EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- 'The Gilded Age' Statistics Corporations Don't Want Workers, or Anyone, to See
- As Death Toll Rises Beyond 500, Garment Factory Disaster 'Worst in World History'
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"
- Report: Toxic Chemicals Found in Thousands of Children's Products
- Climate Change's 'Evil Twin': Ocean Acidification
- Report: Toxic Chemicals Found in Thousands of Children's Products
- Move Over, Koch Brothers: A Bigger, Darker Rightwing Funder Is Out to Destroy Public Education
- 'The Gilded Age' Statistics Corporations Don't Want Workers, or Anyone, to See
- Time for Big Green to Go Fossil Free
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"
Popular content
Today's Top News
American Mugabe
Most Americans really don't understand their president.
And, no, I'm not even talking about the thirty percent or so who still give him a positive approval rating. I'm not sure those folks understand anything.
Among the remaining seventy percent, however, I would estimate that the vast bulk still have not fully apprehended what we're dealing with here. Because what we're dealing with is nothing short of an American Mugabe.
Even among the vast majority who disapprove of Bush's performance as president, the typical sentiments expressed toward him are exactly that - essentially characterized by a disapproval of his performance. It's easy to see Bush as inept, unintelligent, stubborn, lazy and dogmatic, because he is certainly all those things, and he should therefore be seen in that accurate light.
But this view of Bush is also, paradoxically, highly inaccurate, because it is so radically incomplete. It is as if one were to observe a vicious dog once only, while it was at rest. Since it is true that the animal sometimes rests, the perception of it as a (sometimes) peaceful creature would in one sense be quite accurate. But, by virtue of what was omitted, that perception would also be simultaneously woefully incomplete, and therefore woefully inaccurate.
Bush is an arrogant and incapable buffoon, ridiculously puffed up with his rigidly held assurance of his own greatness by definition (as in, "I know I'm doing the right thing - and God agrees when I talk to him - so therefore I am, any and all evidence to the contrary.") Most Americans now see that, even if they were embarrassingly slow to get there (and they were).
But what is more distressing is that the crimes of this president run infinitely deeper than this, to the point where, ironically, his more mundane failures actually serve as something of an alibi and a cover for what 'surges' powerfully below.
Failure, laziness, arrogance - these are crimes of character and ability. And while most Americans wouldn't want a casual acquaintance - let alone a president - to possess those qualities, they still don't come anywhere near to defining the essence of George W. Bush, because they ignore the question of motive. To see only these aspects of Bush, however unflattering they truly are, is to see the dog at rest. There is much, much more to observe.
But Americans are well-positioned to not make those observations, for at least three powerful reasons.
The first is our training. We are raised to revere our presidents, generally. Americans have no equivalent to the British Queen or the German president as head of state. There is no symbolic position here that sits above politics and embodies the hopes and aspirations of the nation. All of that, along with the more tangible governing powers of a chief executive, are invested in our president, and while we may often disagree with the president, or disparage his moral failings, most of us are quite unprepared to imagine that his motives are other than pure.
Very few of us could conceive of a president who was unpatriotic or, worse yet, a traitor, unless faced with massive empirical evidence which was undeniable. (And which many of the thirty percent would, in fact, nevertheless still continue to deny - provided, of course, that the president in question continued to mutter the proper religious shibboleths, and bought-off the right members of our pathetic Pantheon of Piety.)
The second reason that we are unable to fully perceive the true nature of George W. Bush is because Karl Rove has picked up from where the default starting place of this presumptive presidential reverence leaves off and pumped us to the gills with a full-court press Madison Avenue mega-campaign, extolling the fabricated virtues of this particular president. Every other reference, in every single speech, is to 9/11. Every photo-op has soldiers and flags in the background. (Though maimed troops are carefully excluded. But thanks for your service, guys. Really!)
If you didn't know better (which is precisely the intent), you'd think that George Bush was a tough combat veteran (he's not) who flew headlong into danger on 9/11 without regard for his personal safety (he didn't), in order to begin his undaunted mission to guarantee America's security (he isn't). You're also meant to believe that he bravely went to Iraq to fight terrorism over there rather than here at home. Never mind that there wasn't any there before, and that our own intelligence agencies have concluded that we have created the world's most efficient terrorist factory by our invasion of the country.
