MacLean's on Bush

[Von Wigglestaff]

The latest issue of MacLean's has an article that paints Geroge Bush as being "The worst President in the last 100 years":

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/article.jsp?content=20060417_125323_125323

This article is unfair, George Bush is an outstanding President; his legacy will be impressed upon Americans for the next 100 years. His greatness can be measured in three categories:

1) The War on Terror: He has removed Saddam Hussein from office and made the world safe from terror.

2) His scrupilous handling of the economy: He has handed out impressive tax cuts that have spurred Americans to buy more SUV's and LCD's.

3) The containment of nuclear proliferation: His enlightened Indian Nuclear Pact is a bold step in controling the spread of nuclear weapons.

George Bush should not be condemned, he should be celebrated. And in his honour I'm updating an old song:

Well come on all of ya big strong men
Uncle Sam needs yer help again
Got himself in a nuclear jam
Way down yonder in Iran
So put down yer books and pick up a gun
Were gonna have a whole latta fun

And it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
The next stop is Iran

And it's 5,6,7 open up the Pearly Gates
Well don't shout to loud
About that mushroom cloud
Whoope we're all gona die.

 

[Truncador]

Country Joe was named after Joseph Stalin.

And history will count George W. Bush among the truly immortal men of State.

 

[maxweber]

hard to tell..

..if you're kidding:

And history will count George W. Bush among the truly immortal men of State.

(Can you really despise and resent "them" enough to praise this dreadfully mediocre human being? Even self-defense has its limits..)

MW

 

[Truncador]

this dreadfully mediocre human being

It's been my observation that the Left hates wisely and with efficiency, to wit, they don't waste their good hatred on just anyone, and certainly not on the dreadfully mediocre. Stephen Harper, for example, does not elicit anything even close to the inflamed, hysterical rancour Pres. Bush does- and nor, for that matter, did Bush Sr. when he was in office. Not everyone is exceptional enough to deserve the honour of being hated by the rabble that much.

 

[maxweber]

Q.e.d.

It's been my observation that the Left hates wisely and with efficiency, to wit, they don't waste their good hatred on just anyone, and certainly not on the dreadfully mediocre. Stephen Harper, for example, does not elicit anything even close to the inflamed, hysterical rancour Pres. Bush does- and nor, for that matter, did Bush Sr. when he was in office. Not everyone is exceptional enough to deserve the honour of being hated by the rabble that much.

Point taken. The word "mediocre" is misused, directed to so deeply provocative a person. Or is it? I retain the view that Bush is a nobody, a spoiled, utterly thoughtless (and heartless) rich kid, whose only notable quality is the will to go through with his banal convictions. His presidency, and the shameful support he still receives from so many Americans, proves only that we are so desperate for leadership that we will accept blinkered idiocy for resolve.
That's one part of the success of this punk. The other lies in the baffled outrage that success inspires in reasonable Americans, not to mention people around the world. That outrage in turn inspires the macabre joy the Germans call Schadenfreude. The more Bush disgusts and horrifies "them," why, the better he must be. Your admiration for this pathetic excuse for a human being has several times given symptoms of this type of resentment. It is unworthy of someone so intelligent. But it is very much a sign of our unfortunate times.
MW

 

[Papi Chulo]

The article also says that history may be a better judge of the president... maybe 100 years from now, he will be right up there with Abe

 

[danmand]

He (and his handlers) have in a very short time taken the USA from a near universally admired position to a near universally despised position.

 

[Truncador]

the baffled outrage that success inspires in reasonable Americans, not to mention people around the world. That outrage in turn inspires the macabre joy the Germans call Schadenfreude. The more Bush disgusts and horrifies "them," why, the better he must be. Your admiration for this pathetic excuse for a human being has several times given symptoms of this type of resentment.

