The president has lost his nation’s confidence
There are few things more pathetic than a lame-duck President more concerned with his legacy than with doing the job he was elected (and promised) to do. Though I didn’t watch last week’s State of the Union address, the text of the speech made clear what has seemed evident for some time now. This President is engaged in full-time campaign mode, desperate for a public that has lost confidence in him to like him again. Some Presidents wouldn’t care. After all, it’s not as if he’s able to run for re-election. This President honestly believes that it’s his job to sell his brand of born-again, Amerika-uber-Alles “Compassionate Conservatism” to the American sheeple.
Let’s face it, y’all. If you’re not with him, you’re a defeatist and an appeaser.
President Bush has forfeited the faith of the American people, and judging from his language Tuesday night, he knows it.
In his 2006 State of the Union speech, the president felt it necessary to warn us against “economic retreat,” against retreating “from our duties in the hope of easier life.”
“There is no peace in retreat,” the president said, “and there is no honor in retreat.” He warned against “abandoning our commitments and retreating within our borders,” promising that “the United States will not retreat from the world.”
“Never give in to the belief that America is in decline,” he begged his fellow citizens, “or that our culture is doomed to unravel.”
Retreat. Decline. Retreat. .?.?. The White House had advertised the speech as optimistic, but its unconscious recurring theme, its underlying tone, proved to be anything but.
This President no doubt recognizes that his sagging poll numbers are an indication of an electorate that has lost, and continues to lose, confidence in him and his Presidency. He also knows, however, that if he can successfully paint those who oppose him as defeatists and appeasers, he has a good chance of leaving behind a legacy of strength and resolve in the face of untold dangers…even if he should more accurately be remembered as a liar, a thug, and a war criminal.
The problem with this approach is that people like myself resent being branded as defeatist and appeasers simply because we happen to vehemently oppose Our Glorious Leader and everything he stands for. The reality now is that there are very likely more Americans who support Cindy Sheehan than George W. Bush. We all understand the war on terror and it’s implications for this country we love. 9.11 left it’s mark on each and every one of us. That doesn’t mean, however, that we must accept Our Glorious Leader’s portrayal of the war in Iraq as a central battle in the war against terror. There WAS no terrorist threat in Iraq until we invaded and participated in creating our very own terrorist threat. Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9.11, so it’s not as if our presence in Iraq is about retaliating for the senseless death of more than 3000 Americans on 9.11. No, this President knows that, in order for his numbers not to completely circle the drain, he MUST convince the American sheeple of the righteousness of this cause. More and more, Americans are refusing to buy the propaganda Our Glorious Leader is selling.
The president’s language did, however, reflect the nation’s mood. For months, almost two-thirds of Americans have been telling pollsters that the country was headed in the wrong direction. Almost two-thirds say the economy is fair or poor, despite the fact that by many standard measures it’s doing pretty well. And while Bush says we’re winning in Iraq, 60 percent disapprove of how he has handled that critically important challenge.
Winning in Iraq? How in the world can Our Glorious Leader make this claim with a straight face? We have lost almost 2300 American soldiers…and for what? What have we won? American soldiers are still little more than fodder for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and the war largely consists of fighting an enemy that insists on remaining unseen. How exactly do you define “victory”? Yes, depending on your point of view, there has been “progress”, most notably free elections. The undeniable fact of the matter, though, is that Iraq is still by and large a free-fire zone. Victory? Over what?
No pain, no sacrifice, no hard work. Pick your topic; it’s a story repeated over and over again.
In Iraq, the Bush administration didn’t do the hard work of planning and preparing for an occupation and never committed the resources or manpower to make it work. The results are all too glaring.
After the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001, we were promised a government ready to respond to the next disaster, but Hurricane Katrina proved that to be all talk as well. The administration just never took the job seriously, and it showed.
The same is true of the Medicare prescription drug plan. It’s going to cost us $500 billion we don’t have, and even at that price it has been an administrative nightmare.
The Bush Administration has been one of the most inept, inefficient, ineffective, and dishonest Administrations in modern history. If they were to be honest with themselves, Republicans would admit that the past five years have been little more than an exercise in damage control. And it’s been one clusterf—k after another.
Almost three years ago, Our Glorious Leader stood on a carrier deck in San Diego harbor in front of a banner that proclaimed MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. He declared the end of “major combat operations. “Three years later, Americans continue to be murdered by IEDs in Iraq. So what, exactly, was accomplished? Unless the continued senseless sacrifice of young American lives was part of the “minor combat operations”?
Go through the list — what project has this administration succeeded in pulling off, other than its own re-election and the creation of a right-wing Supreme Court? The answer is nothing.
In fact, they refuse even to acknowledge some of our most pressing problems. Man-made climate change is threatening to disrupt the environment on a planetary scale, and we do nothing. Last year our national savings dropped to the lowest level since the depths of the Great Depression, and we do nothing. We finance our greed and selfishness not by our own productive sweat and toil, but by borrowing another $2 billion every day from the rest of the world, money that our children and grandchildren will have to repay.
The president’s right about this much: The American people do not like to retreat, and are by nature optimistic.
But optimism is a right purchased through hard work and sacrifice. We used to know that, but the memory’s been lost.
Indeed, WE DESERVE BETTER, but we’re stuck with the Mediocrity in Chief for another three years. Still glad you voted for Bush?
