Posted on 04/15/2003 4:36:35 AM PDT by doriangrey
I awoke today to the television showing pictures of Iraqis kissing photos of George W. Bush. Above my fireplace is a framed print of our leader and I wondered if I should not do the same thing as the Iraqis on the film loops. I realized that such an act would have been 27 months in arrears as my debt to him began on the day that he entered office.
It was a month ago, when I was closing on my new home, that I started to comprehend just how much this President means to me. My lawyer, for absolutely no reason, began railing against the President and calling him an ‘abject failure.´ What caused this outburst I don´t know as we were discussing water rights at the time. My reaction was to become furious which later surprised me. An argument ensued for several minutes and finally I told him that he should advertise his political views in the phonebook so clients “like me don´t get tricked into paying for your service.”
This personal experience highlights Bush´s uniqueness as politicians have rarely meant much to me on an emotional level. In 1999 George W. Bush was no exception to this rule as I knew little about him and had no reason to believe that he would be what he has now become. Perhaps my disgust with the Gore campaign and the negative media coverage of Bush began to forge a strong bond with the man or maybe it was due to the fact that I learned more and more about his qualities as time went by. I recall that during the unforeseen election crisis of 2000 I sat in bleary-eyed anticipation hoping that Bush would be declared the winner. When he was, after the Supreme Court´s ruling, I was filled with anxious optimism for the future. I have not been disappointed once in the time since.
We have reaped the dividends from a man who is strong enough to not be intimidated by having the best and the brightest as his subordinates. The media may portray Bush as being Cheney´s lackey, and although nothing could be further from the truth, it is very easy to imagine a man with Cheney´s gifts being a top flight Commander in Chief on his own. The same can be said of Donald Rumsfeld who was presented to us as an old relic from the Ford Administration but he never was in the eyes of George W. Bush who had the foresight to see him as the man of tremendous ability and skill that he is. Bush has not been threatened by the independence or brilliance of his Secretary of Defense and we have been the benefactors of such security. The same can be said of his choices of Condoleesa Rice and Colin Powell. Either of them may one day be our President but certainly Bush´s assurance with himself allowed him to hire two such competent subalterns without a fear of them upstaging him in the eyes of the public.
On the policy side, other than the steel tariffs, I cannot think of one thing that Bush has done since he was elected that I disagree with. Oh, surely, like most on the right, I wish he went farther in this direction or that but Bush has backed the best policies possible considering how evenly divided the nation is. His initial tax relief package and the one he is proposing now are a powerful attack against the leviathan of government. His brief against affirmative action may not have gone far enough in our eyes but the fact that he took a position against it at all (“at their core, the Michigan policies amount to a quota system that unfairly rewards or penalizes perspective students, based solely on their race”) is a major achievement in comparison to past Republican Presidents who “grew in office” by turning to the left. He will surely avoid the leftward tilt that weakened the administrations of his father and Richard Nixon.
In my view, Bush´s most imperative contribution has been elevating the role of “Commander in Chief” to the most significant facet of the Presidency. At one time it was evident to everyone the importance of having an ever vigilant Commander in Chief but this function was forgotten and avoided during William Jefferson Clinton´s eight year “holiday from history.” Bush´s stand-off with the Chinese in April of 2001 showcased his direct approach to dealing with nations who are not automatically our friends. One shudders at the thought of what Al “Buddhist Temple” Gore would have said or done had he been in charge of our nation.
George W. Bush has reminded us why we have this unwieldy federal government. We don´t have a government to promote the Peace Corps. We don´t have a government to provide subsidies to special interest groups. We don´t have a government to pay some states to compete more successfully against other states. The reason that we have a federal government is to protect the people of the United States of America. We could call the United Nations but they´d never answer our calls. We could call France or Germany but they´d recommend the joys of subservience as a solution. We must defend ourselves or no one else will. Our government exists to protect us both at home and abroad. It took a man of Bush´s magnitude to restore defense as the fundamental justification for the bureaucracy that we spend so much for in Washington. Defending the frontier is why Bush is in the Oval Office today.
The days that followed the evil assaults of September 11th may well have been his finest moment. Bush seemed to know instinctually what had to be done and, unlike Clinton or Gore, it was not to sulk around the United Nations and have lunch and photo ops with Kofi Anon.
Bush has followed a precise trajectory since that dark day in September and America and the world has been the better for it. He could see what many pundits and tertiary politicians did not about the assault on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. He knew that America had a right and duty to react with force. His choice was legally and morally legitimate. The Public Interest recently documented this [Spring 2003, p.91]
By all the accepted standards of international law, and under the terms of the United Nations Charter, the attacks of September 11 were acts of war. The United States, as a sovereign state, had a fundamental right to defend itself.
As always, Bush ignored the whimpering of the chattering classes and moved swiftly to eliminate the viability of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Thanks to George W. Bush our enemies now know that simmering, smoky, third world graves await those who viciously murder Americans. Hopefully, Saddam Hussein has just found this out for himself. What more can we ask from a leader other than to act decisively and with wise forethought? Not much I´d argue. George W. Bush has exceeded all possible expectations aside from those he may have had for himself.
The fanatical hatred of Mr. Bush by the leftist media and Hollywood has only endeared him to me more. They foolishly berate him for not being an intellectual but it would be impossible for any man who did not parrot leftist mumbo jumbo to be considered worthy by the press. A person´s disagreement with government intervention in the economy or the influence of the despicable welfare state is taken as de facto evidence of brain dysfunction by the media. I can definitively state, as some one who has administered over 700 intelligence tests, that George W. Bush is absolutely at or above the Superior range of functioning. Obviously his skills and abilities lie in the top quartile of our population by any one´s estimation. His achievements, Yale undergrad and a Harvard MBA are dismissed as being due to his “connections” but Al Gore, “the genius”, had just as good of connections and achieved no where near the same results as Bush academically.
