DEFINING BUSH - PART TWO
THE EMPTY SUIT
Defining Bush is important because those of us who are unswayed by his charm (?) and his regime’s brutal attack on the consensus government that has prevailed in this country at least since WWII need to explain why we object and why we will fight against his re-...er...appointment in ‘04. Let’s start with Bush the person. Future columns will deal with the Bush regime, for which Bush provides the supposedly attractive (?) face.
GW Bush is, by any standards, the least qualified for office of any president since, well, let’s say ever. Just taking the presidents of the last half-century, all of them had vast experience in government and/or other organizations. You just know all this information is true – it’s off the White House website!
Harry Truman: Judge; Senator; Vice-President (if only for a couple of weeks before Roosevelt died)
Dwight Eisenhower: Distinguished career in Army; Supreme Commander in Europe during WWII; President of Columbia College; Supreme Commander of NATO
John F. Kennedy: WWII Navy hero; Congressman; Senator
Lyndon B. Johnson: Teacher; Congressman; Served in WWII; Senator; Majority Leader; Vice President
Richard Nixon: Lawyer; Served in WWII; Congressman; Senator; Vice-President
Gerald Ford: Served in WWII; Lawyer; Congressman; Minority Leader; Vice-President
Jimmy Carter: Naval Officer; Peanut Farmer; Governor
Ronald Reagan: (Even Reagan had accomplishments, of a sort) B-Movie Hollywood Actor; Conservative Leader and Spokesperson; Governor
G.W.H. Bush: WWII Pilot; Oil Exec; Congressman: UN Representative; Chair, RNC; Director of CIA; Vice-President
Bill Clinton: Law School Professor; Attorney General; Governor
Then we get to Junior, the name he went by until he was plucked out of his deserved obscurity by Republican operatives looking for an empty suit to fill. A beneficiary of affirmative action for rich legacies at Yale, Junior barely survived with a C average. Before, during and after that, he was an admitted drunk and womanizer (which I don’t really have a problem with, unless they try to cover it up, which they have). He ran several oil businesses in Texas into the ground, always bailed out by Daddy’s rich friends. He used some of that sort of pretend money to buy into the Texas Rangers and walked out with a hefty, suspicious profit after risking none of his own money.
Then, after Clinton was elected in 1992 over the dead bodies of wingnuts everywhere, Junior was taken into a closet, changed his name to GW and ran for Governor of Texas in 1994 as a stepping stone to the 2000 campaign for president. He beat Anne Richards in a typically ugly campaign, and then took the governorship of a state with the weakest gubernatorial office in the nation.
While he served in the part-time governor’s office, Bush was brushed and burnished, as Karl Rove and other masterminds devised a plan that he obviously agreed to follow. What else was he going to do? It’s not like he’s ever had an original intelligent thought of his own. He didn’t decide to run for president; he was selected to serve as the (sometimes) pleasant, (supposedly) attractive Trojan Horse for the most radical group of unilateral imperialists to ever occupy the White House. Of course, he wasn’t nearly attractive enough as a candidate – he lost by a half-million votes and would have lost in Florida if the votes were counted. Never mind. It was close enough for the ultimate power play by the ultimate Bushies on the Supreme Court.
The closest analogy to the Bush puppet regime is, of course, Reagan. By the time he became president, Reagan was just a puppet for his handlers, most of whom, at least, came with him from California, where he actually did at one time have some (bad) ideas of his own. In his prime, Reagan was an original conservative thinker who did actually think the things that were coming out of his mouth from time to time, even as president. Throughout his failed adulthood – which you could hardly call a career – Bush has shown no interest in anything political, except for protecting his father from attacks when he was freeloading in the White House. Unlike literally everyone who proceeded him into the White House, Bush has never cared about anything. He is completely a creature and a creation of his handlers.
He has never appeared anywhere without a script in his hand. My favorite moments are when the light goes on in his head and he gets that smug look in his eye, because now he remembers exactly how it was explained to him. He is so proud of himself for remembering. It is so pathetic.
The tag-line on this blog is from a Neil Young song, "Campaigner". The protagonist of the song is a relentlessly driven politician, out in the world trying to get people to love him, but coming "too late to cause a stir". It is the world where "even Richard Nixon has got soul". Nixon was a sad, lonely psychotic man who committed serious crimes, leading to the Watergate burglary and the subsequent, more serious coverup. More so for his crimes in Vietnam than for Watergate, he was the most hated president of my generation. But at least Nixon had a vision and an idea of what the government should do for people and internationally. He was wrong much of the time, but at least he had ideas and direction of his own (listen to the Watergate tapes to hear his pathetic attempts to get his aides to follow his directions).
Bush has none of that backbone, that intellectual capacity, or even the interest. His only interest is in pleasing his handlers and their only interest is in consolidating their power in their radical regime forever.
That’s the background; now, the message. In the campaign, we can Define Bush personally as UNACCOMPLISHED before he was appointed; ILLEGITIMATELY appointed by a legally insupportable Supreme Court; and a willing PUPPET of RADICAL handlers as president.
NEXT: Defining Bushism
6:53:44 PM 
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