6 Reasons I'm Tired of People Being Tired

I’m tired of people being tired of Bush bashing. I’m tired of it for several reasons:

1. It’s the political pass-time of the United States. We make fun of our Presidents. Ever hear of Saturday Night Live? Don’t believe me? I just have to ask those of you tired of Bush bashing how much Clinton Complimenting you did during the 1990s? By contrast, what “viciousness” is there in what is said about Bush? Where are the venomous Congressional Democrats? There are no Democratic Newt Gingrich’s, Bob Barrs, or Tom DeLay. Where is the liberal media? If anything, the media isn’t making much fun of Bush any more because it’s old news. There’s been so much fun poked at him that there’s nothing left—and they’ve moved on to other targets.
2. There are two simple ways to stop the Bush bashing that is going on in our country: 1. Don’t reelect him. Second term presidents are rarely as popular in the second term as they are in the first. 2. Elect someone smarter next time. It’s interesting that Clinton was bashed for contravening his marriage (which clearly is up to the general public to decide), but his economic policies, his domestic programs, and the foreign policy he pursued left the United States with the strongest economy and best international ties the United States have had for 30 years. Isn’t it also strange that the Bush bashing that is going on has to do more with the fact that Bush took over under those conditions and has squandered America’s economic vitality and international good will on cavalier projects with short term gains to a few and long term costs to many? Maybe others don’t think it’s strange, but I do.
3. This country has already given this president 5 years of nearly unequivocal support. The last time a President used his powers to detain and imprison Americans for indefinite periods without recourse to lawyers, charges, or even confirmation that there has been a detainment stretches back to the glorious period of U.S. internment of Japanese Americans, or even further to the Civil War, or even better—to that pinnacle of America’s rule of law, not rule by man: The alien and sedition acts. A little more bashing and a little less kow-towing might have helped the U.S. come to more amicable decisions—ones that the minority can live with and the majority likes. It’s the difference between governing by consensus and governing by edict.
4. I’m tired of it because people think of George Bush as an average American because he grew up in Texas and likes to drink beer. That’s like saying the Pope is an average Catholic because he went to church growing up and likes to celebrate Christmas. George Bush comes from one of the most politically and corporately well-connected families the U.S. has produced in the past ½ century. He went to Yale and Harvard. And an ultra-elite private preparatory High School. I don’t begrudge him those things, but America, come ON—He is only average because like most of us, he didn’t apply himself until he was too late in life to become anything else.
5. I’m tired of people assuming that Bush bashing is them-bashing. I can think Bush is unqualified to be president; I can think he has made poor decisions; I can think he has surrounded himself with people who exacerbate his weaknesses and play to their own strengths. I can do all of that, and say, while still having an enormous respect for him because he is at fulcrum of more pressure, conflict, and chaos than any of us can ever hope to avoid. And he chose to run for office again.
6. And I’m tired of people thinking that just because they can string together 2 dozen unrelated sentences that have been mouthed, written, sung, or recited by others with whom they agree that they are either A. making a point, or B. defending a single position.