The Unforgiven (by Jane Smiley at HuffPost)

[marmar]

Jane Smiley


04.24.2007
The Unforgiven (7 comments )

Just when I thought that I finally had the real Bush pegged as, essentially, a shallow, bullying, mean person, pig-headed and vengeful, he goes to Tipp City, Ohio and proves, even to my mother, that he is a blithering idiot.

Remember, my mother has voted twice for Bush, even though she is moderate to progressive on most issues.

I may not have shared with the Huff Posters why my mother never votes for Democrats -- it's because during the thirties, the Democrats got in bed with the big labor unions. At any rate, while I tried to talk her out of voting for Bush in 2004, she did not cave, and voted for him anyway, thereby incurring a penalty at Christmastime when I bought her Christmas present. I do not think the penalty is the reason she now thinks Bush is an astonishing, amazing, and unbelievable idiot, a one-in-a-million dunce. I think he proved that to her himself.

My mother moonlights as a pundit in verse. Her first book of light political verse was called 2002: Whew! It was funny and smart and she did readings in retirement homes in Florida. She dedicated her book to me and my siblings, and even wrote poems about us. Mine reflected upon my penchant, as a child, for never taking "I don't know" for an answer. I admit I was tiresome with the questions. She planned additional volumes, but found herself daunted by events--somehow she could extract nothing "light" from them. Now, however, she is working on her 2007 volume (eventually to be sold on my website, therealjanesmiley -- wait for it).

...(snip)...

No matter how stupid Bush is, it is he who is responsible for the morally wrong part (since he knew everyone was lying, including himself, and since he always has shown indifference to the care of the soldiers whom he sent to do his dirty work). He knows this.

But the worst thing Bush has done is to use the Iraq War, first and foremost, as a cynical bid to maintain himself and his faction in power in this country. It's not simply that he started the war for selfish reasons, it is that he set out to use the Iraq War to undermine the structure of constitutional American government to the advantage of himself and his transnational corporate and investment class. This is a patriotic crime, some, as they say, would call it treason. But, I would say, he has done something worse--he's used the Iraq War as a reason for torturing and destroying particular lives at Guantanamo and elsewhere. He has made sure that the trials were rigged, because allowing even the rudiments of proper and accepted legal procedure would mean that Bush would lose cases, and thereby lose face. He would rather see people crippled and tormented than admit that he has been wrong -- in any particular! Is this not the definition of an evil person? Of a person with no conscience and no humanity?

Sometimes, journalists portray Bush as recognizably human. Even I ended up, after that Tipp City article, thinking that there must be some mistake here -- maybe it would be enough just to get rid of the guy.

But no, blithering or not, we have to investigate, impeach, indict, and imprison. If we don't, the right wing corporate ubermenschen will be back with a bigger plan, a cannier mode of attack. We cannot allow the sorts of things Bush has done to remain a part of the political landscape, to remain options in the political game -- it's not just that they are unworthy of Americans, it's that they transform American democracy in a profoundly cynical and destructive way into a tyranny. Bush has to be the example of what happens to Presidents, no matter what their excuse, when they forget who they are and whom they work for. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/the-unforgiven_b_46729.html

[applegrove]

1. I love Jane Smiley. She is great!