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Taking
A Crack at So-Called "Bush Hatred"
December
9, 2003
By Alan M. Haney
"No matter what George Bush does, in some eyes
it will always be wrong." - posted on a Lubbock, Texas
online message board, 12/3/2003
If there is indeed "Bush Hatred" in this country (and there
at least seems to be a cottage industry devoted to writing
about it), you can't realistically blame the so-called "Bush-haters"
for it. Ever since Bush took office, there has been a concerted
effort to reduce the whole of political discourse in America
to its most basic components, liking separating a water molecule
into hydrogen and oxygen. With us or against us. Conservative
or liberal. Left or right. No middle ground allowed, or even
acknowledged to exist. The problem is that not every "molecule"
in America can be broken down into two nice and easy-to-understand
parts. Some of these "molecules" are very complex structures,
not lending themselves to the simplistic "either-or" reduction.
It is blanket statements like the one quoted above that
cause many liberals to form the opinion that conservatives
are close-minded, or at least thinking with metaphorical blinders
on. While there is a nugget of truth in it from a literal
standpoint, its wounded, defensive tone attempts to distract
one from the larger point. It's not always a matter of whether
what Bush does or says is "right" or "wrong" (as the right
so narrowly limits the available ideological options) but
whether it's even the right thing or smart thing to do.
Bush seems to so often do the diametric opposite of what
he says he'll do anyway (for example, cutting funding for
his own NCLB program, or his recent caving to the Euros on
steel tariffs). It's frustrating to see this kind of Presidential
flip-flop happening all the time, and when someone has the
temerity to point it out, the knee-jerk response from the
right is "Oh, another Bush-hater," often accompanied by shrill
accusations of treason or Communist affiliations. There is
no third choice - you must either love him or hate him. They
then remind us what a "really nice guy and God-fearing man"
the President is alleged to be, as though that excuses him
from any criticism of his performance and we should be ashamed
for doing so.
George W. Bush may in fact be a genuinely nice Christian
guy who means well. (For the sake of discussion I'll concede
the possibility, if not the fact.) But what gets so many people
riled up is that this supposedly nice, personable Christian
guy is also doing what we see as seriously idiotic things,
like passing huge tax cuts and creating huge deficits, pre-emptively
invading sovereign nations which aren't threatening us, or
passing a budget-buster of a prescription drug bill that don't
really help any normal people, or the aforementioned lifting
of steel tariffs prematurely in an economy which is still
struggling to recover. This is a classic example of a Bush
bait and switch. Is it worth some votes to put even more
Americans out of work? There's also the scarcely-mentioned
fact that weakening the American steel industry also weakens
the American Steelworkers union, which doesn't seem to be
a real bright move in a re-election sense. What the hell is
he thinking?
This points toward one thing which I don't believe is really
appreciated by those who thoughtlessly consign liberals to
the Bush-hater corner. There actually are a lot of us who
want to like the guy - after all, he is our President
- and some (however grudgingly) want to be able to think of
him as a good President; after all, we've been told repeatedly
that George Bush is personally a real nice fellow. Some of
us really would like to like him. Do you righties really not
get this?
I personally believe that most Americans want to like
their President, to feel as if somewhere you'll have some
common ideological ground, maybe an attitude toward this or
that in common. In a lot of important 21st-century media-savvy
ways, Bush can appear very Presidential for the cameras; whether
or not he stole an election or governs without a mandate,
he usually has his lines down cold, projecting a feel-good
image of American certitude and confidence.
But even for those willing to stipulate that he's not Evil
Incarnate sitting at the hub of a vast right-wing conspiracy
to control the planet, he still does some of the flat-out
craziest things. The fact is, as a President, some people
think he's a walking disaster. He may in fact be a wonderful
guy and a God-fearing man, but in many eyes he's The President
From Hell, an incompetent, inarticulate bumbler who is blithely
unaware of his own very real fallibility. That perception,
for good or ill, is a stone-hard fact. When the Dixie Chicks
made their widely-publicized statement to a London audience,
they not only articulated the feelings of many Texans, but
millions of other Americans as well.
A lot (and you might be surprised at just how much) of what
the right calls "Bush Hatred" is really not "hatred" at all.
That's a convenient us-or-them attitude for the right to hold
because it requires very little thought to do so, but it has
little basis in reality. What many on both sides of the political
fence feel is a sense of frustration, shame, disappointment,
and disillusionment, as though we've been conned into buying
a shoddily-made product.
If those feelings coalesce over time into anger or even "uncivil
dialogue" directed towards the President, why is the right
so shocked and dismayed by it? Even the most short-sighted
wingnut need only go back to the Clinton years to see real
hatred and loathing of a President by his opposition. It has
been that way to a degree all through our history, with discontent
boiling over into outright murder on numerous occasions. A
modern President knows that there is a one in five chance
that he will die in office, and chances are high that an attempt
will be made on his life. But Bush and his presidency - indeed,
the American Way of Life Itself, according to some of the
right's most vitriolic spokespersons - are somehow threatened
and targets of hatred because of harsh opinions, words or
accusations which are nothing more than the expression of
every American's birthright to criticize our government and
our leaders. Do the rulers of this country actually believe
that they are exempt from the scrutiny of the people?
Just how do you righties perform this peculiar alchemy that
simultaneously shrinks the ideological playing field and makes
dissent dangerous, even toxic, to its soil? The way a lot
of us see it, you're the guys telling us that we're
"wrong" - or, worse, disloyal and treasonous - to even hold,
much less express, dissatisfaction, and that is just plain
nuts. There's a liberal lunatic fringe out there, sure; but
you've got your own, too, and it's not so "fringe" - it's
in our faces and on our radios every single day. The fact
that Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, et. al. are popular with
a large number of people does not mitigate their collective
lunacy, or their blatant attempts to silence dissent.
Ever since we've been "at war," you seem to believe that
the mere fact of being at war is supposed to automatically
(if unofficially) change the rules and definitions. All of
a sudden (according to you) we're no longer normal tax-paying
Joes griping about the government, but The Dreaded Leftist
Pinkos, treasonous minions of Satan who support horrible,
brutal people and harbor destructive designs. What a load
of fertilizer! Just because we disagree with or simply don't
like the President? This is nothing short of ridiculous,
and you seem unable to understand our sense of incredulity
about it. We see things... actions and policies that we think
are just plain wrong-headed for America, if not suspect in
other ways, and we're expected to just shut up about it and
go away? No. I don't think so.
The root of it all is this, and many conservatives seem
to overlook it, perhaps because it is so basic: check it out
- we don't HAVE to shut up OR go away. Why not? Because this
is our America, too, pal. Oh, you may not like it -
judging from the number of invitations to emigrate issued
to liberals by conservative nutcases, a lot of you don't -
but it's a cold hard fact. We're not going anywhere except
to the polls. You'd better come up with a more inclusive concept
of discourse and governance than "my way or the highway,"
because that will literally only work in your wildest dreams.
Your "highway" can never be built. You can't bulldoze dissent
or steamroll it into silence with a lot of flag-waving bluster
or claims to piety, and you can't deport it en masse. It's
way past time for a reality check, people. You can't shut
us up, you can't drive us out, and we will not be ignored.
America is not an "either-or" proposition, and unless you
realize that, you're not even really living in America - you're
living in a fantasy.
Go ahead - continue to dismiss the growing discontent in
this country as simple "Bush Hatred" if a nice tidy label
is easier to get your minds around. But you do so at your
own risk.
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