The Individualist: How You Became Anti-Bush

Posted by Joe Rivett on 02.06.2007

Your emails with my responses on why you don't like our president...

Before I get to your emails, Mark R. has an awesome radio show and it is fun and informative. He made me laugh and had interesting topics. Overall, I enjoyed his show more than anything I have hard on the radio except Stephanie Miller. Now it is time for your emails and my responses in bold.

Mr. Rivett,

Excellent article!

I've gone 360 degrees with our President. I despised Bush and his wink-and-a-smile frat-boy attitude during the 2000 campaign, as he reminded me of every jock I saw in high school that would terrorize the weak, all the while playing "nice guy" to the pretty girls to get help with their homework, and maybe get to 2nd base.

After 911, I was surprised at how our seemingly fiscally challenged President became such an encouraging and strong leader. He suddenly seemed focused and determined. We went into Afghanistan and cleared out the Taliban and it looked like we had the world on our side.

Then Iraq. I sat there like most Americans, mesmerized and horrified as Colin Powell launched into details and diagrams and satellite photos of Iraqi sites. They had me convinced. Let's go in there and get 'em!
Yeah!

Then the cracks started to show. No WMD's. Then Washington insiders started to appear from everywhere talking about the holes in the case for war. The outing of Valerie Plame, apparently in retaliation for her husband's criticism of Bush's use of the Africa nuke/Iraqi connection which turned out to be an intelligence tidbit that had already been debunked.

One thing that really started the return to my original thinking was the fact that the President seemed to have no idea what kind of cultural environment he was sending our troops into. He didn't seem to understand that you can't preach Democracy to a people that in the past have always settled their political differences in blood. If you disagree with a politician, you kill him and someone else takes over. How do you teach a whole culture to use the "vote" as opposed to the sword? He also didn't seem to understand that the three major cultures have never really co-existed peacefully, and how do you end 1200 years of hatred with an election?

This thought was borne out when a former Bush adviser came out and said that before the war, he had to explain to the President the difference between Shia, Sunni, and Kurd. Not what the differences were, but that there /was/ a difference in the first place! Bush didn't know (I can't remember if it was Russert or CNN where I saw this in early 2004).

His continual tax cuts during a recession continued to boggle me, and the Congressional Budget office's statistics concerning household bankruptcies and increasing poverty since 2000 were alarming. This probably made me turn the corner. Taxes are a bad word these days, but do you want you roads and schools fixed or not?

The final straw came during the 2004 elections, during the Vice-Presidential debates. Dick Cheney, responding to criticism from John Edwards, started going after Edwards' Senatorial attendance. Cheney said, "the fact is, over two years, this guy has a horrible attendance record in the Senate. He's never there. He's absent so much, in fact, that I've never met John Edwards before tonight." (quote not verbatim)

Afterwards, on the news, they show a videotape of Cheney at a conference/function - not only thanking Edwards at the podium, but /shaking his hand!!/ He's right there, shaking hands and thanking and sitting at the table next to the guy he /never met/.//

This showed me what kind of people the American voters put into office. People willing to do or say anything to accomplish whatever the goal of the day was. People who would look you in the eye and LIE if it would get them where they wanted to go, and then tell you "I never said that" when they got there.

Look, politicians have never been accused of being overtly honest. But we've had 6 years of vague strategies, "talking points" like "stay the course, embolden the enemy, and fuzzy math," and the more I watch, almost never a direct answer about anything they are asked.
Presidential press conferences are a clinic in vague answers. Just watch one. It's an hour of talking point answers from Tony Snow.

But that one blatant moment of dishonesty by our VP is what sealed the deal for me. It made me realize that my initial feeling was right: that our President was a dishonest jerk surrounded by even more dishonest men who will do anything to have their way; smoke and mirrors snake oil salesmen with an agenda but no real answers. The only goal is to be at the top and stay there, and when confronted with problems, blow smoke, point and throw out a few vague catch phrases - even better if they end up focusing the blame somewhere else. Just keep winning at all cost. Ambition and dishonesty are the seeds of evil.

Thanks for a great column.

Matt Gonzales

I think one of Bush's greatest problems is that he is surrounded by people like himself and I don't think there is enough debate within his administration. So he is surrounded by Neo-Cons that have little background on Iraq politics and say Iraq will be a "cakewalk". On the Cheney part, he should go to jail for outing a CIA agent whose husband had a problem with intelligence in the build up to war

Hey Joe, great column. I don't often read the Politics section of the site, but in this case, I'm glad I did.

For me, Katrina was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was behind Bush all the way into the war and after 9/11 because he was active and he was passionate. You knew he got up every day intent on eliminating the terrorist threat and enjoyed it. Yet, when one of the largest cities in the country turned into the third-world, he acted like it was no big deal. Where were the passionate speeches? Where was the effort? Where were the funds? I heard a number that was roughly $1 per every citizen, that's laughable. The picture on the flooded city square was insulting. It was at that point that I just gave up. I couldn't get behind him anymore, not even a little.

Honestly though, one of the things I'll always remember about this administration is that it launched the era of spin. As Lewis Black said, "there's no fact facts". You can't trust anything that comes out of anyone's mouth, even if they have numbers backing it up. Sure, that might not be Bush's fault altogether, but I definitely don't think it was coincidence.

Katrina turned me off to Bush, but spin turned me off to the government altogether. I disapprove of them all.

