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TechnoratiHistory will remember George W. Bush for his impunity. He does whatever he wants, much of it in plain view, because he knows that the American people, collectively, are like the RMS Titanic: We take a long time to recognize trouble; by the time we do, our core is torn open by an iceberg.
When he conceals something, you can be sure that there is skullduggery afoot. From the beginning, I was uneasy with the vaunted "discipline" of the Bush White House because secrecy defeats the openness we expect from a democracy. We don't have a very good track record recognizing or admitting governmental corruption. We have such a deep desire to maintain stability to preserve our prosperity that we avoid censuring wrongdoers.
Why did the American people believe Richard Nixon's "secret plan" to get us out of Vietnam? He was known as "Tricky Dick" long before he bombed Cambodia, declared victory in Vietnam (which is not the same as winning), and damaged our country with the Watergate burglary.
Lyndon Johnson, who I revere for his attempts to bring racial and economic justice to our country, was known to be a skilled political manipulator. If I had known then what I learned later reading his biographies by Robert Caro, that he was wicked to his underlings while fawning and manipulative with the older men in the Senate who he needed to succeed, I do not think I could have supported him (I was too young to vote for him.) I watched his descent into his own hell as he read the casualty figures every night. It made me more sympathetic to him than I am to the callous and vapid current occupant of the White House.
What do I want in a president? I do not expect perfection but I do want honesty, compassion, empathy and fiscal responsibility. Forget personal saintliness: If Jimmy Swaggart, Tim Haggard, and the many Catholic priests accused of sexually molesting their parishioners are any indication, one cannot look even to the clergy for that extra bit of personal purity. Imperfection is the human condition. I have only voted on the winning side three times in my voting career. For the most part, I have had to swallow hard and accept that most of the voters choose men who I would not trust to take out the garbage.
As for charisma, the only president who I have seen that had it was Bill Clinton. For all his peccadilloes, his combination of charisma and genuine empathy got elected him twice
When W. was running for president, man-in-the-street interviews showed that people liked him because they could imagine having a cup of coffee with him; they did not feel a similar urge with Al Gore or John Kerry. When Bill Clinton was the president , he was one of the best and the brightest, rather than one of the dumb and dumbest.
How can we intuit from a politician the kind of president s/he will make? They put on their costumes and masks, give speeches in ersatz Spanish, eat pork rinds with hot sauce, and grease many, many palms. It should not be a popularity contest but it is. It makes perfect sense that United States' Representatives and Senators rarely are elected to the presidency because all we know of them are their speeches. At least a governor has a track record of administration.
W came from a state where the governor's power is extremely limited but his folksy ways fooled enough people to get him his party's nomination. Then all he had to do was steal the election; twice.
The GOP stole the presidential elections in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004, but the issue is moot as far as the general public is concerned. In the meantime, Bush is dragging us at full speed into the gutter but we do not have the critical mass to stop the abuse and impeach him.
We have to do a better job in the next election. Everything is at stake.
When I'm 80, I want to be able to walk in the woods and breathe the sweet air; to play on a clean beach with my grandchildren; perhaps to read stories to children in the local public library once a week. I want to die secure in the knowledge that this extraordinary planet will survive for my children, my grandchildren, and all the generations that I will not live to see. I hope it isn't too late.
Rosa Maria Pegueros pegueros@uri.edu is an associate professor of Latin American History and Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island.
18 Comments so far
Show AllRich...I reluctantly say you are correct. Clinton was smooth. I lived in Arkansas at the time of his election and was elated...but looking back I am disappointed, to say the least.
I was fooled.
Is it possible to become the President of the United States without being complicit with big business? There's no way! And now it is just blatantly vulgar. Things are far worse.
"When W. was running for president, man-in-the-street interviews showed that people liked him because they could imagine having a cup of coffee with him; they did not feel a similar urge with Al Gore or John Kerry."
I thought it was a beer? I guess it depends on which TV network you were watching. And no, that is just what the mainstream, corporate media wanted everyone to think that 'all of us liked.' Gore - and Kerry - each received more actual votes than Bush. Apparently the majority of Americans don't necessarily drink the same beer or coffee served up by the media, even though they are undoubtedly stupid enough to drink it (or the Kool-Aid) themselves.
Clinton was No American Idol. Get It.
"Knowledge is Power, that is why you don't get any" WSJ
It's the whole system that must go. Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Obama, all of them are born from the same political system. A system that takes money from corporations and then gets into bed with them to fuck the country. I left America in 1988. I knew then America was a fraud.
Hoa Binh
He who casts the vote decides nothing. He who counts the vote decides everything. Josef Stalin
I don't believe the American public can be engaged because the opinion leaders in this country have too much trouble being heard. The political waters, in a manner of speaking, are constantly being muddied by very loud, very brassy, very pushy, very nasty folks who literally scream their message from every church top, every roof and every tree top. (again, poetically speaking, but you get the picture). These latter day brown shirts are given a podium by the big dollar Tee Vee stations. Tee vee land is being led by The New York Times, the Washington Post and Time magazine where slick viewpoints supporting the brown shirts are dress up for further digestion.
