The Individualist: How I Became Anti-Bush

Posted by Joe Rivett on 01.31.2007

His popularity has gone from 90 to 30 percent and still people refer to Karl Rove as a genius?

After 9/11 George Bush's approval rating was in the low 90s. It seemed like he could do no wrong. No one could forget the moment where George Bush held that megaphone a couple days after and told the New York City Firemen: "I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" From what I have read, everyone cheered and we truly were the UNITED States of America.

Bob Woodward quotes the president as saying that September 11 would be his generation's great test: "Just like my father's generation was called in World War II, now our generation is being called…. I'm here for a reason, and this is going to be how we're judged… I will seize the opportunity to achieve big goals. There is nothing bigger than to achieve world peace." What I liked about Bush was that he was a big thinker. His vision was bold and he made me proud to be an American.

Over time things changed. Nobody truly expected Bush to hold such a high approval rating. However, I would have never believed his approval rating would get as low as thirty percent. How did some many Americans come to strongly disapprove of this man?

I asked 411's Joshua White and he explained that the high approval rating reflected our insecurity in the world after 9/11. I agree with him but thirty freakin percent? What the hell did this guy do to piss so many people off? Was it a single event or was it a process? Joshua suggested that the Iraq War turned people off. Again I agree with him in part but his approval rating was very high at the beginning of the Iraq War. I have a feeling that there is more to the anti-Bush sentiment.

So I thought about it. When did I become anti-Bush? To figure this out, I had to think about when I became pro-Bush. I did not vote in the 2000 election because I was too lazy to get an absentee ballot. I didn't really care about the election. I thought Gore would win because things went well during the Clinton administration. The economy was great and foreign conflicts like Bosnia also went well. Yet, Gore wasn't likeable and George was. As likeable as George was, I never liked him much even after 9/11.

But increasingly, I became a Bush fan. I began to admire how he waned to enforce UN resolutions. I began to admire how swiftly Afghanistan went. I began to admire that he had a long term solution for peace in the world, the spreading of Democracy beginning with Iraq. Democracies do not fight each other so the more Democracies there are, the more peace there is. It is a simple concept but for years Americans funded dictators, now we were going to go after dictators.

But my love for Bush quickly began to fade and it faded when it became clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction nor was there a nuclear program. I remember telling my classmates there HAD to be WMDs because Tony Blair was taking an incredible political risk. I also figured that Iraq must have had something because Bush couldn't really be that stupid to make up something knowing that eventually people would find out that there were no weapons.

I felt let down. I felt lied to. It was like finding out Santa Claus was make believe. To make matters worse, it became clear that there was no plan for what to do after Iraq fell. I had no confidence in Donald Rumsfeld. And for some reason, our CEO president did not want to hold anyone accountable. In the end that will be Bush's greatest failure as a president.

Despite all of the negativity surrounding Iraq, I still wasn't officially anti-Bush. Then it happened. It was the one event that changed the course of this nation. Janet Jackson's nipple was exposed. The social conservatives went psycho. Instead of debating the war in Iraq, we began to debate gay marriage, FCC regulations, and activist judges. It seemed that Bush cared more about his base than independents like myself.

No wonder why we are losing this war, we are debating what to do with gay people! Who gives a shit. Not only that but my parents were going through a very messy heterosexual divorce which destroyed my family far more than the release of Brokeback Mountain. I was officially anti-Bush.

I wasn't the only one to become anti-Bush with the 2004 election coming up. Bush's popularity fell so fast that he almost lost to John Freakin Kerry, the most uncharismatic man since Adali Stevenson. I hoped maybe Bush could win my heart back. Not a chance, enter Terri Schiavo and then erupted my most famous column written for 411: Kill Terri Schiavo

If you haven't read it, check it out in bold otherwise scroll right past it.

Stick your feeding tube where the sun don't shine...

Apparently, the Republicans are so intent on pleasing social conservatives/values voters that they are willing to fight like hell to keep alive a woman that is brain-dead despite the wishes of the Florida court. There are so many reasons why I am for the death of Terri Schiavo:

1. When you get married, you are allowing your spouse to make medical decisions for you if you cannot give an answer.
2. The Florida state court made a decision and the Supreme Court refuses to interject.
3. My belief in heaven.
4. Republicans are playing politics with someone's life.

