GEORGE BUSH IN HELL

[Guest guest]

George Bush in Hell

Submitted by Sussel on Wed, 2005-09-28 10:02. Media

George Bush in Hell

by David Michael Green

 

You would not want to be George W. Bush right now.

 

Not that you ever would anyhow, but especially not now. Indeed, there

are indications that not even George W. Bush wants to be George W.

Bush right now.

 

That second term in office, the one that just a year or two ago

seemed so precious that he was willing to launch a war just to obtain

it, now feels like a life sentence. Plans for four years spending

political capital now look a lot more like endless months of capital

punishment.

 

The Bush Administration has nowhere to go but down, and that is

precisely where it is headed. Poll data show that even members of his

solid-to-the-point-of-twelve-step-eligibility base are now deserting

him as his job approval ratings plunge like so much Enron stock,

lately crashing southward through the forty percent threshold. With

almost his entire second term still in front of him, Bush is poised

to set new records for presidential unpopularity. That scraping noise

you hear? It's the sound of sheepish voters creeping out to the

garage late at night, furtively removing " Bush-Cheney 2004 "

bumperstickers from the back of their SUVs when no one is looking.

 

Meanwhile, as the scales fall from the eyes of the hoi polloi, even

the one constituency which could plausibly make the claim that Bush

has been good for America (read: their wallets), is speaking the

unspeakable as well. Robert Novak, of all people, wrote a column last

week chronicling his experience watching rich Republicans at an Aspen

retreat bash the idiocy of Bush administration policies on Iraq,

Hurricane Katrina, stem-cell research and more. Perhaps these folks

realized when they saw Trent Lott's house go under that Mother Nature

doesn't care whether you're rich and well-connected any more than

does al Qaeda. You may be on Karl Rove's Rolodex, but now Bush is

taking you down and your yacht too, not just forgotten kids from the

ghetto who enlisted in the Army as the only alternative to a life of

poverty.

 

Even conservative columnists like David Brooks (though not Novak) are

writing articles nowadays accurately describing the changed mood of

the American public. Where those powerful currents are heading is

unclear, but given the radical right experiment of the present as

their point of departure, there would seem to be only two choices. We

can either go completely off the deep-end and finally constitute the

Fascist Republic of Cheney, or we can turn to the left, toward some

semblance of rational policymaking. The latter seems far more likely,

especially as America increasingly regains its senses after a long

bout of temporary insanity. These are bad bits of news for poor

George, but worse yet is that they are only the first signs of the

coming apocalypse. The real fun stuff is just around the corner. I'll

confess to more than a little schadenfreude as I contemplate the ugly

situation staring Republicans officeholders in the face right now.

They are tethered to a sinking ship, and have only two lousy options

to choose from as November 2006 approaches. One is to stay the course

and drown. The other is to start renouncing Bush and his policies,

appear to voters as the complete hypocrites and political whores many

will prove to be, and then still drown anyhow. Nobody could be more

deserving of such a fate, with the possible exception of Democrats

like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry who have been even more

hypocritical yet in facilitating many of the president's disastrous

policies.

 

Watching these GOP opportunists jump ship will certainly be fun, but

the greatest fun awaits the president himself. Bush has now lost

everything that once sustained him. That includes 9/11, now safely in

the rearview mirror for most Americans. That includes his wartime

rally-around-the-flag free pass, as he has failed to capture

America's real enemy, while lying about bogus ones to justify an

invasion pinning our defense forces down in an endless quagmire. That

includes, post-Katrina, the ridiculous frame of Bush as competent

leader, and the former reality of the press as frightened

presidential waterboys.

 

And that's the good news for W. The bad news is all the chickens

coming home to roost. The economy is anemic and fragile, and yet Bush

has played the one card in his deck ostensibly (but never really)

intended to remedy the country's economic woes. (Remember during the

2000 campaign when times were flush and tax cuts were the

prescription? Remember in 2001 when the economy was in a recession

and tax cuts were still the prescription?). In any case, Bush's one-

note economic symphony has succeeded in producing precisely the

cacophony of disaster that progressive commentators have predicted

all along: massive deficits, little or no economic boost, a

hemorrhaging of jobs overseas, and a vastly more polarized America of

rich, poor and a disappearing middle class.

