This bumper sticker has begun appearing on cars across America. Though it may be dismissed as partisan rhetoric by the 281 Americans who still believe anything that comes out of Bush's mouth, it possesses the ring of historic truth.
The bumper sticker heralds what is no longer a partisan sentiment. It's clear to people of all political stripes that Bush II is a miserable failure, that he's led our nation into dark and dangerous territory, that incompetence and deception are his stock in trade and that anyone who disagrees with him is dismissed as "un-American." Given that Bush's approval rating has remained in the 30s for months, the vast majority of us are, in Bush's fuzzy little mind, "un-American."
Worst President Ever? Though historians will be the judge of that, I can emphatically state that Bush II is the worst president in my lifetime (Bush I is not far behind). He has done something I did not think possible — made me miss Richard Nixon. For all of his many sins, Nixon understood that government exists to serve people, that in times of crisis it will be there to help, that, instead of turning them into mortal enemies, it reaches out to other nations.
Bush II has led us into a bloody war under false pretenses with no exit strategy and his only justification now is that it's part of a nebulous "war on terror," a war, if judged on the number of terror attacks, we're losing (10 Marines killed this week). Even if one were not ready to toss in the towel, it can't be denied that global terrorism has worsened dramatically since March 2003, when U.S. forces preemptively invaded Iraq, committing the single biggest foreign policy blunder in modern history. That was, in fact, the conclusion of a report requested by Bush, a report soon expunged from the White House website.
After five years of similarly monumental blunders — am I, for instance, the only one worried that we own the largest budget deficit in U.S. history, only five years after we had the highest ever surplus? — we have a large enough sampling to know things won't improve under Bush II. What, then, are we to do? How are we to survive three more years of his reign of error?
Since we don't have a "recall" provision in our Constitution, we're pretty much stuck with petitioning the U.S. Congress. Perhaps you've heard of this, the "legislative branch" of our government? Prior to January 2001, the Congress used to provide some semblance of "checks and balances" to the executive and judicial branches. But have you tried petitioning your Congressperson since that time? What a joke!
My "representative," Nancy Johnson, was a cheerleader for the war in Iraq from the outset. The form letters her staff lackeys have sent in response to my angry missives are only suitable for lining birdcages. Johnson was also a driving force for the recent energy bill that, in the wake of Katrina and the skyrocketing price of oil, is one of the most abominable pieces of legislation ever excreted from the U.S. Congress. Every single provision of this corporate-toe-sucking bill will have to be undone in 2006.
Thus, writing your "representative" is a waste of time. So is writing your senator. Their do-nothing spinelessness in the face of five years of Bush's abuse of power ought to cost senators their jobs. But, at least in Connecticut, they seem blessed by attracting opponents who are unknown, inept or worse. (Lieberman, for example, faced the formidable Phil Giordano in the last election; Phil is now serving 38 years in a federal prison for forcing 8- and 10-year-old girls to give him blowjobs, acts of indecency even Ted Nugent never dreamed of).
Other options? March? Protest? Letters to the editor? None of these things, tried by millions of Americans over the past five years, have done a bit of good, changed the dynamic, brought a dose of sense or civility to the political arena. Rather, they are attacked as being "un-American" and used to vilify Bush's opponents. As my friend Dot Jackson said, "For God's sake, y'all — another dumb petition — where 250,000 signatures has precisely the effect of one ? What this does is make outraged people think they are doing something by signing their names to something — when there is absolutely no way through this mess but by serious and sacrificial individual effort É What this kind of collective 'symbolic' outlet does is to channel and de-fuse public fury into something meek and mild and non-threatening to the thugs who care not one whit what any of us think, anyway."
The only option left, at least as far as I can see, is to make Republicans on all levels — national, state and local — pay for the failure that is Bush in 2006. Let's allow Bush to destroy his own party, shall we?
