Hologram Man: The Sad, Weird Twilight of George Bush

I've been thinking a lot about George Bush lately. About those strange tics and contortions he makes with his face, like a Neanderthal Man playing Grand Theft Auto. About the fact that you and I still pay his salary. And about what, exactly, his real job is. He's not "president" in any meaningful sense; more and more it seems as if all his energy goes into pretending to care about other human beings. And he used to do a better job of that.

It must be a soul-crushing gig, this business of pretending to care; of constantly being forced, simply for official reasons of state, to pantomime concern about human life, about the death of innocent people, about the education of children, about the hunger of the poor -- to even act like you're paying attention to other people at all -- when in your heart you know better than anyone else that you're only the designated front-man for a criminal business-syndicate. Sometimes he must envy those actual mafia dons, of whom only a willingness to murder and a minor flair for maintaining order is demanded. It's taken a lot out of Bush, this awful burden of pretending to care; you can see it in the way he moves, the way he stands -- so insubstantial now as to be little more than a walking hologram, a man consisting only of colored dust-particles floating around in the shape of a man. He's The Hologram Man. Heh-heh.

Of course, there's mercy in being George Bush, too. It's a dull-witted kind of mercy, to be sure, a kind of ignorance-is-bliss, permanent opiate high. He will never even sense, for one millisecond, the infinite well of disgust he creates in the stomach of every decent American. He will stumble off into his own personal twilight as stupid as when he started, building libraries as monuments to his own illiteracy, scoring an endless string of six-figure speaking-fees for scripted gigs full of dimwit one-liners. Sure, there'll be a few minor blips along the way, like being universally reviled as the worst president in American history; but Being George Bush means you never have to know what you've done. And if by chance the cold fact of his Absolute Worstness does penetrate, even for a moment? So what, screw it, you were The Decider and other folks wasn't, and them's the breaks. Heh-heh.

And for this -- for George Bush's ability to spit at history -- we have our sterling American media to blame. The enablers. The ones who put on tuxedos and gowns and cologne and false smiles and laughed at his monstrous jokes about not finding weapons of mass destruction -- as if countless thousands of Iraqi bodies had not been ripped to shreds by that stumblebum comedian behind the podium. The network anchormen who foamed at the mouth with a soapy, patriotic froth when their Big Presidental Man-Crush strode onto the deck of that destroyer in fighter-pilot drag and told them the war was over. Looked good, didn't I? And y'know what? They bought it! Heh-heh.

How could a man, even a simulacrum of a man, like Bush, grow so wildly detached from all known reality? Lately, it's more like watching some poor demented soul who thinks he's President than an actual head of state. OK, granted, he never had much capacity for thought, that's all too well-documented, but you would've thought he might've picked up a few insights by now, if only by mistake, or by ricochet. But nope, there he goes, making a speech again, stuttering over every unanticipated word, clearly not even bothering to read his lines in advance, knowing that he can just go out and wing it because the press will always cover for him.

In a sane world, of course, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the others would already be sitting in a funky courtroom docket somewhere in downtown Washington, wearing orange jumpsuits with DC Jail emblazoned across their backs. They'd have to ask a judge's permission to speak or take a leak. And they'd be ordered to sit and take it while 4,000 American families stood right in front of them and gave their Victims' Testimony -- as in any other murder trial, prior to sentencing.

But no. They'll just get richer, profiteering from innocent blood.

Heh-heh.

Comments

[chrisrushlau]

Do you doubt what I wrote or are you afraid to think it? "I see nothing, I know nothing." --Sgt. Schulz, camp guard, Stalag 13. "Hogan's Heroes"
the thing, dear, is plausible deniability. If no one can prove you knew it, or had a chance to know it, you're not responsible for it. It was never your fault. It doesn't reflect on you. Nobody will care. You might care, but that doesn't matter. You're not that selfish. If you were supposed to lead, you would have a certificate from The Decider saying so.
So I'll repeat my main point in case you have a change of heart or personnel. The fundamental corrosive quality in US social life today is support for the Jewish state, which must be a racist state (how can it be pro-Jew without being anti-non-Jew?), but which escapes our notice because we, the living consensus of US social life, hate Jews and despise them (literally, look down at them). It is this despisal that lets us overlook the racist Jewish state. We being this hateful to our friends in the region, it is no surprise how hateful we are to Israel's enemies.

[LeonBNJ]

It it my dearest hope that President Bush, VP Chenny and others in his mal-admisistration will be tried for their war crimes but we know it won't happen. More realistically, I do hope that they and others in his administation never see the corporate dollars for doing books, for giving speeches and subsidising his Presidential 'library' and shrine other Presidents got. I think post-office Bush will be respected only slightly, much like Nixon, living the rest of his life in quiet shame rather than in helping society.