 

Another angry chicken, of course, is coming home in the form of

devastating storms and a grossly incompetent administration to deal

with them. Bush is not entirely responsible for Hurricanes Katrina or

Rita, of course, but he is partially responsible for them by his

willful ignorance of the global warming issue. And he is more than a

little responsible for the carnage and damage done, because of his

budget-slashing on preventative structural projects, because of his

deployment of needed-at-home Guard forces to Iraq, because of his

staffing of the government with completely incompetent crony hacks,

and because of his and their astonishingly lame performance in

responding to a known crisis. Where I come from, a president who

remains on vacation during possibly the worst natural disaster to hit

this country, praises his FEMA chief for doing a " heckuva job " when

the guy doesn't know what any American with a TV set has known for 24

hours about New Orleans, and then later fires him for poor

performance, is a president who should be impeached for those reasons

alone.

 

The other demons awaiting George W. Bush just around the bend are

multiple and grim. One of these days (right?), Patrick Fitzgerald is

actually going to move on the Treasongate story, and signs suggest

that multiple heads will roll within the White House. The political

damage will be even worse than the legal, though, as Bush's clean and

patriotic image will be smashed beyond repair, as no one will believe

that he himself didn't know all along who committed treason by outing

an American spy, and as he will likely lose the key magicians who

have kept him afloat for five years and more. Oh well. W's loss will

be Leavenworth's gain.

 

And there is more. The Jack Abramoff investigation has now been tied

to the White House. There are also presumably an infinite number of

other scandals waiting to explode (can you say 'Halliburton'?) should

the Democrats capture either branch of Congress next year, not least

of which being those concerning the Downing Street Memo revelations.

Gas prices are off the charts and home heating bills are supposed to

soar this winter. Jobs are disappearing, along with pensions and

healthcare coverage, inflation is likely to rise, and voters are

surly already.

 

But, of course, the biggest cross for Bush to bear is the one he

built for himself, and thus the most richly deserved. In Iraq, simply

put, there are no good options. None for America, that is, but even

fewer for George W. Bush.

 

What can he do?

 

He can't win. America (or, more accurately, America's oligarchy) is

clearly losing the war as it is. It is a fantasy to imagine that, at

this late date, more troops could pacify the resistance. But even if

that were so the political consequences to Bush, especially given his

promise of no draft on his watch, would be devastating and rapid.

American public opinion has already turned decisively against the

war. Imagine if there were a draft and all the bumper-sticker

patriots across the land had to actually make a sacrifice for their

president's transparent lies. All hell would break loose, and the

Republican Party would be dead for a generation.

 

He can't lose. The major downside to wrapping yourself in the flag,

landing on aircraft carriers, labeling yourself a " war president " ,

and being marketed in an election campaign as the reliable national

security choice is that you had better deliver. Egged on by the likes

of Cheney, Wolfowitz and Perle, Bush no doubt thought Iraq would be a

fine little walk in the park from which he would benefit politically

for the rest of his presidency. (Nor, assuming this president

possesses anything resembling a conscience, need he have concerned

himself with resulting deaths, since he told Pat Robertson " we're not

going to have any casualties " , and he may have even believed it.)

Unfortunately for all concerned - most especially the Iraqis and

American soldiers - Bush's presidency would be one very real casualty

indeed should he decide to pick up his marbles and leave the arena,

and so he will not, no matter the carnage or the futility. Doing so

would be effectively admitting that there was no legitimate reason

for the war in the first place. Everyone now knows that, of course,

but were Bush ever to even hint at it, he would be committing instant

political suicide. He can't draw. One option is to find some - any -

kind of stability, declare victory and go home, saying we got Saddam,

we brought democracy, yada, yada, yada. But how many Americans are

now going to be fooled by calling an Iraq ruled by militants of one

stripe or another a victory, after all the hooey about fighting for

democracy in the Middle East? How many think replacing Saddam with a

brutal dictator of another name is worth the price of 2,000 American

troops and two or three hundred billion dollars? How many will be

convinced that Iraqi women having fewer rights than they did under

Saddam Hussein, of all regimes, represents a win for the home team?

How many will still be unschooled enough to look at a Iranian-

dominated theocracy in Iraq and call that a triumph? Moreover, even

these total disasters presume a stability of some sort which may be

little short of fantasy at this point. When the Saudi foreign

minister goes public with his concerns that Iraq is careening toward

civil war, you know you're in deep, and no amount inanities

sanctimoniously uttered by Scotty McClellan can keep the truth at

bay.

 

He can't get help. Now there's a good one. Maybe the French have

finally seen the light and realized what a mistake they made by not

bringing something to the party in 2003, eh? No doubt there's a long

queue of countries behind them wanting to commit forces to the farces

that are decomposing in the Cradle of Civilization. Luckily for

George Bush you can still thumb your nose at the rest of the world

and have them come to your rescue afterwards. Just think of what a

pickle he would be in if that weren't the case...

