Breaking down the election

By Greg Ellis

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.”
– John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), 6th President of the United States

The U.S. presidential election is merely 26 days away. The anti-Bush crowd is relegated to idealistic doves–unrealistically dreaming of a world without war, stand quarantined, communists, left wing martyrs, or simply “pussies.” They have become society’s unwanted.

After a four-year term whose crowning achievement is the disingenuous statistic of record home ownership, all the signs point to zero. Ground zero: George W. Bush.

Mr. Bush is an honest man, simplistic, hopeful and with a grand vision of doing God’s work, fighting all “evildoers.” When we first met George W. Bush he was a pathetic man, blundering at every junction, spewing out malapropisms at an alarming rate and even going as far as creating his own words, “misunderestimated.” The Commander-in-Chief of the world’s most powerful country’s grammatical bouillabaisse, abject ignorance to foreign policies, have been all complicit in and with trademark unilateralism. Yet what is most troubling is somehow W. has brought the world down to this abysmally ignorant level.

The Bush camp has systematically insulted our intelligence. Calling terrorists “evildoers”; tacitly treating us like children who need guidance and paternalism. Bush tells us that those being illegally held in Guantanamo Bay aren’t POW’s, they are “enemy combatants,” thus not subject to Geneva Convention protections. In Iraq, they are not rightful nationalists fighting the U.S. to get out of their country after they categorically ravaged it, they are insurgents, pockets of resistance, militants. This derives from the lexicon of imperialism, one that knows no boundaries and will always be immune to shame.

Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address referred to the aforementioned evildoers as an “axis of evil.” The exclusive club reserved to Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Although exceedingly controversial at the time, Bush was merely foreshadowing a plan of action with Iraq. Parents protecting their children never give you the full story; they screen us, out of love.

The opposition has dismissed Bush as a puppet. He does what he’s told, and he obeys orders. He is well trained and well groomed. Bush has no agenda, but his people do. The mirage of the religious right seeps through enigmatically and if we have learned anything by now it should be that the Republicans still have plenty on the shelf. Bush like any paternal figure eases us into tough news, it is now apparent that given four more years, as outlined in his Republican National Convention presidential nominee acceptance speech, he will protect society most vulnerable, the unborn child. Roe v. Wade has joined the axis of evil.

It gets worse… Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense is the riddler of the Bush Administration. When addressing why no WMD had been found in Iraq, Rumsfeld unleashed a conundrum:

“There are things we know that we know. There are also known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we know we don’t know. But there also unknown unknowns. These are things that we don’t know we don’t know.”

In summation, Rumsfeld created a useful aphorism that brought it all together. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

Hesitation in labeling the Iraq invasion as Vietnam II is problematic. Kerry, a master of tact has resisted the temptation, at least until now. 9/11 and invading Iraq is the very foundation of the Republicans’ inexplicable success. Suggestively, the masters of our universe tell us that 9/11 is what happens when we don’t protect you–9/11 is what happens when daddy forgets the combination to his gun safe. The Republican Party has not persuaded anyone that they are the right party to lead the country, they have by duplicitous cunning forced the idea that we need them to survive. The literature of reason and dissent surely indicates otherwise. By any conclusion, the invasion of Iraq did very little public relations good for the U.S. in the Middle East. It only fueled more resentment, more hatred, fanaticism ad infinitum. However, in Bush-land all publicity is good publicity regardless of the consequences.

It is no coincidence that the Republican National Convention was held in New York City. New York City, in New York State a democratic state, and as aptly put in the opening of The Daily Show with John Stewart; “Harlem, Spanish Harlem, failure of the welfare state moral decay and The Republican National Convention, huh?” Home to 9/11, NYC was a fertile ground for a convention with a thematic and direct link to the GOP’s allegory of 9/11. Mentioned countless times in speeches, used as a digital backdrop in others, and the plot of the five-minute commemorative video before Bush gave his acceptance speech 9/11 was the focal point of president who has little else to be proud of.

Bush, like any parent of a young child, enjoys dictatorial power and quickly answers any criticism; the United States’ tepid economy and massive job losses aren’t the Republicans’ fault. They inherited the recession, “the other kids at school don’t agree with the job you have chosen, Dad, or the way you do it”–“that’s because they are foolish son and they don’t read the bible, now go downstairs and pray.”

For the first time in recent memory, Europeans polled agreed overwhelming that W. was the greatest threat to world peace. Sadly, the Bush camp does not find this disparaging. God’s work knows no evaluation or criticism, its alarming audacity firmly stands, however ill-realized the course of action. Bush’s seduction is in how we perceive him, as any demagogue is. His insult to our intelligence being perpetrated daily now digresses into an endearing admiration. He is a simple man, “he’s doing his best,” “gosh darn’t, nobody’s perfect,” “give the poor guy a break,” corn dogs and Ford pickup trucks. This disgusting pity for a president is what makes Mr. Bush so successful. His perpetual smirk prophetically suggests self worship. Stupidity begets sympathy, and sympathy has superseded any need for charisma. Bush has won.

Imbecility does not fathom complex matters. When forced to face them, they are crudely reduced to mere minutia of their original value. Robert S. McNamara Secretary of Defense for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations called it “The Fog of War”–a notion that war itself is so complex, so puzzling and so variable ridden it can never be fully understood. To W. it is reduced to us vs. you, good vs. evil, right vs. wrong. Bush is Washington’s last action hero, a man with a purpose. He is on an unwavering mission and America must blindly trust him because he is our new father figure, he will protect us, enlighten us and keep us off the darkened path. Bush has never read about just war theory and never will. He does not understand habeas corpus however through the Patriot Act suspended it, and he does not blink nor hesitate when he drops humanitarian bombs. Don’t mess with Texas my friend, never.

6 comments

Leave a comment