Maybe We Can

On Monday I thought I had completed one of my last official duties as Designated Bush Watcher, a public service I have provided the last eight years for friends and family who were constitutionally incapable of watching or listening to George Bush. I watched his last press conference. You're welcome.

At the press conference, George was as giddy as any middle schooler about to be sprung for the summer, ignoring the fact that he had failed his grade but prepared to blame it on the teacher. He snarkily thanked the press. He coolly ignored Helen Thomas. He petulantly pounded the podium. He did imitations of a pathetic person, made jokes. He joshed with glum reporters. They asked questions about the Mideast, the economy, the future of the Republican Party. No follow-up questions, please. There were not enough shoes at all the Payless Shoe Stores worldwide to throw. He is clueless, guiltless and defiant until the end.

But it wasn't the end. Moments after his exit, Bush's press office announced that he would give a farewell address to the nation on Thursday night. Make it stop! I think I will have a sweater soaking or I might be cleaning my perm rods that night and be unable to watch. Don't make me. You do it. You can still catch Celebrity Rehab and Kitchen Nightmares. The schaden is off my freude.

Enough.

With the Inauguration of Barack Obama, help may be near, but remedy is far. Church and state are one. Democracy is capitalism. War is peace. Memory is shredder. Our national adrenal glands are beyond fatigued from the shock of the Bush Doctrine.

I will speak for myself. After eight years of Bushwatching my habit of mind is to wait for the other shoe to be dropped, not thrown; to expect any good bit of news to be followed by a firestorm of animosity; to expect that an arm reached across the aisle will be bitten off up to the elbow; to greet every new program with acid skepticism; to suspect that beneath the veneer of altruism is rank greed; to suspect under every christian overture an unchristian motive. And to have my suspicions confirmed.

This toxic thinking permeates the most ordinary of quotidian exchanges. My girlfriend is just saying she likes my hair. The plumber will never come when he said he would. He will overcharge. What was that singer thinking of when she wore that outfit? Yeah right my donation is going directly to running programs. I'm listening to what you say, but I'm making up what you mean. I don't trust my GPS. And on and exhausting on.

In addition to resolving in the new year to do everything I can to help get Dick Cheney before an International War Crimes Tribunal and convicted of torture - I want him to spend time making amends in jail not fly-fishing in Wyoming -- I am resolved to unsubscribe from bilious bush think and give peace and my old optimism a chance. Wish me luck.

Comments

[karmagecko]

Thank you Kate. I wish you and the rest of us luck. Let's see if "open-mindedness" wins out over "single-mi­ndedness".

[praxitas]

i wish you luck, and pray we all see it happen, even as i am aware of the overwhealming odds

[Trog]

Kate wrote: "I will speak for myself. After eight years of Bushwatching my habit of mind is to wait for the other shoe to be dropped, not thrown; to expect any good bit of news to be followed by a firestorm of animosity; to expect that an arm reached across the aisle will be bitten off up to the elbow; to greet every new program with acid skepticism; to suspect that beneath the veneer of altruism is rank greed; to suspect under every christian overture an unchristian motive. And to have my suspicions confirmed."

Indeed, Kate, you DO speak for yourself. It is exactly the kind of KoolAid driven, hate (yes, it's hate) filled words that you have written repeatedly for literally years now that fuel this sort of malaise, animosity, etc. Yes, a few on the right "talk" the same way, but the constant drumbeat of irrational, overblown rhetoric from the left is what is largely responsible for poisoning our atmosphere and discourse. (Or course, I speak for myself.)

What is amazing is that you ultras never realize that BO only prevailed (vote-wise) by about 6.8%. Wait 'til next time. A one-termer, for sure.

[WandaBooneshaft]

And you seem to forget that Bush was GIVEN the presidency by the Supreme Court in 2000 and he STOLE it in 2004.

And you're wrong. He won by 7.3%.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

[slemay]

Kate's blog seems to be fact-based. You seem to be speaking forcefully on behalf of an administration that failed in foreign policy, failed in economic policy, failed in the execution of two wars, failed to live up to the oaths of office that they took on inauguration day, and profited from the process. I can support every one of these claims with a long list of facts, a list that supports Kate's well-written argument.

For example, Dick Cheney's Halliburton accounts were up by 3800% at one point, though down from that now. That rise came from a long string of no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton and then KBR, which spun off in 2007.

I checked a Rush Limbaugh blog the other day. Not one person on the blog disagreed with Rush's statement: he hope's Obama fails. And not one person added a new fact to the discussion. Not one. Everyone was wearing the same uniform and marching formation to Rush's beat.

So try speaking for yourself over there, and then claim that the left garbled the discourse.