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Monday, July 30, 2007 I used to think Bush was a racist
I used to think W. was a racist. Colin Powell and Condi Rice did nothing for me. Colin just seemed like a sell-out and Condi was too busy making Freudian slips about being W's wife for me to take either of them serious as racially conscious African Americans. But, a strange thing happened, race became the least of it as I saw my country making a slow descent into the land of Fubar.
Bush is a post-modern white man. Race has been resolved in his world. So long as his boots are licked, it matters not the color of the licker's skin. Race is relevant only as a political tool... along with gender, abortion, ethnicity, religion. Lynching is not in his toolbox. Money and power are all that matter and he is an equal opportunity bulldozer when it comes to clearing out the riff-raff that stand in his way. Had he decided to be the Great Uniter, it would have been a nice gesture. Presidential bully pulpits are amazing things. Out of thin air, JFK and LBJ made the nation's white citizens more racially sensitive, Ray Gun singlehandedly revived the Red Menace. Bush could have pointed towards racial tolerance, but he chose not to. And, that tricked me into calling him a racist. Sure, racists are enthralled by him. But, they see him no more clearly than I did. They think his indifference to matters of race is willful, vindictive and perpetual. In his eyes, they think they see a reflection of the hate that burns inside of them. They believe they see a wink when he talks about his 'Christian' values. Nah. The wink's not for them. Poor people of any color are beneath him. He's winking at Dick Cheney, whose ultra-conservative lesbian daughter is causing liberals the same existential crisis that W. engendered in me: How can she support the man whose very existence should negate her own lifestyle? Bush and Cheney know that the expectations of anyone who's not a billionaire has nothing to do with them. Cheney gives less than a flying fuck about the conservative base's agenda. Abortion, racism, Affirmative Action, gay marriage -- they're all peccadilloes. Minor sins that do not register for either him or W. They only have currency when used as tools to build something "greater" in their eyes -- a world where they are the law. I can't thank W. He's opened my eyes, but I'm not grateful. He's done too much harm to my country. We are reviled as a nation; we are sending innocents to die and to murder other innocents; we are less caring; the world is a much more dangerous place and he has a great deal to do with all of that. Bush's main belief is the belief that he knows what's best for America. And, what's best for America is that rich people have carte blanche to decide what is best. Poorer people die because it is their lot in life to do King Bush's bidding. He's created an illusion that there is some turning point in history -- just down the road -- that will prove his wisdom. People! Come on! I'm still waiting for the Millard Fillmore epiphany. The Bush gang's only contribution to American Politics is they have perfected the Big Outrageous Lie. They can lie to us about things that common sense would dictate are magical and make them sound as mundane as a toaster. Then, they will top that off with another lie. Why? Because a reasonable person doesn't follow a whopper with another whopper. They mix in a little truth just to be polite. Not these guys. It's like the comedian who surmised that saying the word, "absolutely" makes one sound like an expert. Man to his roommate: Hey! Are you fucking my cat!?! Roommate: Absolutely! (Long pause) Man: Well, carry on. It sounds like you know what you're doing. Race relations, so important to me, are just a small portion of the horrendous damage Bush and his cronies have foisted upon us. I want to shout to the heavens that this man is an unrepentant racist, but that's like saying Adolf Hitler treated his servants badly. We will be crawling from beneath this wreckage for decades: increased hate crimes, proliferation of KKK-like groups, disdain for political discourse, pre-emptive violence, disregard for the ecology, shrinking middle class, gender bias, Taliban-like religious groups, general intolerance -- name your poison. Whether you're white and middle class man, gay, an immigrant, a woman, a college student, a soldier, Mr. Bush has us all fucking the pooch. To call him a racist is to define his broad-based evil in one dimension. And, that's not fair to him - he's worked hard to reach this point. |