I think Katrina scared me more than 9/11 because I learned that my government is not ready for a disaster. Hell, we weren't even ready during 9/11. Katrina also taught me that the Iraq debacle isn't just because of insurgents; it is because our government is incompetent. Lastly, Katrina was a chance for Bush to look good in a crisis and instead he was no where to be found. What I find most interesting about this email is the line "You can't trust anything that comes out of anyone's mouth." I think that is what bothers a lot of people about Bush. Look, every politician spins, but Bush et al has taken it to new heights. Remember when the insurgents were in their last throes years ago? So when Bush says trust me, I don't. He has been wrong far more than right.

Dear Joe,

GHW Bush basically ran the best Middle East policy of anyone in a long time. When his son was elected, I had hopes that this would continue, at least.

Papa Bush knew that Iraq was a hornet's nest with Kurds, Shi'ites and Sunnis. In fact, being an oil man with strong connections over there, he knew it far better than most. Which is why he didn't take out Sadaam the first time. Although he caught flack for letting Sadaam stay in, he knew that poking a stick into that mess would be lots worse.

I lived in Saudi Arabia for ten years, and hardly any one had a bad word to say about GHWB. On the other hand, supporting the Kurds gets us in troubble with Turkey, supporting the Sunnis just sets up Iraq for another second-rate Sadaam, and supporting the Shi'ites supports Iran. And everyone knew that Sadaam, being a secular Ba'athist was anti-Al Qaeda. It may be cold-blooded, but GHWB got it right.

GWB didn't, though. He wanted to create a democracy out of this mess. The best minds on the middle east were incredibly skeptical, so that couldn't be the reason for going in. It had to be WMD's. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The consequences are likely to be a major pain for a long time. In the worst case, they would entail turning the world's biggest oil suppliers against the US. That really could make this war a major hit against US interests. Time will tell on that, though. We're still way powerful.

David Bradley

This is a great email. I think David is suggesting that GWB's greatest problem is that he isn't as smart as daddy. Now, there are certain things my father knows more than me and vice versa. However, if my father is an expert in something, let's say Middle East foreign policy, I would listen to him! Read my lips: Saddam's presence benefited America and stabilized the Middle East. Our policy should have been to contain him until he dies and support his enemies. What is funny is that GWB is making GHWB's legacy stronger every day.

Hi Joe,

Excellent article, as always. You do 411 proud.

Let's see... when did I become Anti-Bush? Well, I was a Gore supporter, so the way that Bush became President left a bad taste in my mouth, and I really didn't care for the way his camp shoved McCain out of the way. But I have to admit, I found myself enamored with the guy after 9/11. From my old apartment, my roommates and I could see the tips of the World Trade Center in the distance, and for weeks, all we could see was smoke. And Bush's speech a couple days after the tragedy had me pumped up, my friends pumped up, and from what we could see, the rest of the country pumped up. We were ready to follow him marching into Afghanistan. I still remember him standing on the pitcher's mound before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series. As a New Yorker AND a Yankees fan, that was a real powerful moment for me. I was even okay with the initial invasion of Iraq, since one less dictator in the world would always be a good thing, right?
But then, as time went on, and months passed since "Mission Accomplished," I watched as the Administration's focus went from avenging our fallen Americans to just staying in office. I remember Cheney going around the country during the 2004 campaign, saying that the wrong choice for President could bring about something as dangerous as September 11.

And then came the moment that threw any benefit of the doubt or previously built up respect for Bush into the toilet - the 2004 Republican National Convention. A couple months before, John Kerry said to Bush that he was prepared to simply debate the issues and not succumb to mud-throwing. So what does the Republican Convention wind up being? Half Kerry-bashing, half politicizing 9/11. They had McCain, someone Bush dragged through the mud in 2000, say how we're on the right course and the only way to stay the course is to keep Bush in the White House. They had Rudy bring up what happened on September 11. They brought up family members of the victims. The victims praised Bush for doing... something. I'm not sure what, but they praised him. And then they dimmed the lights and started playing "Amazing Grace," and that's when I turned the TV off.

I could go on and on about my disdain with not just Bush, but the Bush Administration, and how they basically bullied the people into voting for them, but I think I made my point. It was the 2004 Republican Convention that completely turned me off of him.

Although the Republican Convention turned you off, I once wrote that it sealed Bush's victory because it showed he was willing to fight for the job while Kerry was too nice for the job. In addition, the politicizing of 9/11 is something Kerry should have done. How Bush got away with the responsibility for 9/11 baffles me to this day.

I didn't become anti-Bush till I came to 411mania.com/politics. I really got into network news soon after and realized what George W. Bush had become. He had become CRAP! He was stupid. He was a liar. He snorted coke. I mean you guys and network news gave me more than a handful of reasons why I should hate "Dubya." The sad thing is is that I had to get that anti-Bush mentality out of my head because I couldn't learn to like anything good that this president did (has he?). I learned to think that Bush and his minions (Dick, Rummie, that bitch Karl) were always up to something. And sometimes they were. I just wish now that we had a better president and "I can't wait --- til fucking '08"

I finish with this email because I'm sure it will boost the ego of all the Lefties on the site.

After thinking about my column and reading the responses, I believe what caused me to turn anti-Bush was simply competence. Call me crazy but presidents should be intellectual. If not, they should practice pluralism and surround themselves with people that have the country as the number one priority and not politics. The only thing Bush seems good at is winning elections. Oh, one last thing before I leave, I didn't receive one email defending Bush, not one.