Corinthian,
I want to congratulate you for an excellent post. So many things you’ve said has hit home with many of us TTPers (that I know for certain).
I’m happy you’ve come out of your “lurking” mode and contributed a post that is honest and heart-felt.
Karma ding!
Jack,
After reading your article I must admit to being confused about a great many things.
My greatest confusion centers on WHY you believe TTPers/conservative/republicans hate GWB? Why do you equate absolute disgust with GWB’s policies and actions with hatred? You almost sound like a Clintonista defending Bubba from the “hatred” of the right. It’s a tired old tactic used by Liberals (and now Republicans) to stereotype the opposition in order to deflect, rather than debate, legitimate arguments while also attempting to marginalize those who disagree.
I never thought I’d see you fall down that hole Jack!
My second confusion centered on your use of a friends divorce to attempt to characterize the relationship between Conservatives/Republicans and GWB. At first I thought it was completely silly but now I think it’s may not be. Here’s my reason’s:
When a couple gets married it’s with the intention for a lifetime relationship and not the current trend of divorce within eight years after taking vows. Usually, the couple chooses to be together and is not forced together. Let’s face it, would you be happy getting only a handful of women with whom you know little about, to choose your wife from? Me neither!
If this was any kind of marriage it was more like a Moslem “arranged” marriage where we had to take what was given to us by our so-called leaders in the Republican Party. GWB was forced upon the Right because everyone else running was even weaker and uglier (politically) than Bush.
We never had a real choice in this “marriage”. We either marry the ugly broad (Republican candidate) forced on us or get the heinously ugly broad (Democrat) it we chose to remain “single”.
I think your buddy had more opportunities in his choice of wives than we did in our choice of presidents.
But, let’s run with this wife thing and see what it gets us.
You wrote:
So she's left him, and the children. He's taking care of the kids, and they are living with him now. My friend is in a state of total shock. He's never abused her, never cheated on her, always tried to be a good and loving husband. Yet she's gone, while he's hurt to the bone and totally bewildered by her "I've got to be me, I've got to be free, I've got to be happy" mantra.
The absolute same can be said for GWB. He is the wife in this relationship with conservatives/republicans and the American people.
“She” left US (the American people) so “she” could go play footsy with those prostitutes on the Left. “She” couldn’t resist going for car rides with Ted Kennedy knowing that eventually “she” would wind up dead, at the bottom of a lake?
“She” left US, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, with MILLIONS of ILLEGAL children for US TO RAISE, EDUCATE AND ACCOMIDATE OUT OF OUR OWN POCKETS AND AT THE EXPENSE OF OUR OWN LIGITIMATE CHILDREN.
I guess GWB’s idea of “being me, being free and being happy” meant saddling the American people with the massive costs of RAISING SOME OTHER COUNTRIES CHILDREN. Or maybe it meant that GWB was free to moonlight with every enemy of his electoral base, while we (the American people) stayed faithfully at home.
And when we attempted to reason with our “wife” about her conduct and how it was detrimental to our marriage, we were branded by her and the marriage counselor (Republicans in the House and Senate) as racists, xenophobes and vigilantes.
Oh, and we (the people) better not speak up lest we become the victim of GWB’s propensity for domestic violence against his faithful spouse/supporters.
To add to the mystery, there isn't another man. My friend, who knows how to find out things on people, is confident his wife was faithful to him during their marriage. So my friend has no explanation for her behavior
I think we’ve been pretty faithful to GWB, giving him two terms and supporting the war effort in the face of all his other galling conduct.
Do I really need to rifle off the litany of fake-passes and outright contemptible behavior and choices made by GWB? I didn’t think so.
We (the American people) also have no explanation for our wife’s betrayal.
"I refuse to see the mother of my children as a bad person," my friend tells me. "And she is a good person in many ways. Because I really don't have an understandable explanation for her behavior, I am choosing to keep it that way: un-understandable. I am choosing to view what she has done as mysterious, inexplicable. That's the way I can escape hating her - for I've got to focus on what's good in her so we can best work together in raising our children."
She (GW
may be a good person but ‘she” has made many bad choices that I and others will have to live with long after “she” has left office. “She” has left me to raise not only my children, BUT A WHOLE OTHER NATIONS CHILDREN AS WELL. “She” has squandered Republican control of the Congress and the Presidency. “She” has shackled us with the most runaway spending in the history of America.