My admiration for Bush is driven chiefly by a considered appreciation for the thought and policies of his Administration (the recent tort-reform laws, for example, which address urgently real- as opposed to imaginary- civil liberties issues, and reflect absolute state-of-the-art thinking on personal liberty protection). I will, however, admit to taking no small amount of pleasure in watching the cultural elite (and those among the petty bourgeois who wish to be taken as members of that elite, affecting manners and morals that historically were not made for them) huff in outrage like so many wet poodles. But I don't see anything shameful about this particular form of joy. If the great populist works of American cinema have taught us anything, it is that, in a democracy, the various real and pretended Brahmans and Pharisees should be scandalized as much as possible. An American who huffs in outrage over the intolerable indignity of having to take orders from a mere Texas plebian ought to be laughed at- especially when it is the case (and it so often is) that this same person is a white-collar proletarian who doesn't dine with the Kerrys as often as he would like others to believe.

 

[maxweber]

If the great populist works of American cinema have taught us anything, it is that, in a democracy, the various real and pretended Brahmans and Pharisees should be scandalized as much as possible. An American who huffs in outrage over the intolerable indignity of having to take orders from a mere Texas plebian ought to be laughed at- especially when it is the case (and it so often is) that this same person is a white-collar proletarian who doesn't dine with the Kerrys as often as he would like others to believe.

You are replaying a battle in the last war, general. The German elites looked down on the upstart "Bohemian Corporal"--and paid dearly for their foolish snobbery, as did their entire nation, and the world. The fools; they should have understood, should have hated him for the fact that he was a vicious bastard, not a low-ranking soldier. Unless there are exceptions unknown to me, no one is making that mistake with this one.

There's no way to convince you of this, since it can't be proven. But no one that I know despises Bush because he is a "Texas plebeian." How could they? He is the scion of moneyed American aristocracy--with, coincidentally, something of a history of betraying the U.S. and its interests. But how can any sane person escape contempt for a man who, months before assuming the presidency, had no idea who the Prime Minister was of America's greatest trading partner? (And who repaid the comic who pointed this out by deliberately snubbing the entire country Canada after its selfless help in September 2001; what a mean-spirited shitheel.) To those with eyes to see, it was clear before the election exactly what and who George W Bush was, and is: a ne'er-do-well playboy, a an arrogant, mean-spirited drunk who substitutes petty resentments--the preposterous and grotesque attack on Joseph Wilson, fer chrissake--for the dignity of office, who thinks close-mindedness is the same as strength, and who thinks mouthing religious platitudes makes one a moral person.

As I have said before, I disagree every bit as much politically and philosophically with Rudy Giuliani and John McCain as I do with shrub. But I have tremendous respect for both those men, because they have earned it, through their character, their conduct, and their exemplary humanity. Bush is an unscrupulous, utterly worthless bastard, who has never done a single decent thing in his miserable life. And the whole world knows it, save for the folks, like you and roger, so distorted by your anger with imaginary "elites" that you're willing to swallow this camel whole. God help your digestive system. But, far more, God save the U.S. from this awful man.

MW

 

[Von Wigglestaff]

I haven't found any link between Country Joe MacDonald and Josef Stalin, but he did serve in the US Navy:

http://www.countryjoe.com/gijoe.htm

I don't hate George Bush, I pity him. He's only doing the bidding of his constituency; a large group of voters that abhor sacrifice and thrive on instant gratification. Otherwise known as "The Me Generation", they are more generally known as Baby Boomers.

Here's how Boomers affected policy:

The Energy Crisis - The best way to safeguard society would have been to diversify energy markets away from fossil fuels; but that road was laden with too many unknowns. Instead, a massive effort was launched to find oil deposits outside The Middle East. Unfortunately most of the newly discovered deposits were short-term and today Saudi Arabia has almost 50% of the world proven oil reserves and Iran has a third of the world's natural gas reserves. Not a pretty picture.

The War on Terror - Like the Vietnam War before it, Boomers have no stomach for a protracted war of attrition. Bush needed a quick victory to rally America, ad by extension the Boomers, so he gave them Iraq.

Whomever succeedes Bush after 2008 should be born after 1960.