Letters to the Editor
-
"Biographer Robert Draper explains that Bush has a surprising intellect but is incapable of curiosity and owning up to mistakes."
Gee...and I always thought that being capable of owning up to your mistakes and a capable curiosity were the HALLMARKS of an intellect...was I wrong?
Or...maybe THAT'S why his 'intellect' is so "surprising"?
George W. Bush belongs in a straitjacket, in a prison cell, awaiting trial. That much is certain, obvious and true. Anyone who tells me his intellect is surprising is pissin' in my ear and trying to tell me it's only raining.
-
surprising intellect
The author sites books Bush has been given to read as one sign of his "intellect". Given that Bush has been found to be untruthful to an astonishing extent, why would Mr. Draper believe Bush actually read those books? It sounds as if Draper throws that in the mix to try as best he can to give a "balanced" account, even when it stretches credibility beyond belief. This Bush guy is disgraceful, and not to be believed as anything but an emotionally crippled con man.
-
He's one of us.
The thing that I found most baffling about his election wins, apart from the fact you somehow made Kerry's war service an issue, is that so many working class people think that Bush has an understanding, an empathy with their lives. Considering he is a blue blooded, silver spoon fed, idle fratboy tool of the ultra-rich, this is a remarkable example of false consciousness.
-
The Gipper Weighs In From the Great Beyond
Just thought I would post for all the view of one of the Right's most enduring contemporary patron saints, Ronald Reagan, on the "intellect" and endearing qualities of GWB.
Ronald Reagan on Dubya
'A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son
around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the
political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all
the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40
and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New
Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or
something. That looks like easy work.'
From the just published REAGAN DIARIES. The entry is dated May 17, 1986.
Looks like the Gipper was concerned about the decision making abilities of GWB back in '86....ah, but he just must have been hiding that amazing intellect that lacked curiosity (paradox, anyone?) from ol' Reagan, yet revealed it to this intrepid biographer.....haaaaa!
-
Reagan Power
"Ronald Reagan on Dubya - 'A moment I've been dreading. George brought his ne're-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.'"
It pains me to realize that, had this 1986 statement been widely publicized before GW ever began campaigning, he might easily have had no campaign at all.
-
Oh, my God...
"He is either going to go down in history as a disastrous flop or a really monumental president."
I vote for Really Monumental Disaster. When you "flop" people don't die.
They must've figured out how to put the Bush Kool-Aid into a mist and envelope Mr Draper in it during his interviews. Or maybe he's just sitting there thinking to himself, "Here I am, little Bobby Draper who never made the football team, sitting in the office of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!" and it was just too much for his cranio-neural circuits.
-
..... insecure president
As I lay, I suspect Pres Bush suffers from some sort of complex judging from his facial expressions and body language. He appears to put up a front. Call it inferiority complex. Hard to explain as he has everything in life except Dear IRAQ which could be the one that makes him feel so.
Not surprising "Bush has a surprising intellect" which follows family background, a sound education, experience (not boozing) and age, hopefully. As such, surprising Bush "is incapable of curiosity and owning up to mistakes."
Draper, any other characteristics of Bush?
-
@geoffchaucer
“Considering he is a blue blooded, silver spoon fed, idle fratboy tool of the ultra-rich, this is a remarkable example of false consciousness.”
It’s hard to tell if its false consciousness or unconsciousness. We don’t have a history of class consciousness to the degree that you Brits do, I’m assuming your name accurately reflects your abode, so we judge by the speech and the thinking, or lack thereof, rather than the class standing. Also, Karl Rove spent a good deal of time and effort to create his Dubya and stir the emotions of the homophobic, religiously right and bigoted.
What is your definition of false consciousness?
-
The President of Iran
Why take his name in vein in this column. Keep to the point in question.
Now, the background of some of the great men were worse than "blacksmith."
I assume you included yourself in the 'none rose above themselves.'