[ricchase]

The idea that John McCain has more than a 21 % rating in most polls indicates too many Americans are still too damned stupid to be able to vote. They have learned absolutely nothing from the disgusting destruction the Bush regime has wreaked on America and the rest of the world. What on earth will it take for Joe Sixpack to ever comprehend what goes on in the real world? That John McCain proudly saddles up to Bush and his disastrous policies should be enough to disqualify him from ANY public office. I frankly can not fathom where my head will wander if somehow the republicans were to seize the White House after this eight year horror story.

[hopeless277]

Is this a great country or what? The United States of Barbaria, carving our way through a wall of human flesh to the oil that is rightly ours because we want it so badly. I especially like it that although we know torture is going on all over the world in our names by our employees, there is absolutely NOTHING we can do about it. Wow, this IS a great country.

[burnt]

"About those strange tics and contortions he makes with his face..."

CheneyOilCo's monkeypuppet has been through the wash-spin cycle one too many times.

[seawolf77]

Mafia dons do it too. So do generals. So does anyone in a position of power. But how many really do care. Not many. I think Clinton did. Carter and Ford. The rest HA!!!!!!!

[LouisPWu]

You wrote the blog a few months too early. Bush is still dangerous. Cheney is still dangerous. And there are simply not enough stand-up Democrats in the Senate or in the House to stop these evil people if they decide to up the stakes before November.

[Gma11]

I can barely stand to watch the corporate media anymore - and rarely do so.

The media and the Supreme Court - who woulda thunk it?!

[ckdogs]

Bush would have been a mediocre one term president - but 9-11 happened, and allowed him (I use that term loosely to mean his "brain trust") to use fear to intimidate the country, and run amok. There are no heroes in this scenario. The Democrats, the press, and the public all drank the Kool Aid. We allowed the administration to get away with lies; we allowed them to smear and belittle anyone who spoke out against their policies. And then, a majority voted him into office again. I hope, that as a result, the American electorate has gotten a little smarter, and become more critical of campaign rhetoric, and less critical of candidates who tell the truth. Obama's campaign gives me hope.

[Lemeritus]

There was an excerpt of Bugliosi's book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" posted here yesterday. Unfortunately, you have to buy the book to see how it ends -- who, for example, would arrest Mr. Bush? We can't even round up Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten for contempt of Congress! And who would try Mr. Bush? The same Supreme Court (but worse) that handed him the 2000 election? (Sorry, I forgot; Alito says we're supposed to "get over" that good-for-this-ride-only decision.) Well, 9/11 DID happen and the world rallied around us and we rallied around our sorry excuse for an appointed president (on whose watch and despite several warnings 9/11 DID happen). Bush returned the world's "Get Well Soon" cards unopened and proved, again, how much better Republicans were than Democrats on defense by starting a war having nothing to do with 9/11 and sending our troops to battle without armor or an exit "strat-e-gery".

Like you, ckdogs, I hope "the American electorate has gotten a little smarter" -- but I'm not taking bets and I won't rest easy until Mr. Bush (who is responsible for the unnecessary deaths of more than 4,000 American troops, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens, and the crippling -- physically and mentally -- of uncounted veterans of his vanity war) retires to Dubai with his money. In fact, I think Dubai would be a wonderful and appropriate site for his "presidential" lie-berry.

[Lemeritus]

Ahhhh... the comfort that comes from speaking of W in the past tense. Still it troubles me, Mr. Eskow, that the man you describe as fading from the public stage is the SAME man who managed to be re-elected in '04 and the SAME man who still flirts with showing "them Eye-Rain-ians" a thing or two about (heaven help us) democracy, stirring up my most X-Files paranoia about a certain Executive Order 12919.

[ramal]

The price for these catastrophic eight years will be tallied up for decades to come. Whose to blame? All who voted for him and all who didn't and refused to take to the streets until his government was brought down. I guess that's pretty much everybody isn't it?

[JohnEskow]

Ramal, I think you just nailed it.

Thank you.

John Eskow

[Oldchef]

Kind of hard for people to have the nerve to take to the streets when the government is tapping your telephone and reading your e-mails, and then deleting millions of their own e-mails that might contain proof of their treachery. When a tame Justice Department will target any "enemies" of the administration, it's hard to get anyone to speak up for actual justice.

[Krikkit]

John, the question you pose presumes that Bush was at one time "in touch with reality." Given the insularity of the wealthy families like the Bush family from "normal" reality, chances are the man *never* had a clue.

[wm1066]

My thoughts too.
He gives Bush way too much credit.

[Lonestarmom]

Have you noticed how the media allows McCain to make the same flip-flops and gaffs yet not call him on it either? I am amazed everytime some pundit goes along with the Maverick designation of McCain. He is not the same candidate he was in 2000 and if the American people don't wake up and realize they are being sold a bill of goods then we will have another "Hologram Man" in the White House. As a nation we are not safer than we were 7 years ago, we have lost the respect of the rest of the world and our people are in crisis here at home. It is time for a real change and that change is Senator Barack Obama!

[WorkingClass]

Bush and Cheney ain't going nowhere until they have started World War Three. How will the Democrats explain why they didn't do anything to stop them?