In fact, the only reason Dear Leader himself ever went to Iraq was to get his picture taken holding a plastic turkey, before getting the hell out of there as fast as he could. It would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that the man holding the plastic turkey was a plastic presidential stand-in as well. Don't forget that this is a president who ran from Vietnam to the Texas Air National Guard, ran from 9/11 to Nebraska, and had to have his presidential debate responses radioed in to him. Like Strawberry Fields, when it comes to this guy, nothing is real. Forever. Rove has this faux hero pumped full to the brim with patriotism enhancement drugs, the political equivalent of Barry Bonds.
As if all that doesn't make it hard enough, there is a third reason we don't think of Bush as anything more than inept, foolish and arrogant, and that is because many of us just can't go there. When very young Americans experience their initial political socialization, their first awareness is of the president. And, as we know from research findings, that apprehension is of a daddy figure who will keep us safe and protected.
In much the same way, therefore, that a father molesting his child represents the deepest possible violation of the trust that the vulnerable invest in their supposed protector, few Americans are psychologically prepared to imagine their president as something far, far worse than a fool. That scary possibility cuts deep, right to the existential core, and too many of us have too many layers of psychological Kevlar protecting that vulnerable center to ever penetrate. Cave, hic dragones.
That possibility is a lot more easily contemplated, however, when considering somebody else's president. So let us strip away these obstructions to visual clarity, let us begin with a fresh piece of paper, and let us recast this presidency on the basis of its record. And let's do so without biasing suppositions of any sort influencing our vision, much as we might were we to observe the leader of a foreign state of whom, and of which, we know little.
Say, Zimbabwe, for example.
Imagine that you knew nothing about the president of Zimbabwe, but that you were informed that he liked to steal elections.
Imagine that you also learned that he was destroying civil liberties in his country, jailing people without charge, without legal counsel, without habeas corpus rights. And spying on tens of thousands of citizens without warrants.
Imagine that you found out that this Zimbabwean president was torturing and even murdering innocent captives in illegal prisons.
What if, additionally, you found out that he was kidnaping foreigners and dumping them in secret jails elsewhere, so that they could be tortured even more egregiously?
Suppose you also learned that this president refused to fight for his homeland when he was a young man, but was now fabricating from whole cloth justifications for sending his countrymen off to war.
And that he talked all day long about what great heroes these soldiers were, and how anyone who criticized his policies was not supporting the troops, while simultaneously failing to provide sufficient armor and equipment to protect them.
But that he was nevertheless doling out heaping scoops of the public treasury (and borrowing more) to well-connected mercenary and construction companies who do nothing and are paid exorbitantly via no-bid contracts.
What if you heard that this president staffed his administration with cronies who would do anything he asked of them, but nothing for the people?
Imagine that these cronies stole everything in the country that wasn't bolted down, and gave it to the president's already über-wealthy supporters.
What if this president rearranged the tax structure so that in the future the middle class would have to pay today's and tomorrow's taxes for the wealthy, plus interest?
What if he told the most outrageous lies about the environmental destruction he was supporting, in order to protect the profits of massively rich oil companies?
What if he was too lazy to do anything about the warnings he received prior to his country being attacked, and instead remained on vacation for a solid month?
What if he remained on vacation again, when one of his country's greatest cities drowned, and was left to struggle on its own thereafter?
Suppose his policies made Zimbabwe one of the most reviled countries of the world.
What if those policies encouraged the international proliferation of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction?
Imagine all of these things, and then ask yourself: What would you call someone with a record like that?
No matter where he lived, you'd call him a predatory kleptocrat. And a traitor.
If this president lived in Zimbabwe, you'd call him Robert Mugabe.
But he doesn't. He lives here.
So call him American Mugabe.
And what is more, he knows it, too. Americans may be fooled (by him), but this president knew exactly what he came to Washington to do, and exactly what would happen if he got caught at his pillaging of the commonweal.
Anyone who thinks the latest scandal concerning the firing of the US Attorneys is some random anomaly of some sort hasn't been paying attention. It is perfectly of a piece with everything this administration has done since coming to office.
Before they had even located the men's room of their new office suites, they had already withdrawn the United States from the International Criminal Court treaty. Not content with that, they then began hammering vulnerable countries throughout the world to exempt Americans within their borders from jurisdiction of the Court, using extortion racket techniques any two-bit thug from Brooklyn would find painfully familiar.
