Fear is not the norm of my emotional makeup. Which is to say, I’m mature enough to know that no human being can do me any harm if I am determined to prevent it. But when that human being is the most powerful man in the world, the rules change.
The President of the United States, I think you’ll agree, should be someone that Americans can look up to and respect, and who generates confidence, intelligence, and authority.
But certainly not fear.
Yet, for any good that George W. Bush may be doing he somehow nullifies it by the questionable, often unconstitutional, and generally blatant exercises of power in both domestic and foreign affairs.
It is his strong influence in foreign affairs, however, that disturbs me most about Bush because it is the one area of presidential governance that can drastically affect not only America but the entire world.
For this reason, I have been presumptuous enough to make a special project of trying to find out what makes this president “tick.”
In the movie Patton, the general is alone in his bedroom, congratulating himself on how he anticipated the movements of Rommel’s tanks thereby defeating the Desert Fox, when he says out loud, “You magnificent bastard, I read your book!”
What I’ve been trying to do is read Bush’s “book” to give me some idea of what we can expect him to do next. And what I’m getting is a series of complex circumstances in Bush’s life which help explain why he says the things he does, and does things he never talks about.
After 20 years of boozing and bumming around, Bush apparently had a “religious” experience, which he claimed changed his life and turned his confused thinking into a coherent, cosmic vision, corresponding to “the mentality of the conservative evangelicals of the country.” And he has been talking about “faith” ever since.
One article I recently read contains, in my view, the most accurate description of Bush’s mentality. It was written by Juan Stam, a Puerto Rican pastor and theologian.
Stam’s premise, simply stated, is that Bush is a self-proclaimed, born-again Christian who, like advocates of the ancient Manicheism belief, maintain that everything is either Good or Evil. No in-betweens. And Bush revealed this in several of his announcements after 9/11: “This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil, but good will prevail.” And referring to his enemies, he called them the “axis of evil.”
While still a governor, Bush saw himself under a mandate from God to become a presidential candidate, and he has used this divine calling in many declarations since 9/11.
Stam reminds us that, during a joint session of Congress, Bush proudly declared that “the advance of human freedom—the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time—now depends on us.” And, “this nation must go forth to ‘confound the designs of evil men.’ ” And, “Once again this nation and our friends are all that stand between a world of peace and a world of chaos and constant alarm. And we accept this responsibility, and go forward with confidence because this call of history has come to the right country.”
Another example of his religious zealotry is when Bush goes to some extremes with prayer; for instance, asking his advisors to leave him alone for ten minutes; signaling that, like Moses on Mount Sinai, a man of prayer was about to commune with God.
As for me, an on-again-off-again Christian, I believe in prayer. It puts us in touch with the Almighty and opens our minds to God’s plan for us. So to have a praying president may well be a good thing.
However, a president who takes his nation into wars on behalf of a God who told him to free the whole world of Evil, lays a lot on people who have yet to hear any justification for invading Iraq. That’s scary.
Karl Marx said, “religion is the opium of the people”. Stam says: “How paradoxical, and how sad, that the President of the United States, with his heretical manipulation of religious language, insists on proving Karl Marx right.”
Bush proving the author of the Communist Manifesto is right?
That’s even scarier.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”