other politicians, he must be living in LaLa land. Staying a failed course is lunacy, like watching a rerun of a football game, hoping that the next time the outcome will be different.
Bush must know that he is in deep doodoo, that he is fervently hated for his actions, for his incompetence, and for his disregard of all other possibilities that differ from his own. (It may be that his bubble-wrap is so tight that no light can penetrate to his brain.) All of his personality tricks cannot excuse his failures. All of the fine photo-ops showing Bush patting little kids on the head, giving a sandwich to some bystander, or standing in front of a church with Hollywood lighting, will not bring forgiveness.
His firing of Rumsfeld now, might help. His sacking of Karl Rove now, might help. His resignation now, would certainly help our country to reestablish civil rights and democracy, unless Dick Cheney takes over. Then not even all the Gods of the ancient world can help America!
His legacy is now crap. He accomplished nothing for our economy, nothing for the environment, nothing for our heavy industry, nothing for the poor and homeless, nothing for the health and safety of our population, did nothing but make carbon-copy speeches to sheep-like audiences in which lies prevailed over facts.
He has been a nuisance to our country, an intolerable and heedless neocon prissy meddler, without conscience or compassion or empathy.
He managed to destroy the separation of church and state so that his supporters could post their Ten Commandments in public places, or continually try to put prayer in public schools, or intrude their beliefs upon the entire people of the United States and other countries. His faith-based government is a dastardly intrusion, and a tremendous affront to our Constitutional Democracy.
All that his advisors, mercenaries and proselytizers have accomplished is to bring death and destruction to other countries, and tyranny to our own.
Any President that spits on our Constitution and considers himself above man-made law, must be delusional. But that does not keep him from being the worst President in our history.
There will be great rejoicing when he is gone. Good riddance to bad rubbish.