Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Why I Hate George W. Bush

I remember when I first noticed him. Maybe I knew that George H. W. Bush had a son named George, but I didn't make much of it at the time. The first time I saw him on TV was during a Red Sox pre-game show. It must have been the early 90's, probably during the Clinton administration. Sean McDonough was interviewing him and they were talking about baseball. I'd like to think I said to myself, "I'm sure glad he's only running a baseball team and the country," but I probably didn't. I don't remember any of the substance of the interview. I just recall I wasn't overly impressed by him.

Flash forward to the late 90's. He was governor of Texas and starting to raise money for a presidential run. I always thought he used his name and his father's contacts to try to vacuum up as much campaign contributions as he could to scare of other potential candidates. The more I heard him talk, the more I came to the conclusion that he was: 1) a fake, 2) and not very bright. I never would have considered voting for any of the Republican candidates over the Deomcratatic contenders, but I do like to limit the damage. The other major candidate, John McCain, seemed at least at the time, the lesser of two evils.

Al Gore wasn't my ideal candidate, but I knew it was a load of crap to say there really wasn't much difference between the candidates. The Florida fiasco should have put that out of any one's mind. The "uniter not a divider" and his ruthless effort to win Florida should have made it obvious what kind of politician he would be.

The first few months of his presidency were pretty uninspiring. The typical Republican calls for tax cuts on the domestic side. On defense, the administration was so interested in a missile defense system that they seemed to be deliberately provoking North Korea in order to justify it.

And then there was September 11. Many people have said this before, but here it is again. He could have used 9/11 as an opportunity to unite the nation and use the sympathy the rest of the world had for us to actually reduce or eliminate the threat of terrorism. Instead, he used it to as a partisan wedge to push every thing on the radical right wish list.

That's really it. Every thing the Bush administration does is for short term political gain. Look at any thing they do, any "policy" they propose. Try to think of the most cynical, nihilist and basest motivation for the action. Then dial it down about two or three notches. You will then find you were giving them the benefit of the doubt. I know that sounds cynical on my part, but it's been a reliable way of understanding the administration.

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