Until this whole propaganda machine for the Bushites view can be countered by an equal sized machine on the Progressive side, not much will change.
I'd unravel ev'ry riddle
For any individ'le
In trouble or in pain
With the thoughts I'd be thinkin'
I could be another Lincoln,
If I only had a brain.
frank1569 - about your lame attempt to be funny: the difference between my criticisms of Bill Clinton & yours is that I listed substantive ways in which Clinton acted as an agent of US corporatists & as an aggressor in foreign policy; while you merely listed idiotic attacks made against Clinton by rightwing Republicans.
You are trying to equate my substantive Clinton criticisms with the flaky Clinton criticisms of the Republican Right. You're hoping to defend Clinton by suggesting that all criticisms of him are the same.
But they're not all the same. If examined closely, Clinton's policies were not too different from GW Bush's policies, and that's why the Clintons are so chummy with the Bushes. There are big differences between Bill & Bush Jr in terms of stagecraft & the ability to seem "genuinely empathetic." But the policies themselves favor the same interests, and are only marginally different.
Sure, Clinton was a brilliant politician and had charisma, but when as presidential candidate, he sat on his couch holding Hilary's hand and watched Arkansas fry a mentally retarded man, I knew he was no friend of the voiceless. I would no more vote for him than for Bush. And under his watch the rich got richer faster than ever since the first robber baron era (we're in the second one now).
As a result of his welfare "reform" we now still have 25% of our population in poverty, but between him and Bush, a rapidly increasing proportion of that population in dire poverty. That's our kids who we should be protecting.
And the future looks grim. All the leading Democratic contenders are not going to improve the situation, they're too busy chasing corporate money. Their idea of health care reform is to continue to let the insurance industry plunder the public pocketbook by throwing in a little taxpayer's money to sweeten the deal. They have no intention of ending the Iraq occupation, they will continue to kill Iraqis and steal their oil. Lobbyist reform? They banned golf parties and authorized birthday parties. They savagely stifle any progressive efforts to change this system. The public is clueless, since the media is a complicit corporate partner. And our children aren't even being taught civics because the Republicans have so underfunded schools. Clever, huh? So now what?
And by the way, frank 1569, you're calling a philanderer who keeps getting caught with women gay because he "sucks" a sax? And you can't impeach someone who isn't in office. You discredit yourself.
Election reform is not going to fix the problem. Even one American citizen voting for Bush in the last election was too many.
And don't forget Clinton lied about a consensual affair and almost caused the collapse of western civilization. And what the murder list he and Hillary ran through? And his anti-American tax the rich scheme? And the coke parties in the Lincoln bedroom? And the way he sucked that sax - clearly gay, right?
Let's impeach Clinton again before it's too late.
I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers, consultin' with the rain, and my head, I'd be scratchin', while my thoughts were busy hatchin' … if I only had a brain…
This article offers the not-very-deep thoughts of a well-meaning liberal. To her credit, she's aware that Bush is destroying the country. Her desire to leave the planet in decent shape for her grandkids is certainly easy to empathize with.
To her discredit, her innocence leads her to be fooled by the likes of a Bill Clinton, who admittedly is very bright, & does a masterful imitation of "empathy." In terms of actual policy (as opposed to brilliant showmanship), Clinton laid the groundwork for the Bush administration. Clinton quietly handed the airwaves over to the giant media companies in the Telecom Act of '96, without so much as warning the public what was at stake. This helped turn the US media into little more than a platform for state propaganda.
Clinton also attacked a country -- Yugoslavia -- that posed no threat whatever to the US. Unlike the much clumsier & more vulgar Bush, Clinton was so smooth about this that most Americans paid it no mind.
Clinton also ripped away huge chunks of the social safety net, via his "welfare reform."
And if Clinton were really any sort of principled figure, would he not have courageously opposed the Bush thefts of presidential elections? Would he not have spoken out against Bush's launching of a US war, based entirely on lies? Would his wife be the most hawkish of Democratic candidates, openly engaging in warmongering towards Iran, & defending the murderous US occupation of Iraq?
Instead of taking any principled positions in these matters, Bill Clinton is usually seen these days happily motoring around golf courses in a golf cart with his new best friend, Poppy Bush.
Some "hero." The "best and brightest"? A figure of "genuine empathy"? Rosa Pegueros is seeing only what she wants to see -- not what's really there.
Well stated, RichM.
When I vote, I should receive a random number that's posted at the polling place after the election. It's my word against theirs, but if enough people are claiming fraud; something is wrong.
Here is a better way to run elections called "A Practical Election System with Integrity": http://www.marcbaber.com/ElectionReform.htm
Rosa concludes on a somewhat contradictory note:
The GOP stole the presidential elections in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004, but the issue is moot as far as the general public is concerned. In the meantime, Bush is dragging us at full speed into the gutter but we do not have the critical mass to stop the abuse and impeach him.
We have to do a better job in the next election. Everything is at stake.
If the GOP (more like Powers That Be) stole the last two presidential elections, how does it follow that "We have to do a better job in the next election"? It seems to me it's already out of our hands and has been for a long long time.