My soul aches that George W. Bush was reelected to lead and symbolize our nation for 4 more years. I love my country, and he does not. He loves money.
He is not a man of either truth or integrity. Perhaps the most authentic public moment by George Bush was filmed and subsequently included in the wildly-biased docudrama “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
He was dressed in formal white tie and tux, not farm-ready flannel shirt, worn jeans and scuffed Texas boots. He looked every bit the wealthy, Connecticut born, Yale and Harvard University graduate that is his birthright and biography. He stepped comfortably before the bejeweled fundraiser attendees, leaned forward to the microphone, and quipped with a smirk and minimal southern drawl, “Here you are….the haves and the have-mores.” Laughter of flattered recognition. “Some people call you rich. I call you my base.”
Bingo!
George W. Bush’s true constituency is not Christian evangelicals or Republicans, but the wealthy upper socio-economic class of corporate chieftains and ilk. And he knows and loves it. They are his leisure-time friends and his rich political donors. The rest is charade and political gimmickry.
True Republicans believe in small government, the smaller the better. True Republicans believe in limited, disciplined government spending and balanced budgets. He clearly believes in none of this. Historically traditional Republicans (think Pat Buchanan, Barry Goldwater) are isolationists in the world community, not crusaders out to remake other countries. His centerpiece philosophy, other than to remake our financial systems to favor the very wealthy, is to remold leadership of oil-rich countries. (North Korea, for example, is a far greater security risk to the US, but it has no oil reserves.)
As for his Christian credentials, he boasts that he prays and specifically claims to read an Oswald Chambers devotional. He has a heart for the tragedy of abortion, but is anything but a pro-lifer. As governor of Texas, he presided over more executions than any other public official in US history. And let’s be honest…killing in war seems to energize Mr. Bush. The macho power of war has been known to make him smile. (That sickens me to my core.)
As for gays, in a televised interview one week before the Nov 2 election, Mr. Bush unambiguously stated that while he is against gay marriage, he favors civil unions for gays and lesbians, and that they should be given full civil rights equal to married couples. So much for his fundamentalist homophobic horror of gays. All that public consternation about gays was simply and solely political pandering to evangelicals for votes. Gays are not, and have never been, an issue for him. They’re not a part of his country club world, so they don’t affect him much.
As for his Christian authenticity, he attends church at Easter and Christmas and for publicly-televised funerals and similar photo-op church services. (He’s never been to a memorial service for a soldier slain in Iraq or Afghanistan. Not even once. ) He has never shown a scintilla of familiarity with the Bible. He would never pass the standards for a practicing Christian set forth by Billy Graham, Rick Warren or most local pastors.
There is no evidence that he has more than superficial, politically useful relationships with any pastors or Christian leaders. Whereas every other US President has humbly sought guidance from pastors, priests and spiritual leaders, George W. consults only his gut instinct and “his father above.” Just like Jesus. Just like the ultimate man of faith, not a mortal man of faith.
George W. Bush’s political base and his personal friends are the wealthy corporate elite…regardless of their religious beliefs, regardless of their political party affiliations, regardless of their sexuality.
He aims to remake the US social security and tax systems to benefit the rich. The middle class and poor be damned. He has absolutely no concern that a full 25% of our nation….45 million citizens…have no health care insurance. Yes, he will throw a bone to Christian evangelical voters, and nominate pro-life judges to the Supreme Court. And truth be known, that’s probably why they all voted for him. (Ah…the destructive self-indulgence of single-issue voting.)
Hs political skills are clever and wicked. He is tough to beat in a political race because he is 100% shameless. He lacks integrity and conscience. He ruthlessly plays to win at all costs.
If he spends American taxpayers’ funds at the same rate as he did in his first presidential term, there is no doubt that he will bankrupt our country. He plans to spend more, not less.
And he will still be rich. Richer, actually. And he will have grateful rich friends.
My very soul aches that George W. Bush was reelected to lead and symbolize our nation for 4 more years. I love my country, and he does not. He loves money. Given carte blanche to change our financial systems and further increase our deficit, he will surely destroy the United States as a world power.
Last week, Osama bin Laden clearly stated that he intends to bring down the United States through bankruptcy. If George Bush’s war and defense spending continues unchecked, and if he is allowed to revamp our financial structure to deprive the poor, sick and elderly of assistance, bin Laden will see fulfillment of his wish for a bankrupt and greatly diminished United States.
Mark my words.
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