"W" -- Mission Accomplished!
With the conclusion of George W. Bush's tenure as President, many thoughtful commentators have hurled a strong strain of angry criticism in his direction, like so many shoes. As he left the White House he was deeply unpopular, his administration practically paralyzed since last fall and apparently clueless in the face of an enormous economic crisis. Though the President-elect was largely powerless until January 20, it seemed everyone was turning against Bush and toward his successor, eagerly awaiting Barack Obama's leadership. The question has even been raise whether George W. Bush was the worst American President ever. As he was occasionally caught on camera in his final months doing a little jig, smiling, some have wondered how in the world he could be so cheerful? Is he a man of limiter abilities? Does he just not get it?
I believe most of his critics do in fact "misunderestimate" (to use a word he coined) the considerable achievement of George W. Bush.
The real measure of the man has to be in how he fulfilled his goals, his intentions, his objectives -- how he lived out his deepest convictions. I believe he deserves high marks in that regard. But I know I have to explain that strange and probably unexpected conclusion!
George W. Bush was the first Confederate President of the United States of America. I understand Confederacy in this sense to be a warmed-over feudalism growing out of an age-old culture found in the southern states. It is top-down in every respect. The one at the top is the "Decider." Confederacy assumes a government of our betters, with "betters" identified by their wealth. It assumes as well a comprehensive matrix of patron-client relationships, and relies on them to provide a place for everyone at each person's appropriate stratum. It expects most people to function as serfs. It is driven by fear, and does not hesitate to use fear to keep order. It is not particularly concerned with the making of things (so outsourcing manufacturing to other countries is just fine). It is more concerned with the possession of wealth (King Cotton, King Oil). I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
To secure this vision, it was important to shovel as much money as possible upward to those who have shown that they already have wealth (and presumably know what to do with it -- a dicey assumption). As Mr. Bush himself said to a group of backers and friends, "Some call you the super-rich; I call you my base." The idea is, if we do not take care of the very wealthiest, our betters, whatever will become of the rest of us?
In striving to accomplish his goals President Bush never wavered on cutting taxes for the very rich -- the Thanes of Walmart, the Dukes of Microsoft, the Satraps of Wall Street. He remained dogged on this issue in the face of all reason: a veritable "pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity," as he so memorably phrased it. He did his best to provide fresh meat to the system that created him by doing his best to open corporate access to natural resources on public lands. He made government regulation of charted financial institutions as lax as possible. He helped to exacerbate the dangerously growing gap between the tiny minority of the wealthiest and the vast majority of the people in our country, many of whom have seen their purchasing power decrease at an alarming rate.
It will take years to reverse President Bush's achievements. But putting the principles of Confederacy in place was the real goal of his presidency, and he succeeded admirably at it, because he was fully committed to it. So George W. Bush had much to celebrate as he left for Texas. The wars, the housing meltdown and subsequent economic fiascos, the erosion of civil and human rights -- well, they were all tangential to the main task: "Project Confederacy." Mission accomplished!
I believe most of his critics do in fact "misunderestimate" (to use a word he coined) the considerable achievement of George W. Bush.
The real measure of the man has to be in how he fulfilled his goals, his intentions, his objectives -- how he lived out his deepest convictions. I believe he deserves high marks in that regard. But I know I have to explain that strange and probably unexpected conclusion!
George W. Bush was the first Confederate President of the United States of America. I understand Confederacy in this sense to be a warmed-over feudalism growing out of an age-old culture found in the southern states. It is top-down in every respect. The one at the top is the "Decider." Confederacy assumes a government of our betters, with "betters" identified by their wealth. It assumes as well a comprehensive matrix of patron-client relationships, and relies on them to provide a place for everyone at each person's appropriate stratum. It expects most people to function as serfs. It is driven by fear, and does not hesitate to use fear to keep order. It is not particularly concerned with the making of things (so outsourcing manufacturing to other countries is just fine). It is more concerned with the possession of wealth (King Cotton, King Oil). I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
To secure this vision, it was important to shovel as much money as possible upward to those who have shown that they already have wealth (and presumably know what to do with it -- a dicey assumption). As Mr. Bush himself said to a group of backers and friends, "Some call you the super-rich; I call you my base." The idea is, if we do not take care of the very wealthiest, our betters, whatever will become of the rest of us?
In striving to accomplish his goals President Bush never wavered on cutting taxes for the very rich -- the Thanes of Walmart, the Dukes of Microsoft, the Satraps of Wall Street. He remained dogged on this issue in the face of all reason: a veritable "pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity," as he so memorably phrased it. He did his best to provide fresh meat to the system that created him by doing his best to open corporate access to natural resources on public lands. He made government regulation of charted financial institutions as lax as possible. He helped to exacerbate the dangerously growing gap between the tiny minority of the wealthiest and the vast majority of the people in our country, many of whom have seen their purchasing power decrease at an alarming rate.
It will take years to reverse President Bush's achievements. But putting the principles of Confederacy in place was the real goal of his presidency, and he succeeded admirably at it, because he was fully committed to it. So George W. Bush had much to celebrate as he left for Texas. The wars, the housing meltdown and subsequent economic fiascos, the erosion of civil and human rights -- well, they were all tangential to the main task: "Project Confederacy." Mission accomplished!
posted by David at 2:22 PM
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