Epigrams

In the second round of the presidential debates, the Democratic contenders sounded like a convention of dewy-eyed social workers; the Republican group sounded like a bunch of old coots at a VFW meeting. And both sounded like a bunch of intelligent people pandering to their base.

In the late Roman Empire, the Roman ruling class diverted the people from understanding how they were being screwed with "bread and circuses" -- "Pan i carnivale." But the Republican leadership figured out how to one-up the Romans--they did it with just the carnivale.

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Who said there's no such thing as progress?

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Some lefties claim that The Decider is the worst American president ever. I haven't studied every president's life and works, so I don't know whether that's true. Also, it depends on how you define "worst." But I think I'd define it the same way I define "worst movie." To be in the running, the movie has to be a big-budget studio disaster. LIkewise, to be "worst president" a candidate for the title has to be momentous--not just incompetent. Someone with the ambition of a Lincoln or an F.D.R., combined with the mediocrity of a Warren G. Harding.

So let's see. Does Bush II have the ambition of a Lincoln or an F.D.R.? He has said he does--that he wants to be a momentous president...someone who will be more than a footnote in histories of this era. But are his abilities mediocre? He did get a Harvard M.B.A., however hard he works at looking and sounding like a good ol' boy with a Cowboy Cadillac and a Weber in the back yard.

But it seems as though whatever intellect and will he possesses is aimed almost entirely at politics; i.e. at winning elections, along with creating a permanent Republican majority--subordinating every single governmental action, every appointment, every speech anywhere, every public statement--to those goals. Moreover, he has made it clear that he doesn't regard himself as my president, since I'm not a Republican. He appears to want to be the president of 51% of the people, and what the other 49% think means less than nothing to him. Less than nothing because he heaps contempt and derision on us.

I'm not deceived into thinking he's a moron just because he pretends to be one to get the Bubba vote. Nor am I deceived by his governance, which might seem moronic unless you weigh what he's done against the only standard he uses: political victory, regardless of long term effects.

It would be better if he were actually stupid. But he has proven quite capable at politics--at campaigning--by the standards of the yardstick he himself uses.

That said, I believe he is in serious contention for Worst President Ever, though not for the reasons many give...but because he isn't incompetent at what he thinks the presidency is all about: partisan politics uber alles. As a nation we would have balked at his actions if he were less capable. After six years we did balk, but under America's strong presidency setup, he will still wreak even more damage to our economy and our efforts abroad before he leaves.

I'm not saying this as a partisan Democrat, but simply as a fan of competent, principled government.

Lastly, while he has treated the 49% I belong to with contempt, in the long run it's his Republican/Independent majority who will come to revile him most, because those are the people he has actually betrayed--with the active aid of the Republican leadership--subverting nearly every traditional Republican principle and practice in his quest for short-term political gain, all the while giving lip service to everything he's destroying.