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JANUARY 31, 2004
– There’s a lot of talk about hate and anger when it comes to George
W. Bush.
"Hate Bush" was a theme the
Bush/Limbaugh right was trying to push earlier in this election
cycle. Every time the Democrats would assail his policies or
dishonesty, they tried to make the issue that the Democrats simply
hate him.
Yes, this was not necessarily an
inaccurate characterization. There are many Americans that can
barely stand to hear the man speak at the moment.
But to understand George W. Bush you
need to look at a very telling comment from his recent State of the
Union address, when he broached the topic of children who use drugs.
"Drug testing in our schools has proven
to be an effective part of this effort. So tonight I propose an
additional 23 million dollars for schools that want to use drug
testing as a tool to save children's lives. The aim here is not to
punish children, but to send them this message: We love you, and we
don't want to lose you."
The last sentence speaks volume for the
man who, by his own admission, abused at least one drug, alcohol, in
the past. One can easily conjure the image of President Bush
thinking about his troubled early days and being grateful that he
was "not… punish(ed)," but instead helped by those who loved him.
"We love you, and we don’t want to lose you." It was truly a
touching moment in his speech, and perhaps a glimpse into the soul
of a man who keeps himself so concealed behind Limbaugh lines and
politicianspeak.
We all have a problem person we know of.
In every family or circle of friends there is always at least one.
The child who, even though you raised them just like the others,
can’t manage to tell the truth. The child who takes up with drugs or
gangs. The husband or uncle who can’t stop drinking too much, who
can’t control their tempers. The parent who just can’t be honest or
stop being abusive. The boyfriend who keeps promising that he has a great job lined up just around the corner and that when he gets it he will pay you back all the money he owes you and then some - but that job never materializes.
And the reality, as odd as it may seem,
is that we don’t really ever come to hate these people. No matter
how bad they are, they are a part of us, and we love them. I’ve
never known a person who has thrown their teenage son out of the
house for drug use who stopped loving their child. Even the most
abused children or spouses never lose that love for their parents or
longtime companions.
However, at some point there comes a
time when reality gets acknowledged.
You may still love your son, but you
don’t give him your credit cards. You may love your alcoholic uncle,
but you don’t give him the keys to your car. Even if you care about
that person and love them more than anything in the world, and that
that will never change no matter what they do, you don’t give them
the keys to the house.
And that is the situation we have with
this President. George W. Bush is a true American son. So many of us
have people like him in our families. He is born of us and so we
love him like our own.
But just like with my punk little lying
addict of a cousin, you don’t give him the keys your car, you don’t
hand over the credit cards, you realize at some point that job he, and you certainly don’t provide him with
the house keys. Love him, yes, always. Let him trash your life, of
course not.
And that is the scenario America is in.
There is nothing to hate about George W.
Bush. He is one of our nation’s sons, and as such we love him. But
he has a problem.
He is a sick person, incapable of being
honest. If you give him the nation’s credit cards, he runs them up
to the max immediately. If you give him the nation’s car keys, he
takes it on a wild joyride all over the planet, crashing it again
and again, hurting lots of people and doing great, expensive damage
to the car. And if you give him the keys to the nation’s house, you
come back to find it trashed, things broken, prized things that you
held dear stolen.
This, simply, is who and what our
President is. The nation’s credit cards are maxed out, and of course
we get excuse after excuse of how he will pay it all back down the
road, the magical job – or in this case jobs – that he will get…
someday. The nation’s all-terrain vehicle is stuck in the sand over
in the Middle East, and the repair bill gets bigger and bigger. Even
worse, we trusted George and let him take the car to the repair shop
he recommended, one run by one of his friends, and we are getting
bilked there and the car isn’t getting fixed. And prized things like
basic constitutional rights and separation of church and state are
missing from our house.
As an American son, the nation will
likely never stop loving George W. Bush. But at some point they need
to deal with the reality, that this child is the nation’s problem
child. We should give him all the love we have, let him know we love
him and always will, but take back the damned car keys, credit
cards, and keys to the house. This is the child that we have to show
our love for by throwing him out of the house. | 
