Why I Hate George Bush: A Labor Day Manifesto

People often ask me... "Why do you hate George Bush so much?"

Allow me to count the reasons...

1. He Lies and surrounds himself with Liars


Bush's government outed a working CIA agent, Valerie Plame, apparently as punishment for negative reports and editorials by her husband, Joe Wilson, because those reports were counter to Cheney and Rumsfeld's propaganda surrounding Iraq and WMD. Then Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan, stated publicly that the "leaker" if found, would be summarily dismissed from Government -- that is, until the leaker was found to be Carl Rove!  Now it seems such statements are "no longer operative." In short, with each passing day, the neo-con garbage heap of deceipt, mis-information and "spin" seems deeper and more egregious than the day before.

2. His actions (and inactions) have tarnished the U.S.


"America's crisis President," did nothing, even as a category 5 hurricane beared down on the city of New Orleans; did nothing while airplanes crashed into the Twin Towers; and does nothing in general, except force a rich, selfish, inhumane agenda upon our Government, our States, our Judiciary, and our Schools.

In response to hurricane Katrina, why didn't Bush's Government, in advance of the catastrophe, use FEMA, the Military and other Federal resources to evacuate 40,000 mostly poor, mostly black, Americans from New Orleans and other soon to be devastated areas. These desperate people were and are citizens -- that don't own cars and couldn't even hitch rides out of evacuation zones when they needed them. So thousands died and thousands more are still stranded on rooftops or suffering in ill-prepared shelters. But preparedness for catastrophes is part of the government's responsibility. However, five years of tax cuts for the rich and horrendous, nepotistic Federal appointments have rendered the U.S. powerless -- against Al Queda; against mother nature; and against negative World opinion.

3. He symbolizes selfishness and undue privilege in a nation founded on opportunity, equality and democracy


By now, I'm sure we've all seen or heard reports of middle and upper class tourists abandoning hotel rooms in New Orleans before Katrina -- refusing rides to unfortunate strangers, despite the desperate circumstances.  Why did they refuse?  Because toting luggage prevented taking on passengers.  It was too great a loss to leave luggage behind!?  Such intolerable selfishness, in my opinion, is the true legacy of neo-conservatism in this country.  It is the legacy of George W. Bush's "I've got mine! Now go fuck yourself!" America.

And WHY do we, the richest and most advanced nation in human history, practice such utter disregard for others, endangered species, natural wilderness, in short, virtually everything but our immediate selves; everything but our pathetic, genital nerve centers?

Because none of those things represent power and money.  Because the neo-con doctrine we've gorged on since Reagan has played us for fools.  And now it's as if we're virtually pawns; tools for exploitation:  as consumers and voters.  But when elections are over, our neo-con leaders need all the money our government can print (without collapsing our economy, of course) to win their unjust, un-winnable Iraq (Vietraq) war.

4. His Pack of Lies Iraq War


A war for it's own sake.
A war because "... That man put out a contract on my Dad..."
A war because we're good and they're evil?
A war for which we are expected to blindly stay the course.
A war to save face.
A war to insure the legacy of one George W. Bush and the neo-cons.
A war so wrong and mis-represented it was lost before we invaded!

5. He favors the Corporatization of America


Under George Bush it seems to me that our Government fights and kills and maims and prints and spends for all the wrong reasons -- e.g. to fund tax breaks for the real neo-con constituency.  Hint: it's not the "culture of life" but rather BIG ENERGY, BIG PHARMA and BIG BANKS, all while the neo-cons gut and dismantle Medicaid and Social Security -- the very New Deal that represents the only safety net for the poorest, most suffering and least able U.S. citizens.

