I try not to make DrikoLand too political, although regular readers have occasionally seen me whipped into a frenzy over W’s latest fiasco or faux pas, to say nothing of his administration’s systematic destruction of America’s economy, environment, credibility, foreign and domestic policies, and educational infrastructure; I could go on and on.
By now, most people have probably made up their minds about who they’re going to vote for, so this post is more than likely an exercise in futility. However, I hold out hope that there are those out there that don’t realize the implications of four more years of W, and that I can give them some food for thought before Election Day.
Although I’ve been saving dozens of posts showcasing the most egregious examples of the failures of W and his administration, I realized that a deluge of such posts would taint the primarily apolitical tone of my site. I debated for some time whether I should use this blog at all for such a candid expression of my views. I finally realized that although it’s a little out of character compared to the rest of the site, when all is said and done a blog like this is a means for personal expression, so I will not sit silently and stew when I have such a tool for venting before me. With that said, I hereby present to you my only post about W before Election Day, a collection of links and articles weeks in the making. If only the repercussions of this administration’s policies could be undone in such a short time…
As expected, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The New Yorker have endorsed Senator Kerry. However, many staunchly conservative publications have surprisingly changed their allegiances, unable to support the administration for another four years. Two prominent examples, the Orlando Sentinel and the Tampa Tribune, have not endorsed a Democratic candidate for over 40 years. The Sentinel’s basic position is that “The Bush presidency has disappointed us on almost all counts,” and although the Tribune does not outright endorse Kerry, it states that it is “unable to endorse President Bush for re-election because of his mishandling of the war in Iraq, his record deficit spending, his assault on open government and his failed promise to be a ‘uniter not a divider’ within the United States and the world. ”
The site Republican Switchers takes this feeling of disillusionment a step further, highlighting prominent Republicans who are not supporting W’s campaign. Even some of W’s family has refused to support him, as evidenced by the site Bush Relatives For Kerry. And you know it’s bad when American Conservative magazine cannot support the GOP candidate for president, explicitly endorsing Senator Kerry.
The most telling part of these arguments against keeping W in office for another four years is that they come from within his own party. And they only scratch the surface of how badly this administration has bungled its term in office, which I’ll explore briefly below.
The “good conservative thinker” George Will says: “This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and having thought, to have second thoughts.” This is one of my worst criticisms of W. He perceives his stay-the-course conviction and steadfast resolve to do what he thinks is “right” as laudable characteristics. However, in his blind disregard for any dissenting facts or advice from even his most trusting advisors, he is unable to realize the extent of his miscalculations or the catastrophic course upon which his actions have put this great nation. He claims that he rarely reads newspapers, relying on advisors for information: “What’s in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what’s moving. I rarely read the stories.” I can understand not having the time to peruse every publication, but to eschew the media altogether shows that he not only lacks intelligence but is also out of touch with his constituency.
In W’s mind, processing information and making an informed change of course is “flip-flopping,” a term that the GOP has often used to label Senator Kerry. Granted, Kerry sometimes qualifies things in too complicated a way, allowing for GOP hitmen to attack a perceived lack of conviction. But even W’s convictions don’t always stand up to scrutiny, as evidenced in the CBS News article Bush’s Top Ten Flip-Flops.
The Resume Of George W. Bush could have been a highly antagonistic, distorted picture of his background and achievements, something the author is fully aware of:
My target audience is Bush supporters for whom their choice of candidate is still a rational decision. As a former Bush supporter in 2000 I don’t see how anyone can support this president’s run for a second term. Even if you believe his goals are sound, his ability to achieve those goals and the means he chooses to achieve them remain highly questionable. I have avoided points such as drilling in ANWR or Bush’s enthusiastic execution record as governor of Texas because I don’t fault him for those reasons: points such as those have reasonable positions on either side. I’m sticking to points like exposing the secret identity of CIA agents as revenge for their spouses’ public statements, or creating an agency to re-inject discredited intelligence reports back into circulation – points that, to me, seem beyond any rational defense.
The author of that resume sets forth his thoughts in a forward and, in an attempt to remain objective, has maintained a page of errata when presented with contrary evidence, something W is unable to even consider.
