How can Bush understand the plight of the poor?

[clydefrand]

He didn't always talk this way. A precious glimpse of Bush, just as he was ascending to the presidency, comes from Jim Wallis, a man with the added advantage of having deep acuity about the struggles between fact and faith. Wallis, an evangelical pastor who for 30 years has run the Sojourners -- a progressive organization of advocates for social justice -- was asked during the transition to help pull together a diverse group of members of the clergy to talk about faith and poverty with the new president-elect.

In December 2000, Bush sat in the classroom of a Baptist church in Austin, Tex., with 30 or so clergy members and asked, ''How do I speak to the soul of the nation?'' He listened as each guest articulated a vision of what might be. The afternoon hours passed. No one wanted to leave. People rose from their chairs and wandered the room, huddling in groups, conversing passionately. In one cluster, Bush and Wallis talked of their journeys.

''I've never lived around poor people,'' Wallis remembers Bush saying. ''I don't know what they think. I really don't know what they think. I'm a white Republican guy who doesn't get it. How do I get it?''

(Maybe he'll get it if he has to go to prison for his dastardly deeds.)

Wallis recalls replying, ''You need to listen to the poor and those who live and work with poor people.''

Bush called over his speechwriter, Michael Gerson, and said, ''I want you to hear this.'' A month later, an almost identical line -- ''many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do'' -- ended up in the inaugural address.


Sounds to me like he didn't bother listening to Mr. Wallis' advice, but he was eager to steal his idea and make it his own. Thanks to all of his speech writers and others from whom he "borrows" knowledge, this president has led us astray because he didn't have the good sense to think for himself. No wonder he's so conflicted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html?pagewanted=3&oref=login

[MatrixEscape]

1. A two-bit, priviledged power monger ...

does not have to think for himself. He just has to put his image and voide into it and do what he can to get his power-gasms. His cronies do the rest.

How many alcoholic, coke-head failures can say they managed to be the President of the US?

At least he admitted, there, the total lack of understanding he has for poverty. His need to ask about it shows his lack of empathy, compassion, and sensitivity. I don't think you have to be poor to understand it if you care enough to look into it in the first place.

The idea of poverty is like a journey to Mars for him. Oddly, without his rich and powerful Daddy, we can all see that he would have ended up living as a ruined drunk in a trailer park, beating his wife. We can be sure he, as an obvious sociopath, would have spent some time in prison subjected to some tough, man sex. He would be more of a nothing and a nobody than most of us without the help and welfare given to him by others. Hmmm, you can define a parasite that in that way, also.

Bush proved that ANYBODY can be President, including the village fool. If we expect any help for the poor and downtrodden, how do we manage to end up with a privileged fool who can't can't even imagine what being poor might be like? He hasn't even been around poverty? Like his Dad, he lives in an opulent bubble of milk and honey.

This petty, small person, trumped up with a wonderful but contrasting facade, has taken a great country down the tubes in short order. Should we give him another term and call it quits then?

[clydefrand]

3. Hell NO!

I want the bastard out TODAY Nov. "2000"

[expatriate]

11. "Bush proved that ANYBODY can be President, including the village fool."

So long as the village fool has enough money behind him. I don't believe for a minute that a poor person can possibly become President.

Bush's pratings about medical savings accounts show just how out of touch he is. A hospital stay of even a few days can run into tens of thousands of dollars, depending on what services and treatments are given. It would take a poor person trying to exist on minimum wage forever to save up the cost of a couple of x-rays alone - forget about any sort of long term care or surgery. My diabetic son was in the hospital for ten days way back in 1995, and the bill was over $8000 then. I can't even begin to think of what it would cost now. It would take years to save $8000 out of a minimum wage pay packet, if there was one cent left over to save at all after monthly bills, rent and food costs.

Hell, when's the last time Bush even looked at a bill - or when is the first time? I'll bet my last dollar that he's never had to look a hospital or doctor's bill in the face - they just get passed on to some flunky to pay out of the family treasure chest.

[mandyky]

2. He doesn't even understand the working middle class

Sometimes, like when he talks about medical savings accounts, I KNOW he has no clue about the poor. Poor people are lucky they can pay their bills and buy groceries, and rarely have any money left they could "save".

[clydefrand]

5. It's very easy to tell people they can be owners

and entreprenuers...his favorite bigggggggg word, and they can have savings accounts to pay for catastrophic illnesses and college and retirement...he doesn't having a clue about how many, many people have to live from pay check to pay check IF they have one at all.

[Demeter]

7. Not To Mention That The Bush Economy Has Killed Off Two

generations of entrepreeurs already. And bilked the small capitalists of $7 TRILLION through the frauds his corporate lackeys perpetrated.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. The rich man and Jesus

Most people know the part that says, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven". But a lot don't know what prompted these words. A rich man came to Jesus, saying he was impressed with the Master's teachings and wanted to follow him. Jesus told him to give his wealth to the poor, and the rich man went away, because he was unwilling to do so.

One can give lip service to the teachings, or one can act upon them.

[clydefrand]

6. He's all lip service and no action EXCEPT

to tell the world to: "Bring 'em on" which means I'll let others die for my lies. Rich people don't have to go to war; they have other things to do.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[Bridget Burke]

10. I don't know that Kerry is richer...

(Too bad that Bush never made a real fortune, even though his people value money above all else.)

But he's learned about the real world. Bush has worked hard to retain his ignorance.

Hint: We've got spell check here.

[OutsourceBush]

9. This must be why it's so easy for him to totally F us in th a***

and not think twice about it.

[WLKjr]

12. According to a Gay friend of mine that I work with

he is voting for bush becuase Kerry is 'wishy washy and doesn't understand what it's like to live in your car and be on foodstamps'.

all I could say to him was, "and bush does?!?!!?!?, you my friend are what we call an IDIOT"