President Bush in April 2007

Of all the people who probably wish that the Presidential term of George W. Bush was over, the most prominent of all is probably the President himself. Even though he still acts as if he is fully "into" being President, I don't think he is. His house is crumbling all around him, and the only response he has now is to dig in his heels and "stay the course." Even though he seemingly abandoned the "stay the course" rhetoric at the end of last year, his intransigence with Congress over Iraq and unwillingness to do anything but increase our commitment there speaks volumes about him and the hole into which he has dug himself. And, in the last week, with the revelations of Kyle Sampson about the duplicities of Alberto Gonzalez and his role in the firing of eight federal prosecutors; and the interview of Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush 2004 Re-election campaign, that he would no longer support his chief now, we see a flailing President who is now even losing the ability to defend himself. All he now has is the luster of office and the ability to dole out money to supporters. The fact that his approval rankings are stuck in the low 30s's now, when the economy is really not in bad shape, indicates that the only people that approve of his performance now are blinded true believers and those who probably have a direct financial stake in his continued Presidency. And, I think his comeuppance is a good thing. It is, on one hand, interesting politics but it is, on the other hand, the working of an impersonal principle of justice which will tends to bring the proud down unceremoniously.

From 9/11 to 2004

The roots of the President's arrogance, and his fall, occurred shortly after 9/11. Buoyed by nearly 90% approval ratings, the President not only took advantage of this by creating a Department of Homeland Security and invading Afghanistan, probable home of Al-Qaida attackers, but then decided to do things that really have now come home to roost. He decided he would try to stifle all criticism of him and his regime and would viciously try to discredit all who spoke freely about him. Paul O'Neil, former Treasury Secretary, was the first to catch his ire. Then there were the Dixie Chicks, Ambassador Joe Wilson (through the outing of his wife) and many, many others who had the seeming effrontery to criticize the President. America in 2002 through early 2004 was becoming a very scary place, a place where a person's patriotism and loyalty was as questioned in the same way the Fundamentalists question the Christianity of anyone not in their small coterie. I have learned, from being in the religious world for many years, that the reasons for this behavior arise out of fear--fear that the world might be a bit more complex than you imagine it to be. President Bush's intolerance, and his seeming giving over to VP Cheney the authority to run a "shadow Presidency" in attacking one and all who disagreed with the questionable agenda of the President, angered me. I felt he simply wanted to crush all dissent in this land.

From 2004 to Present

He won the election in 2004 because the Democrats didn't have a credible candidate, didn't know how to respond to attacks on this lackluster candidate and because the full depth of the Administration's arrogance and intolerance hadn't yet been exposed. But then, as surely as the seasons change, the criticisms of the President began to "stick" in 2005 and 2006. Bob Woodward's book certainly didn't help him; the report of the Iraq Study Group, a sort of group of daddy's friends who would spank the younger George Bush; the ditching of Rumsfeld, and the gradual realization of the American people that Bush has gotten us so deeply into a war that has probably already claimed more Iraqi lives than Saddam Hussein ever killed when he was leader of that country (as well as 3200+ Americans)--all of these things eroded his credibility. Indeed, the fact that he really has almost nothing of substance to say on Iraq anymore, other than that we must keep doing what we have been doing (the security sweeps in Baghdad actually seem to have calmed down some of the rampant violence in that city; though the violence seems to have shifted to other parts of the country or gone "underground" until an opportune time in the future), shows that he is just planning to hand a problem of inhuman proportions to his successor. And, what really can we expect in the future? It is beginning to dawn on all thoughtful observers of the War in Iraq that what we have basically done is to replace one group which has historically been in power in that land (the Sunnis) with another group which hates them (the Shiites), and have watched while the Sunni institutions and part of that country has become utterly destroyed.

Conclusion

When the swaggering President proclaimed victory in Iraq four years ago, he was allowed by the fates to have his moment. But, in fact, if you read enough Greek tragedy, you realize that the fates always let the arrogant one have his moment of apparent glory--before they pull him down where he belongs. So, even though the newspapers and interviews today are helpful in telling us how the President has no more credibility, the most "current" literature on the President may have been written 2500 years ago in ancient Athens. Read Aeschylus. Especially look at Oedipus. My only question is whether this President even has the vision to see the tragedy that he has been creating.

2562