Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Bush Hates America
| by TFLS | 3:02 AM |Does it seem to you that America circa 2005 is very like that of America exactly 100 years past? Similar themes, you know - what had been a bourgeoning middle class is constantly under threat from an increasingly apathetic corporate elite. Available jobs (i.e. low-paying) are being transferred to a hungry and ever-growing immigrant population. Entire occupations are being exported overseas - for example, America is no longer in the business of manufacturing textiles. Politics and politicians are increasingly available to whoever bids highest, or offers the most palatable positions post-Washington. Not to mention a press who, like Narcissus, have become overly enamored of their own reflexive rectitude. Why, old Teddy Roosevelt himself could be president - only, alas, he is not.
Let me introduce you to a newly endangered species - the middle-class American. When my parents and grandparents immigrated here, they gave their children the gift of upward mobility - a chance to shift circumstances from poverty to at least a semblance of wealth. Now, those who still believe in the American dream have been supplanted by a ruling elite whose only interest is in keeping their golf scores low. Somehow, I don't think that could have happened had old Teddy back then not forced corporate America to stop looking at the world in terms of the wealthy and those who provide them service. Today’s almost insurmountable problems I lay entirely at the Bush administrations extremely dirty feet.
I must say, I really do not understand Bush or his cronies in any way, shape or form. Now Nixon, (whose presidency is the only contemporary one I can reference when looking at Bush), was driven by his passions. The man knew how to hate (a sobriquet he assigned to Mama Bush, by the way). Once you understood that about him, parsing his decisions becomes easy. Vengeance personified - quiding before the pro quo had even dried. That and he wanted a place in history - hell - more than just a place; the man wanted next to Lincoln on Mt. Rushmore!
Side note – my Father worked at Lockheed during the ‘60’s. He was assigned to guide Nixon around the plant during one of his ‘68 campaign stops. Now, I was only a kid, and more interested in what new clothes I could make for Barbie that week, but I never forgot what he told my mother when he came home. He said, ‘no one should EVER treat his wife that way – no one’. It stayed with me; Pop wasn’t big on the condemnation thing – we left all that to my Mother. Later conversations revealed Nixon hadn’t been too kind to dear old Dad, either. I must say, after all that I could never bring myself to trust the man. My Father never explained what prompted his comments and I never asked him about it, though it always made me wonder.
But Bush – the inconsistency and complete lack of credible decision making baffle me. It’s as if all he wanted to do was to get elected. That’s all – just elected - no real work involved. It’s the 7th grade boy who never feeds the dog, the college frat party ethic of ‘we here by pledge to never get up before noon’, the ‘sure I know the garbage has to go out, honey – just wait till I catch these scores’. Puerility, coupled with a total and complete lack of responsibility from day one. This belies the White House’s constant drum beat portraying Bush as some kind of demi-god with omnipotent powers ready to sweep down and provide salvation. What salvation? We have been hit by a disaster proportional to another terrorist attack (one which our government ignored), fuel prices keep rising, major White House officials are under indictment or investigation and Bush himself seems only interested in playing with his cowboy hat.
They say the event makes the man. Well - maybe that was so for Lincoln, or Wilson, or Roosevelt (Teddy or Frank – pick one - you still hit 21). But this man we have as president now – a complete waste of a suit, in my opinion. He continually steps all over his hang-down, and is too stupid to understand why it hurts! I mean, what the hell is wrong with him? He persists in viewing Iraq through prismed lenses, beats the drum against its neighbor and mortal enemy Iran - and why in the name of all that’s holy attempt to smear the wife of a perceived enemy? Especially when it jeopardizes American interests abroad? Valerie Plame’s job was to spy on Iran, for Christ’s sake! I mean, by now, mustn’t he know it isn’t possible to hide that sort of thing? And what about the rest of the inanities! Re-hiring Brown as a FEMA consultant, firing the head of the CIA before a replacement has been approved by Congress, denying an independent commission to investigate the entire Katrina debacle, etc., etc., ad nauseaum, ad infinitum. Does he think we’re not watching? What the hell is going on up there anyway? Are the lunatics running the asylum?
Maybe it’s about time we dropped a house on their ass – a great big one complete with septic tank. And we should do so with cold precision; aided and abetted by all the 'little people' the Bush machine has so thoroughly screwed. If we’re lucky, the lot of ‘em will self-immolate, and we can collectively hand them their hats. I doubt it though. The only person truly capable of slaying that dragon is the one with all the Benjamin's. Point being - old George there and his cracker barrel five won't be considered salvageable if he no longer turns a profit for corporate America. His coterie may be rabid; but the Murdock's of the world only see through their glass darkly. Bush can’t sell soap for them, if no one is watching. The minute ratings/$$$ dip into negative territory – and I’m talking ratings here, not poll numbers - watch and see how quickly every single one of them are sent riding toward Texas on a rail.
I’ve heard people say, ‘Republicans hate America’. Now, I don’t happen to believe that as it applies to the average American; just like saying all Christians think like Pat Robertson, or all Muslims want to destroy the United States. It’s just not true. But I’ve gotta wonder about the group up on Capitol Hill at the moment. They’re like strip miners – whatever’s left over before they leave is not only useless, it’s ugly as well. It’s Bush and his cronies that hate America – and all I have to say about that is, "You knew I was a snake when you picked me up".