Next, Bush unilaterally changed the traditional rules for the handling of presidential papers, issuing an executive order giving himself complete control of his papers, and those of every other president, for as long as he wants.
Then this junta proceeded to conduct the affairs of their administration with probably more secrecy than any presidency in American history, making the regime in North Korea look like a battered information-leaking sieve by comparison.
Since then they've loaded up the courts with right-wing Borkians whose main qualification for office is a fawning adoration of unlimited executive power (as long as Bush is the executive, of course). Does anyone seriously question that that was Harriet Miers' only real 'qualification' earning her a Supreme Court nomination?
Now they're firing US Attorneys who aren't quite Bushist enough, and replacing them with any unqualified hack who can be found, provided they possess unshakable loyalty to the Dauphin.
Hmmm. Anybody seeing a pattern here?
If Americans could get beyond their training, beyond Rove's marketing campaign, and beyond the psychological horrors of first degree cognitive dissonance, what they'd see is a president who - like Mugabe in Zimbabwe - came to town to fill his pockets, and just as fast as he could.
And they'd see a president who knew precisely what he was doing, and as such took every conceivable precaution to make sure his tracks were covered, and that no criminal justice institution could touch him.
But justice might just find him, after all.
I don't think the American public is in any mood now to make him Senator for Life, with full immunity privileges, like Chile did to buy out Pinochet. And I don't think the next president - even a Republican (yeah, right) - is going to be much inclined to throw a pardon in the direction of this radioactive sinking ship of a larcenous former president, this Enron of the Oval Office.
Watch out. With any luck, American Mugabe might just become American Milosevic.
David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (mailto:dmg@regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
22 Comments so far
Show AllThis has needed saying and needs saying more often. I don't think we'll get our country back until Cheney and Bush are hauled out in handcuffs.
Wow...what an essay! I agree wholeheartedly that Bush is the worst president we've ever had, that he's a dictator wannabe, and that Americans are too afraid to just go there. However, I disagree in that I saw all this in Bush in 1999. He never fooled me. Every time he spoke and squinted his eyes or smirked, I knew he was lying. He's a bad liar...so transparent everytime he speaks.
My deepest wish is to see Bush be the first president to go from the White House to jail.
Thank you, David Michael Green, for clarifying what has been so obvious for so long, and has turned my stomach more than once in these last, long, brutal years of GWBUSH.
Everytime I hear the obsequious deferring, whether media "pundits" or Senators or Representatives, "Oh, I can't say. It depends on what the President's intentions are ... or what he thinks about whatever ... or what the President's plans are ... or his policy is ..."
With an alleged I.Q. of about 87, with all the deficiencies of character that have become so painfully obvious, with the lack of wholistic, acuity that does not allow GW to see past his own nose, with the callous disregard of anyone's life but his own and perhaps a few of those immoral or amoral kiss-asses in his inner circle, this man must go, along with the devious, destructive Cheney, Rove, Rice and the whole Iran-Contra crew who are unabashedly back in business.
Treason ... you got it ...
But how, given the dinosaur brain of an Inhofe who clings to "global warming is the greatest hoax ever," the loopy-doopy, fearful Specter, the addled warrior chameleon McCain, and all the others who now consider thousand dollar bills as mere pocket change given what is intended for the Iraqi people in terms of the take-over and almost total control of their oil and its profits, how?
You're right, most people don't think in the devious ways that those in high office right now do. Even when it comes out of the corner of the ceiling and hits them right in their heads and pocketbooks, they are inclined to not connect the dots until much later when it's too late. I know because I'm old enough to have been hit in the head that way several times and couldn't quite believe it, get it.
Also, I suspect many of those in the Congressional chambers don't have a full grasp of what is going on. The setting is so insulated from the U.S. citizenry and the tragedies and travails of so many others in this world. The Senate is a club, and the house is clubby. And I suspect many, good enough out in the hustings to get elected, don't run much deeper than GWBUSH.
In this Sunday's "This Week" interview with George Stephanopolous, Tommy Thompson, who just announced his run for the presidency, stated his opinion on the current debacle in the Justice Department and the necessary qualifications for a new attorney-general if Gonzales resigns or otherwise is relieved of his duties.
Paraphrasing here, but the essence: "Well, Tommy T. said, "most important, a good attorney-general is one who follows the policies of the president."