The site 100 Facts And 1 Opinion categorically demonstrates the way W and his administration has failed our country, presenting “The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration.” Topic by topic, this site presents the case against W, with backing sites and documents for each point. Thomas Schaller’s tongue-in-cheek essay Believe complements this well, lampooning the failures of W’s administration.
Never one to let logic or the facts get in the way of a unilateral decision, W is very good at making jingoistic assertions that have no basis in fact. The Daily Show demonstrates this most vividly in the video clip W – Words Speak Louder Than Actions (links directly to QuickTime video). “George W. Bush: Because He Says So.”
Some of the administration’s worst mistakes have been related to the invasion of Iraq. While I won’t dispute that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power, it has been demonstrated that there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11, nor have any weapons of mass destruction (WMD) been found. W and his neo-conservative cronies’ rationale for diverting troops and attention away from Afghanistan, the initial central focus of the War On Terror, was that Iraq was an imminent threat to the United States, an assertion that has been steadily downplayed as no evidence to that effect has been unearthed. The message has been subtly massaged (links directly to QuickTime video) to the point that many don’t remember why we first invaded; it was not to “spread freedom” by ousting Saddam, although that’s not to say that it was not a laudable goal. By not concentrating on Afghanistan, we not only didn’t give our troops the support they needed, but we also gave Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11, the opportunity to escape.
What’s even worse is that not only did W prematurely and unjustly invade Iraq, but he also did so without any idea of the consequences or a clear plan for victory. When I heard that W asserted “Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties” when Pat Robertson warned him about the implications of invading Iraq, I was enraged at his naivete and false bravado. Perhaps this is just convenient irony, but when I read about a briefing given in March 2003 before the invasion of Iraq in which the final slide, devoted to the “Pentagon’s plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war,” read “To Be Provided,” then I wondered just how much of a coincidence this was.
W ignored his advisors about the implications of invading Iraq. “Before the invasion, Gen. Eric Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, irritated the Bush administration by saying several hundred thousand troops would be necessary, not so much to topple Saddam but to secure the country.” After clashing with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld over this quote and in other areas, General Shinseki subsequently retired, although the timing is obviously questionable. Paul Bremer, former administrator of Iraq, at least admits the mistakes in the invasion, now publicly admitting that “We didn’t send enough troops to get the job done.” You’ll never hear W make such a candid admission.
Continuing stories of troops having to build makeshift armor of plywood and sandbags for their Humvees, or friends and families sending troops body armor, radio gear, night vision goggles, etc. to their loved ones overseas, shows that the administration never planned for a protracted conflict, contrary to every intelligence estimate of an invasion and occupation of this magnitude. In fact, former President George H.W. Bush, W’s father, said that he did not invade Iraq for that very reason, and he has also stated that he does not agree with his son’s decision to invade. Mickey Herskowitz, former presidential biographer for W, revealed that W had every intention of invading Iraq from the moment he became president, perhaps following a deluded edict brought up by Dick Cheney himself, then Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan: “Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade.”
Others speculate that W suffers from insecurity and wanted to distinguish himself from his father’s presidency, with the thought that he could finish the job his father started. The horrors of 9/11 gave him the mandate to do so, with the ability to accuse detractors of being “unpatriotic.” He squandered the feelings of unity that America and the world felt after that horrible tragedy, dividing rather than uniting. Now that dissension is no longer considered “unpatriotic,” it’s too late to easily fix the damage this administration has wreaked on this country and its standing in the world community.
Feelings of insecurity, lack of intelligence, and a stubborn denial of the facts are bad enough, but W’s sheer indifference and crassness add a level of malevolence that many don’t realize. His “joke” at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ dinner in which he was looking for WMD in a slapsticky skit was not funny, and it served only to highlight the level of incompetence of this administration, to say nothing of the tastelessness of this act. The video based on this “joke” is a bit over the top, but it highlights the repercussions of W’s lack of compassion and ignorance of his actions.
I’ll leave you with an Election Night Cheat Sheet, listing when the various states’ polls close as well as detailing each candidate’s electoral needs and expectations for those states in a nice chronological list. I hope this year’s elections are less contentious than 2000’s, although there are already rumblings of voter disenfrachisement, hanging chads, and touch-screen election machine deficiencies. As a final, cautionary reminder, don’t forget How The Bush Won Florida, a darkly humorous cartoon that reminds us of how W stole the election four years ago. I hope we don’t have reason for a similar cartoon this year…