-
False consciousness
I don't mean it in the Marxian sense. I mean working class people thinking that Bush has an empathy with them, that he has their interests at heart, that his policies will be to their advantage, when there is no evidence for that belief, and a huge amount of evidence that he was bought and paid for by the rich.
I saw countless interviews with workers on the factory floor, before the last election, saying that they intended to vote for Bush because they thought he understood them and represented them, which I found very surprising.
-
About your surprise geoffchaucer
The reason was covered earlier when several of us spoke about skillful, deceitful salesman. Too many Americans, and no doubt Brits too (I believe you [not specifically you] supported us in this disaster) dream about a better life and in their ernnestness to try and reach that goal, they become fools and buy a fools bargain. Then having bought the deal, they spend endless effort denying they bought it.
-
Krauthammer-Kristol Denial Syndrome
No one should be surprised that Bush can be "likeable". Nobody gets the kind of loyalty that Bush has gotten from his supporters without having some likeability.
And really, if likeability and charm are our measures, then Hitler, (yes, I'm bringing up Hitler - get over it), was also said to be a man of charm and humor, generating great loyalty from his followers. Has he also been misunderestimated?
Was it Monty Python or Mel Brooks who satirized the concept of "charming" mass murderers by joking about what a good dancer Hitler was, "Say what you will; the man could cut a rug"? Washington journalist David Gregory recently laughingly referred to Bush as, "a goofball".
I detest Bush, just as I do pedophiles, pimps, and those who traffic in slavery, and for basically the same reason: because they casually destroy lives for nothing more than their own profit, pleasure, and/or ego. And they do it with a pathological dismissal of their victims' humanity, because, in their minds, no one's right to exist pre-empts their right to have their way.
How long will those taken in by Bush's disarming charm look away from the trail of death he has left? Contrary to the right-wing meme that hating Bush is a psychological disorder, hating Bush is actually the most psychologically sound reaction to him. It provides the strongest defense against the never-ending onslaught of lies and propaganda, as well as from the more insidious argument that he may be more palateble because he's sometimes likeable.
Bush's most hard-core remaining loyal supporters are compelled to continue with any and all rationales to absolve Bush - and themselves - of their guilt. The alternative would mean facing up to the role they played in so much unnecessary death - and that's a lot of guilt to go around. Those who refuse to face this continue to insist that they serve a Greater Good, and they decide what that Greater Good is on a day to day, sometimes hour by hour, basis. Their ever-shifting rationales are irrelevant; the only thing that matters is staying true to Bush and denying everything else.
I call this behavior by Bush loyalists Krauthammer-Kristol Denial Syndrome, also known as Kill-Kill-Death for its chief characteristic: a pronounced compulsion for repeated human sacrifice to distract from the recognition and acceptance of obvious but unwelcome facts. This syndrome is seen in those lacking emotional maturity, morally and emotionally stunted, and maintaining obsessive and unquestioning adoration of an authority figure they fixate upon. Evidence that the object of their immature fixation is not the hero they believe causes extreme stress and cognitive dissonance, exacerbated by their infantile fear that their existence depends on the survival of the fixation, in this case: Bush.
This anxiety can manifest as extreme jingoistic patriotism and/or belligerent nationalism, always coupled with paranoia and fear of attack. When threatened with information that conflicts with their delusions, KKDS sufferers often respond with displays of irrational rage and threats of violence.
At its worst, KKDS syndrome results in subjects so blinded by fear that they advocate genocide and mass murder rather than contemplate the possibility of facing the source of their delusion. "Make a parking lot out of …", "bomb them back to the Stone Age" "If there's a one percent chance of attack, we are justified in attacking first", are statements typical of those with KKDS.
The fantasy fixation of KKDSers should never be encouraged, even with something as seemingly harmless as agreeing that their authority fixation is "likeable". This only causes further detachment from reality, as in Chris Matthews saying, "Gosh, everybody likes this guy, except the hard-core lefties, of course." It conveys the erroneous sense that they are justified in their fixation.