To his credit, with just a hint of incredulity in his expression, George S.'s eyes glazed over and he immediately moved to another topic.
How? How do we of the citizenry free ourselves from the shackles of the looming possibility of the destruction of our democracy and even the planet we live on [those new, hydrogen bombs in the process of being upgraded, GW was chortling about a few weeks ago], ... considering what we are up against?
We all must give that question careful, but creative thought. Perhaps we might read or reread Gandhi.
Most Americans would skip the part about how truly messed up their president is. Who wants to know that the man with his finger on the button is out of his mind?
NOW THIS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
SPOT ON.....David Michael Green....
THIS IS AN ACCURATE ARTICLE....
Bush has become persona non grata to most of the rest of the world. Following his latest round of delusional speeches should be committed to a criminal institution for the mentally insane…....
It was before the 2000 election and his mocking of a death row inmates pleas for mercy that suggested he was unfit to be a leader. That and the fact that he looks stupid and cant complete a sentence.
Aside from the token Repug dissenter or shill and despite the empty protests from the Dems, he's doing just what the minions of Mammon from both parties put him there to do and succeeding admirably. Join the peaceful revolution, the Green Party.
Maybe this doesn't fit, but possibly it does.
Portion of a letter to Paul Kurtz, October 26, 2001:
Unlike many Americans, on September 11th I was not shocked, nor bewildered, nor even angered by the attacks upon this land. What I did feel was old. Old beyond time, beyond space, and beyond any recollection of feeling. I knew the attack would come: not where or when or how, but with a certainty of conviction fostered by a realistic assessment of current human affairs. Now our leaders and the necessary propagandists involved in guiding a national patriotic response to these attacks are attempting to characterize our attackers as "terrorists". That they have used terrorism as a strategy is not in question.
These people are freedom fighters. They are kindred spirits of the American revolutionaries and all other patriots that have attempted to free their people from oppression and the influence of foreign powers within their lands. Now our moral and ethical spin doctors want us to believe that these people are evil barbarians or religious fanatics who are out of control. To many people of the world it is America that is out of control. The reality of the collapse of the Soviet Union has attained the weight of holy scripture in American policy. The resulting boastful pride exhibited by the sophomoric George W. Bush as he unilaterally rejected decades of sincere efforts towards reduction of weapons of mass destruction, and toward global environmental quality, was more than enough to shame me as an American and a member of the human race. To many beyond our shores we are a plague upon civilized society, bent solely on the acquisition of wealth, power, and influence and completely out of touch with the moral and ethical rhetoric that we mouth to justify our materialistic desires.
VL
Is this an insult to Mugabe? I don't remember Bush liberating this country from anything? And is there a siege of any type on this country like what the whole western world is doing to Zimbabwe? Mugabe might be in the siege mentality, but he is not destroying the whole world in the process.
Let's not all gang up on Bush - there's a lot of psychopaths behind the curtain - like Darth Cheney - and the rest of the totalitarian ideologues foisting fascism on the world. And it drive me crazy how they've re-made our military into a gang of terrorist thugs - that's the ultimate insult.
The whole world is doing nothing about Zimbabwe, or Mugabe.
The MSM hardly reports it because, it's natural resources are Elephants and Lions. Plus it's just a bunch of African's so who cares, it's not as if they are killing white people.
Mugabe's crimes get worse each day (it's a toss up whose worse Bush or Mugabe, and the west does nothing.
The real scary part: Mugabe backed by the deadliest military on the planet, the most persuasive media ever invented, and the wealthiest oligarchs in history.
Wonder why they think they can tell us all to f*** off?
It makes me utterly crazy that during a time when the country has faced truly profound and potentially revolutionary challenges and opportunities to make changes for the better (9/11, climate change, Katrina, the appointment of two supreme court judges,) we have the worst, most corrupt, most inept, most delusional, most regressive,and certainly most dangerous regime in power than we have ever had in our history.
I agree wholeheartedly with Rich M. Our system spawned the likes of George Bush and his cronies but it has been churning them out for sometime now and as we can see by the feeble carping in what is supposed to pass for loyal opposition insistence on real accountability, it is pretty damed clear who calls the shots in our country, and folks, it ain't us! Wake up US citizens and find your voices again. The corporatists pay the politicians and we pay the price over and over and over again!
