goodbye Bush

Goodbye Bush

I’m not a political person, whatever that means, but I feel compelled to rant a bit about George W. Bush – a hardly atavistic biological calling in my family (My parents and Grandparents being perhaps the biggest Bush bashers of them all), and something I’m not fond of doing simply because the Stewarts and Colberts and Lettermans out there have the territory covered. So this isn’t a look-at-that-gaffe type of critique, or a watch-the-monkey-fruitlessly-yank-the-locked door excoriation, but instead merely a sort of frustrated exhale of breath. Frustrated because, even for all the criticism and downright antipathy Bush has received from the Bumper Sticker-Set, there still doesn’t seem to be an appropriate level of worry or true disdain for—wait for it—us. Bush, whether or not we like it, was elected twice (so I guess we, the greater We, like it very much). There are many people in the country, otherwise intelligent people, who think statements like: America is safer now and Seven years without a terrorist attack on our soil are not only true but are resounding echoes of a presidency well-executed. “His job is hard,” I heard so many of the Republican call-ins declare on the C-SPAN talk show following Bush’s farewell address that I was listlessly watching last night.

No shit, he’s the God-damn president. The commander-in-chief. The Chief Executive. He wears more hats then the Italian dude in Caps for Sale. There seems to be this great Apologia out there in defense of Bush and Cheney’s political machine. It’s best summarized by a statement Bush made in his farewell address that goes as follows: "You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."

While I wouldn’t begrudge a leader the fine quality of a willingness to be wrong, this quasi-specious statement is the sort of sleight of hand that Bush has offered for eight years. Let’s not look at facts over here, let’s look at rhetoric over there. Freedom!!!…justice!!!…is that the American Way tucked behind your ear? It doesn’t matter if decisions were awful and life-ending and economy-crushing: look at the brazen fluency with which they were made! Bush thereby turns what should be a criticism to any logical, empirical mind into some Cowboy Myth about being the Decider, about confidently tossing ones lasso and pulling in whatever we happen to snag.

You know what else is willing to make the tough decisions: the Magic 8-Ball I had as a ten year old. Although every once in a while it sputters out the vacillating and tenebrous “Ask Again Later,” I’d say 7 out of 8 times we are given some firm, no-buts-about-it advice. You may not agree that this child’s toy has the diplomatic skills; international finesse; broad-based background in micro, macro, and integrated economic theory; and spotless personal and professional biography to be a good President, but look at how easily it makes decisions!

How far can we take this tautological, asinine reasoning? Let’s not be too hasty in the next primary season, after all Slinky has made a surprisingly good Senator. I mean, look at how it just keeps going despite the varying distances between steps, despite the exhausting toil of the journey – Nope! Slinky keeps slinking down those steps, taking them one by one, as any good leader should, but it just keeps going, you know? You gotta admire that tenacity.

Maybe being able to speak without actually saying anything is in fact a quality we need in a leader. But if lack of substance is a barometer of our times, I think it’s scary times. We voted Bush in, and then again, and—while Republicans may have momentarily fallen before the mass liberal-rallying of Generation O—I still don’t feel like I’m part of my own country. Proposition 8, the continual defense of Guantanamo, the sluggish religious rhetoric around Stem-Cell Research: these aren’t signs that say YES WE CAN. Maybe we can, and, yes, given enough time, maybe even yes we will, but—at least in the immediate future—many people are working to ensure that it all doesn’t happen too quickly.

I’m happy Bush is leaving office and that someone I respect, President Obama, is coming in. But Obama too has his meaningless and spurious bombast: and while his buzzwords and slogans may ring less fearful and reactionary than those of George W. we still need to keep it all in perspective. I’m afraid that unless the American people start looking at content instead of the far-more-easily-digested-but-ultimately-meaningless ring of political rhetoric, we are aren’t going to see the change that Obama promises anytime soon. What does the 8-Ball say?

Ask Again Later.