What a sweetheart “she” is. I will always be thankful for the responsibilities and burdens “she” has left for me (the average AMERICAN) after “she” strides off into the sunset to find her “freedom and happiness”.
It’s very hard to forgive someone who has hurt and pierced everyone around “her”. “Her” behavior is not only self-destructive but it is also destroying a nation of laws.
We’re expected to forgive unconditionally when we still haven’t determined the full extent of the betrayal? That’s a pretty tall order indeed.
It's so impossibly stupid and politically self-destructive it's off the charts. Yet Bush is not stupid, he is spooky smart as anyone who has really talked to him will tell you.
If he’s as “spooky” smart as you and others make him out to be, then his actions are all the more reprehensible because he is doing them knowing full well what the ramifications are and he’s fine with it.
You’re digging the guy a bigger hole instead of defending him Jack.
Nor does he lack cajones. As Dick Cheney immortally confided to a gaggle of reporters, "He (Bush) has the biggest set of balls of anyone I have ever known."
Yes, those balls are on display for all to see as he shows contempt and outright betrayal to his loyal supporters, who have stuck with him throughout all his transgressions. That definitely takes some brass one’s to be sure!
It takes huge balls to say you believe in border security and the rule of law and then do nothing to promote either. Instead you work actively, behind the scenes, to subvert both. Major “huevos” indeed!
And I am in awe of how he continues to pursue victory in Iraq, bust up Al Qaeda
Well what the hell else is he gonna do, pull out? His tin-ear has been an asset in this particular case (and thank God for that).
The man is so ridiculously infuriating - and yet... and yet the truth is he's the best we've got right now. He's done an awful lot that's good, and we could have done an awful lot worse, nightmare worse.
Yes, instead of marrying a prostitute who cheats on us, we could have married a prostitute who cheats, steals and attempts to destroy us. And then she leaves us with an incurable sexually transmitted disease.
Your right, we did get lucky, it could be a lot worse.
My friend gives his thanks to Providence every day that his wife didn't leave and take his children away, plus every asset he has. She just left and walked out - how lucky is that? Anyone who's been through a divorce war knows how lucky he is.
We’ll be paying for GWB’s love of Illegal Immigration and Big Government long after he’s left office. There’s no clean break here! Someone pass the K-Y please…
Lucky is a matter of context. The bottom line here is that just as my friend is focused on the future of his and his kids' lives, so we must be on our country's. We have got to get over any negativity over the mystery of George Bush and focus entirely on how best to avoid the Party of Treason from seizing power in 2008.
We are focused on the future and GWB IS NOT PART OF IT. So if our negativity for his type of leadership produces the necessary energy to elect a leader that won’t sell us out, how is that counter-productive? We’re not hater’s by nature or of anyone in particular, just their actions and policies.
Bush is not the candidate in 08 nor is his type the future of the Republican Party or the Conservative movement.
TTPers are no more going to blame the next Republican President for GWB’s sins than we would blame Ronald Reagan for Richard Nixon’s sins.
Our focus on the future includes how we save our children and this country from Illegal Immigration, Democrats and Islamists.
We know damn well what awaits us if a Democrat is elected. We’re not stupid and were not gonna cut off our noses to spite our face.
If conservatives don't start acting like my friend is towards his wife, Paul's prediction is going to be prophetic. The future is what counts now, not the past. Let's hope conservatives get to work on it.
Why must we forgive Bush? Why can’t we just move on from him and focus on the next Republican leader. Why must we forgive him in order to focus on a new champion? What impact will this lame duck have on the 08 elections?
If you think us average Americans don’t have hatred and contempt for our elected officials, then you have been living in Washington DC way too long.
Yet, with all this “hatred”, we still give money, volunteer and show up on Election Day to vote.
It’s our “hatred” of Washington DC and the corrupt liars who pervade it, that drive us to seek change.
It’s a healthy hatred similar to the hatred of sin that Christians must possess.
In short, we don’t have to hate or forgive GWB, we just need to move on and let him go back to Crawford and let us focus on our next President.
I’m sorry if this post is harsh Jack because I love and respect you. But please, stop carrying GWB’s water and move on yourself.
Educate us on the new crop of candidates instead of begging us to forgive GWB.
That is where the true future lies.