Ultimately, the arguments about intelligence and just how intellectual a President should be are specious. Intelligence certainly is important to leadership but so is character, decisiveness, and emotional stability. Richard Nixon´s personality problems plagued and ultimately ended his Presidency regardless of the shimmer of his intellect. Jimmy Carter´s intellectual gifts did not in any way mitigate his indecisiveness as a leader and his profound pessimism regarding the future of our American enterprise. Bush also manifests the qualities of “emotional intelligence” that Goleman argued are integral to success in life than the more traditional form of general ability that we think of when we describe a person´s cognitive potential.
My title includes the word “hero.” What does it take to be a hero? Isn´t leading your people and restoring their security and greatness essential to any such definition of a leader of men? His enemies spitefully call him a ‘cowboy´ but there is one representation of a cowboy from western genre that does accurately depict the figure of the 43rd President. It's Clint Eastwood´s portrayal of the preacher in the film Pale Rider where an underestimated man comes along to a small mining community and saves nearly all from disintegration and death.
Bush has done the same for all of us. He has had made us wave the flag and proudly say the pledge again which alone contributes volumes to our renewed viability as a national entity and is not compatible with national disintegration.
We´ve seen how little the world cares about us, yet the story that has not been covered is just how much George W. Bush cares about the rest of the world. How many would be in near-slavery today were it not for him? He has freed the Afghans and the Iraqis from unspeakable horrors. As one Iraqi said after we liberated his town “My life begins today.”
The world owes a great deal to this “cowboy” as do you and I.
Mr. Bush, if you should ever read this, I say to you sincerely that my own confidence for the future of our nation began on January 20, 2001 which was the day you were inaugurated President of the United States of America. I, like historians will be a hundred years from now, am forever grateful to you.
To comment on this article or express your opinion directly to the author, you are invited to e-mail Bernard at bchapafl@hotmail.com .
Good grief! Nothing could be further from the truth.
Do not confuse expressions of admiration and respect for a good and honorable man with deceitful portrayals of a man not worthy of such.
People in urban centers seem to consider "cowboy" as a derogatory term. People in the red areas of the country usually know or have known the real cowboy. They know them to be as you described. I personally LOVE COWBOYS. ( Including the Dallas ones before Jerry Jones)
I see your (fuzzy) point about diefying any public figure, HOWEVER, a well-earned public expression of gratitude isn't deifying President Bush.
Simply put, your comparison, while seemingly insightful, misses the mark entirely.
Comparing the 1920's to now is like comparing apples to tractor trailers. The methods of communication available today allow for an enormous amount of information exchange, that, in and of itself, will prevent the mass adulation found in earlier times.
On the question of motive, if a person has a need to feel important, and they seek out imagined chinks in armor to attempt to exploit, as a means of advancing their delusional self-importance, the end result is disruption.
They might not view their motivation (self-importance) in terms of the consequences of their actions (disruption), but their bull-headed need to STAND BY THE "TRUTH" even when exposed to FACTS to the contrary, certainly seems to belie their stated purpose.
Did you know there is a condition known as Irrational Stubborness?
Regarding those who suffer from Irrational Stubbornness:
"Once they make a decision, it gets tied up with ego and they can become irrationally committed to it. They anticipate feeling worse if they switch and lose than if they stick and lose.""Their brains are wired in such a way that encourages them to stay with their choices, no matter how poorly informed or insignificant they are. They'd rather feel right than reconsider."
I suppose I should feel compassion for these folks. I'll work on that.
Oh, how sweet!
Um, what "trouble" did you perceive?
Someone write something nice about President Bush and weare back in the 1920s heading for a Socialist Future. You have some view of the world.
If you are a "right wing conspirator", I am happy I am closer to the middle.
I'll second that...in '99 and into 2000, I was a ForbesFanatic--he would STILL make an excellent POTUS, BTW--and I feared that Dubyuh would be a middle-of-the-roader like his daddy.
"I recall that during the unforeseen election crisis of 2000 I sat in bleary-eyed anticipation hoping that Bush would be declared the winner. When he was, after the Supreme Court´s ruling, I was filled with anxious optimism for the future. I have not been disappointed once in the time since."
That's going a bit far, imho...I shared this author's "anxious optimism for the future" but I've been dismayed by what I considered to be Bush's caving on the Education Bill and his acceptance of increased tariffs and remained chagrined at the unwillingness of Ashcroft's Department of Justice to hold a single KorruptKlintonKrony accountable fer the 8-year ORGY of Law-Breakin', Deal-Makin', Abuse of Power and TREASON!!! However, Dubyuh's Foreign Policy instincts have been OUTSTANDING and I am "anxiously optimistic" that Dubyuh will use the next 5.5+ years to EXACT JUSTICE Upon the Evil-Doers Domestically while simultaneously shrinking the Federal Leviathan as OUR Founding Fathers outlined in the Constitution of the United States!! His SOTU speech certainly hinted at it, and I hope Dubyuh will use his GRAVITAS to promote FReedom in America as stalwartly as he's promoted FReedom abroad!!
FReegards...MUD
As I said on another thread, we should get used to it. It's going to be the number one tactic of the left. Not only will they try to enrage their side, but they'll try to divide GWBs base as well. Look at what has happened in just three days here on FR. We can either fall victim to it or see through it and fight back. Naturally, I choose the second option. ;)
I suppose I should feel compassion for these folks. I'll work on that.
I feel sorry for them, I really do. The world has achieved a great victory for *civilization*, and they can't stand it. It's not just irrational stubborness -- it's self-loathing. Trust me. :p
Really! Our soldiers are my heroes. I suppose they're the KGB in this scenario, huh? Crazy.
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