Under the neo-cons, this nation has become the UNITED STATES OF CORPORATE AMERICA. And in the corporate-owned United States, I see no real democracy and no real justice. And without Justice and Fairness and Charity and other basic human ideals, regardless of whom or what GWB thinks he prays to, there can be no living God -- not without someone to do its work.  And even if I don't believe that dead bones (of believers, only, mind you) will be made flesh; that Jesus lives in Heaven; that one day he'll return...  I do believe in the ideals implicit in virtually all religions -- Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, etc. -- and they all begin and end with Justice, by which I really mean just-ness!

6. He's a PRESIDENT seemingly intent to Destroy Government


Quite simply, our nation has concentrated too much of the world's wealth and resources in too few hands. And collectively, it engages in over-consumption at virtually every level of human behavior. But despite our nation's vast wealth, its government is more bankrupt and its deficit larger than ever in its history. Still it fails to adequately fund what I consider very basic societal needs:
a. Clean air and water
b. The basic rule of law
c. Health care
d. Transportation and energy
e. An economy based on fair wages and trade

And, without these, our great nation and our wonderful, living planet is losing its ability to sustain our economy, to sustain human and animal life, and to advance human ideals.

In the neo-con world view, responsibility for providing basic human needs and engendering individuals with basic human ideals has been abdicated by our government -- to the already disintegrating family; and worse, to the free marketeers, Social Darwinists and Libertarians -- in short, to the takers and give-nothings, who believe that all persons are equal -- equal to take as much as they can, whenever they can, for as long as they can, and then to pass individual gains to their children as some absurd birth right to insure another selfish generation.

Rather than grapple with obvious wealth inequity, over-consumption and the pollution that's literally burying this planet in carbon dioxide, what does our neo-con government do? a.) Bush refuses to sign the Kyoto Accord on Global Warming; b.) His neo-cons in Congress deny the very existence of Global Warming; and c.) They promote business as usual regarding our country and our world's insane dependence on crude oil, despite the obvious and increasingly measurable risks. Don't bother asking why there is no "Apollo space program" to replace fossil fuel? It's because of people like George Bush.

7. His philosophy and policies are myopic and cruel


Here's a news flash. They don't hate us for our freedom. They hate us because we're often liars and thieves and almost always hypocrites. I still remember a powerful quote I read a decade or so ago in Rolling Stone by Joe Strummer of The Clash:  "All men are not created equal!"  Instead each of us is born into a complex society that, as I see it, disproportionately rewards birth status, intellect, and political ability. But what about the weak, sick, poor and under/mis-educated? Who helps them in George Bush's America. I suppose his answer would be faith-based, non-government-organizations (NGOs). But why do I need a "dose of religion" when all I need is a bowl of soup and, hope against hope, a job -- where I don't have to get my face blown off in Iraq.

So (and I know this is an all too recurring them by now) WHERE is Justice, for all, including the less fortunate? Today it seems that societal benefits, under the neo-cons and George Bush are increasingly available only to the rich and the powerful; or perhaps, for a short while longer to those of us in the middle; at least as long as we're needed to swing "democratic" elections for those, like Bush, that seem to hold nothing but contempt for the rest of us. Some neo-cons (e.g. former Reagan Interior Secretary, James Watt) actually believe in Dominion Theory -- a twisted take on a passage in the Bible's Book of Genesis whereby human beings are endowed by God with absolute impunity to exploit the physical world entirely as they see fit.

Well, we're not. And it's time for a serious re-examination of social, moral, and ethical responsibility in this country; time to hold the neo-conservative gospel to the light; to reveal its fallacy, hypocrisy, and insanity. Because I don't want to live in a nation where workers are unable to retire because they can't afford to or cannot even die with their debts paid. And I'm sorry but Karl Marx was right about a great many things. Socialism isn't evil, but people certainly can be, especially when they're delusional enough to believe they receive mandates from God.

Government, for all its flaws, may be our best, perhaps only, hope for the betterment of humankind. And it's time to choose: stronger, more responsible, better funded governments or bigger, more dehumanizing corporations? And if you don't know whose side the neo-cons are on by now, then I've just wasted another Sunday afternoon.

Todd Ryder
9/4/2005

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