Cee Miracles--
You ask:
How? How do we of the citizenry free ourselves from the shackles of the looming possibility of the destruction of our democracy and even the planet we live on [those new, hydrogen bombs in the process of being upgraded, GW was chortling about a few weeks ago], … considering what we are up against?
***************
I believe the answer to your question is based on two principles:
There are more of "us" than there are of "them".
They can't continue except "we" let them either through fear or neglect. as Dr. King said 40 years ago in a similar context:
"We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible...These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest."
Ghandi once said, "first they ignore you, then they mock you, then they patronize you, then they fight you, and then you win."
I agree with many of the comments with regard to the current state of affairs in the US. However, I do not believe any significant change in direction is possible until some shocking event disturbs the inertia of the present system. It may be an economic collapse or possibly some extreme action by the fascists in Washington, but it seems likely the American people need an earthshaking precipitating event even more than the neocons did to launch their scheme of mass murder and robbery.
Your comparison of Bush with Mugabe is tremendously apt - and yet it may overlook the more deeply rooted nature of the current American predicament. There is a Bush personality cult, to be sure, but the entire extent of the problem runs to systemic dysfunctions in multiple social dimensions: particularly the world's corporate overlords and their media outlets. In the larger context, Bush is one successful expression of an ascendant fascism - something much bigger than him, which will likely remain in place after Bush is gone.
I agree that the problems are systemic, but there are also questions of degree and limiting the damage of a system that is fundamentally flawed. I do not think that we would have invaded and occupied Iraq, flaunted international law, ignored scientific findings with regard to climate change, undermined social services, reversed regulatory laws and undermined what ability regulatory agencies have to protect people, ignored Constitutional protections to due process and expression, promulgated and fostered fear and xenophobia, under any but this administration.
Bush and company have been exactly the opposite of what this country needed to face a set of challenges that, under a more progressive and enlightened leadership, could have set us in a new direction.
There's a comparison with Mugabe's Zimbabwe that David Michael Green omitted: the economy. In Zimbabwe there is impossible-to-imagine rates of inflation. In the U.S., Bush has managed to take the country from an economic surplus to a deficit of huge proportions. So who is actually financing American activity? Check out the ginormous (gigantic, enormous) indebtedness of the U.S. to China! If China ever decided to collect, or even simply flaunt its power over the U.S. economy, America might be more similar to Mugabe's Zimbabwe than even now.
"I SMELL A DUCK"
It's interesting to note if you watch Bush….
…..a true "Svengali"….
In the way he behaves and the way he bumbles his speech with his regular use of demagoguery…
He's really a sophomore and hence sophomoric….
If it waddles like duck, smells like a duck and sounds like a duck…. it probably is a duck….
I think this is another COVER-UP of the Bush administration….
His qualifications were potentially BOGUS….or at the very best, paid for by George H. senior….
I mean an average GPA of 2.3 in Arts at Yale.....FOR GOODNESS SAKE....SAY NO MORE!
My head is spinning from such angry commentary, not because this is all so revealing to me but because the problems we face as a nation are so overwhelming.
I agree with kivals that we need some catastrophic event to wake America up, (like the coverup of 9/11) and with RichM that the Bush Administration is merely the sympton of the disease, a national consumer culture dominated by fascist corporate wealth and power.
As intoxicated consumers, we have become mere fodder for the unlimited growth of unregulated corporate capitalism that is totally unsustainable for our planet and our human species to survive.
As consumers, we are breathlessly running on the treadmill of capitalism, unable to stop or get off the machine.
We are a brain dead nation, incapable of freeing ourselves the materialistic mindset of our culture.
What we fail to recognize is that we are in a conflict between the forces of materialism and the forces of spirituality. Simply put, our materialistic culture is suppressing the better angels of our nature, the forces of spirituality, like hope, justice, fairness, compassion, and peace.
To me, true participatory democracy is the only answer, because democracy is as much an act of the human spirit as in the practice of religion. As a nation, we have tried religion but it has failed because Christianity has its own visions of Empire.
We need the history of democratic success and the powerful dynamics of democracy taught in our schools and articluted in a renewed civic press. We need more democracy in the streets, by way of massive non-violent civil disobediance to enable the good guys to do their work in the suites.
To me, more and more Democracy is the only answer to bring about a new emerging higher global consciousness, working to bring about a just, sustainable and compassionate world.