 

He can't divert attention. Time was, a government in trouble at home

could throw a little war in some hell-hole abroad and divert public

attention away from their domestic or other foreign failures. Kinda

like Reagan in Grenada, or the Argentinians in the Malvinas, or

Thatcher in the Falklands. Yet, while the American public has managed

to massively and repeatedly disappoint still sane observers in recent

years, it doesn't appear to be in any mood for more of Mr. Bush's Fun

With Foreign Policy antics. Not that the country any longer has the

available military force to pull it off anyhow, but it hardly seems

that an invasion of Iran right now would have much effect diverting

attention from Iraq, even if it could somehow successfully be done,

another fantasy in its own right.

 

In short, George W. Bush is toast, as is the whole regressive

conservative movement of which he is but the most egregious exemplar.

Not even another 9/11 would be likely to help him, as the security

president who fails to provide security is the nothing (but simply

failed) president. The demise of the right is now likely be true even

if Democrats continue hurtling down their current path toward

breaking all world records for political cowardice by a major party.

Indeed, the worst of the Democrats may now also be in trouble amongst

the base - as well they should be - for their cozy associations with

the right, enabling its destructive march to the sea these last

years.

 

It is thus too bad, as we emerge from the nightmare of the last

quarter-century, that so many of us lefties are atheists, agnostics

or otherwise debauched secular humanists. Not only have we had to

suffer the reign of Bad King George here on Earth, we can't even have

the satisfaction of knowing that he'll be spending the rest of

eternity rotting in Hell.

 

The good news, though, is that he's already there, and the flames are

only beginning to warm him up. Perhaps that is why Time describes the

dry heaves of a young staffer who had to breach the fantasy bubble

and tell this " cold and snappish " president the unhappy truth about

an issue, or the National Enquirer's report that Bush, who according

to a family member is " falling apart " , is back to drinking.

 

Thus does a new possible ending to the Bush administration suddenly

emerge as a real possibility. Previously, I had assumed that our long

national nightmare would be over in one of three ways, either with

Bush somehow managing to finish his term, with him being impeached,

convicted and run out of Washington, or with him being impeached,

convicted and then refusing to leave, precipitating a constitutional

crisis and even, possibly, a civil war. Now I see a fourth very real

possibility.

 

It was all fun and games when everybody loved him. When the guy who

had failed at everything in life except having the right last name

all of a sudden was showing those elitist snobs who was tops after

all. When the man with a Texas size inferiority complex got to be

adored by millions as if he were some kind of religious icon.

 

But what if that all changes? What if Diminutive George, just like

LBJ before him, can't leave the completely scripted bubble his staff

manufactures, just as such set-pieces become increasingly difficult

to sustain? What if the Peevish President can't escape - even by

going to Crawford or Camp David - the mothers of dead children, the

baby-killer taunts, the stinging-because-they're-so-accurate

chickenhawk accusations, the calls for his own daughters to go to

Iraq, the possibility that everyone was right about him all along

when they dismissed him as the family clown? What if all of a sudden,

it sucks being president? Why bother, then?

 

It is clear now that one way the Bush administration might end would

be with the president's resignation, in order for him to duck into

more tranquil quarters. Who knows, maybe he could spend his days

getting tanked in Crawford, not writing another book, or going into

exile, perhaps in the south of France.

 

Of course, a pardon deal would have to be prearranged with Cheney, if

they haven't convicted him yet, or with Hastert if they have. And,

equally certainly, the resignation would be put down to " the

president wanting to spend more time with his family " , or some such

ludicrous McClellanism, no more or less plausible than the rest of

his daily fare. But the truth would be plain for all to see. The frat-

boy party-time president who condemns kids less than half his age to

the hell of futile battle in support of his lies would himself be

deserting as commander-in-chief when the fun part ended. Kinda like

he did last time he wore a uniform.

 

History, it would seem, all too rarely delivers justice. The

privileged few go out of this life richer than they came into it,

while the poor often leave even poorer, not to mention sooner. Those

who commit unspeakable crimes sometimes become presidents or prime

ministers, while those who dare speak truthfully of those deeds are

crushed owing to the threat posed by their honesty.

 

Even more rare yet are the cases in which history delivers justice

with a deliciously deserved irony. But George Bush has provided us

with just such a case. And the very delicious irony is that he is now

being undone by a cynical choice he himself made to go to war in Iraq

with other people's blood and other people's treasure, for the

purpose of enhancing his tenuous self-esteem and the power of his

presidency.

 

Goodbye, George. May you know precisely the rest and precisely the

peace someone who would do such a thing deserves.