October 21, 2006
MORE ADDICTIVE THAN HEROIN, MORE LETHAL THAN AIDS
The President isn't an aberration (Robert Fulford, National Post, October 21st, 2006)
It's safe to say that millions of Americans would also enjoy that prospect. Hatred of Bush has become a popular emotion, almost as popular in the United States as in Canada and Europe. But have those who yearn to see him go thought about how they will feel when they no longer have Bush to kick around?For more than five years they have grounded their response to world events in their view of Bush as a uniquely malign force. They may not know it, but their emotional well-being depends on him.
In a time of danger and instability, Bush has provided a perfect whipping boy.
Andre Glucksmann, the French philosopher, summarized the European view of Bush in a recent article: "He is the cause of all our evils. If he disappeared, universal harmony would be re-established."
Glucksmann pointed out that Bush can be (and often is) blamed whenever Muslims slaughter each other, in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else. It's his fault when Iran or North Korea builds nuclear weapons. Glucksmann considers that nonsense, a "fantasy of an all-powerful America and a satanic Bush."
Still, it's become a necessary form of nonsense, a perverse kind of consolation.
What will Bush-haters put in its place? My guess is that his departure will induce mass trauma.
Millions of people, all over the world, will pine for the happy days when they knew whom to despise. The place where they nourished Bush-hatred will contain nothing but a void, with a touch of nostalgia.
It won't improve their mood when they realize that the Post-Bush Era looks a lot like the Bush Era.
BDS really does merit its own UN Special Commissioner.
Posted by Peter Burnet at October 21, 2006 4:20 PMTo escape from the void, we should amend our constitution to let Bush be president for life.
Posted by: ic at October 21, 2006 5:12 PMHear hear.
Posted by: erp at October 21, 2006 6:07 PMThe Bush haters will blame him for every evil in the world for at least two generations.
Posted by: TGN at October 21, 2006 8:08 PMIt is the witches and pagans who hate Bush so much, and there are very many of these. Christianos ad leones is their watchword. for now their hatred focuses on the President. Be sure, they would come for the rest of us in our turn if they could.
Posted by: Lou Gots at October 21, 2006 8:36 PMNah, they'll blame the next president if he's a Republican, and be happy if the president is a democrat. The left has never recovered from their President for Life, FDR.
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at October 21, 2006 9:40 PMDo you suppose it's an insight into how seemingly intelligent people could convince themselves of other specious outlooks like racism?
Posted by: RC at October 22, 2006 12:17 AMAmen, Lou.
At the secret meeting in London last month, which was hosted by veteran broadcaster Sue Lawley, BBC executives admitted the corporation is dominated by homosexuals and people from ethnic minorities, deliberately promotes multiculturalism, is anti-American, anti-countryside and more sensitive to the feelings of Muslims than Christians.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=411846&in_page_id=1770#StartComments
Anyone who lived or spent time observing New York City politics from 1989-2001 knows that Giuliani Derangement Syndrome already was pandemic among the left in the city, and they would have no problem exporting it to others on the left in the rest of the country and around the world were he to win the presidency, or even just appear to be in line for the Republican nomination. McCain Derangement Syndrome would be a little harder to germinate, since they've been using him as "good GOP cop" to Bush's bad cop for the past eight years, but they're very good at rationalizing their own passionate anger, so it would be done.
Posted by: John at October 22, 2006 3:52 PM