The 2004 presidential election had many memories and the one on my mind is, "The sanctity of marriage." Yet, the same people that worry about the sanctity of marriage also refuse to stand up for heterosexual marriage. In a marriage your spouse sometimes has to make medical decisions for you in case you are incapacitated; not your parents and not your siblings, unless you the patient state that. Clearly, Terri Schiavo did not give any medical consent to her parents. However, many Republicans do not believe that a spouse should have the power to make this decision. Therefore, they are ignoring one of the values in a marriage. Hence, when you hear a Republican speaking about protecting the sanctity of marriage, they are referring to keeping fags from getting married, because they have done very little for heterosexual couples. If they care so much about traditional marriage, how come I never hear one lawmaker propose anything to deal with the disgustingly high divorce rate? George Will, conservative philosopher/writer said and I paraphrase, that the bill should not be passed unless the Congress is prepared to ignore the sanctity of marriage and ignore 200 years of Constitutional precedent.

The tenth amendment in the Constitution states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Recently, a state court decided in favor of Terri Schiavo's husband. There is nothing in the Constitution on the topic of who has the right to make your medical decisions. This is clearly a state issue. If it were a federal issue, the Supreme Court would have likely taken on the case. The Florida court heard testimony from people who heard Terri Schiavo at a funeral tell everyone that she would not want to go out like that (in reference to one that suffered before they died). The court also heard the testimony from the husband who claims that Terri would not want to live like this. The Florida court ruled in favor of her husband and now the federal government is going to go against the wishes of the court it gave legitimacy to with the tenth amendment? Didn't Republicans used to be the party of state's rights?

So, what's heaven got to do with it? Well, the bible says that the blind will see in heaven. Try this analogy: If the blind see in heaven, then the brain-dead probably get their brain back in heaven. After all, heaven is perfect. Now put yourself in the husband's shoes. Would you rather see your wife sit in a bed totally unaware of everything: unable to think, unable to love, unable to function and unable to even feel pain, or would you rather her just go to a place where she will be able to be what she used to be? Why is it that the people who so strongly believe in heaven do not want this woman to experience it and put her out of her living hell.

The tragedy in all of this is that it is a political showcase. In order to sign the bill right away, the president cut short his own vacation to get back to the White House. The bill could have been delivered to him on vacation. Typically, presidents sign many bills away from the White House. This only means that President Bush wants to make a political point. Not only Bush, but also many lawmakers are playing politics. Watching a bunch of lawmakers on C-Span practically cry in defense of this woman was ludicrous. None of them know the woman or her family. Yet, they act as if their own children are going to die.

What really bothers me most about this case is that no one really knows Schiavo, her husband and her family. Nevertheless, the federal government is telling us once again that they know better. For many years the government has told us how to retire, what is decent on TV, how to run our local schools, not to do drugs and now they want to make our medical decisions. The very essence of privacy and confidentiality is in our medical decisions. When we cannot make these decisions, for centuries our spouses have made them. Has it gotten to the point where I have to put my medical wishes in writing at the age of 23?

Tom Delay said that to take away this woman's feeding tube would be "barbarous." Some people on local talk shows have compared this to Nazi practices. And you thought Robert Byrd was the only person to make a Nazi comparison? The difference is that the Nazi's tried to exterminate a people that did not want to die. There is nothing barbaric about granting someone's wish to die.

About six years ago, I remember watching my grandfather die of cancer. He was in a bed and barely conscious. The doctor told us that he was going to die any day. However, he didn't die right away. He wanted to die but his body fought. To alleviate his suffering, we had to squirt water his mouth. I remember praying to God begging him to let his misery end. I wanted the power to take his life away because I wanted him to be in a better place. Two days after the night I begged to God, he died. Maybe Mr. Schiavo can't bear to see the woman that he made love to, the woman that he shared wonderful experiences with, the woman that was so special to him sit in a bed for fifteen years like a vegetable. Maybe just like me, he knows there is a better place for his loved one and that is something that our over-zealous federal government can't possibly know.

I was pissed and to make matters worse, Bush had to leave Crawford Texas to sign that stupid bill. Next came Katrina and it took Bush a few days to leave Crawford for a real disaster.

I will still support someone that I don't ideologically agree with. Yet, it is what Bush chooses to prioritize that makes me upset. In a time of war, gay marriage shouldn't be on the top of the agenda. When real people are drowning, get off your ass and do something because you got off your ass for a brain dead woman who was going to die anyway. That is what makes me anti-Bush. And I am not alone as he only receives about 30% of support from the country.

Usually, I do not beg for emails from my readers. However, I am interested to read what made you became anti-Bush because almost everyone reading this at some point liked the guy and very few people like him now. Please don't write me pages but a simple paragraph would be nice to read and for me to post in another column.

So my questions are: What moment made you become anti-Bush and if you aren't there yet, what is stopping you from hopping on the bandwagon?

Have a Merry February!