06-25-01
SWEET NOTHINGS
by guest ranter Lisa Thomas

The Bush family has long been recognized as having a warm place in its heart for sentimental speechwriters who weight their words with a lot of emotionalism. Remember how the poor and downtrodden in the eighties would climb their way up again? Right. The benevolent churches of America would replace that dirty old welfare aid with "A thousand points of light." Underlying point: 'Tis better to nibble on a cracker from the local church than a full meal from those bleeding-heart liberals.

And though it either got lost in the woods or eaten by the wolf, there was the "kinder, gentler nation" that we would become if only we did exactly as Bush Sr. told us to do. The very words were designed to make the speaker look a bit kinder, a bit gentler. Personally, I always had a problem reconciling the desire for a kinder, gentler nation with the killing of Nicaraguans with arms the Bush people provided to the "freedom-fighter" terrorists from the sale of arms to Iran. Had someone "restored honor and integrity" to the first Bush administration, we would all have known what happened, but when Bush pardoned those guilty two weeks before their trial, we had a mountain of dust swept under the rug, so that the country at large STILL lives in ignorance as to what we did to Nicaragua. As to the 17 million the World Court concluded we owed to Nicaragua, well.... that came from the U.N. - and we all know that the U.N. is a good guy when they accommodate the U.S. and a bad guy when they don't. They still say of the sixties, "You hadda be there," and I'd say the same of that murderous chapter of U.S. history. Burned into the memory of the author here are little huts where the bottom three feet were reinforced with cement blocks to protect those sleeping on the dirt floors from being shot in the middle of the night by Bush-armed killers.

Anyway, the George of THAT Jungle is gone, or so we assume, and we have a new litany of warm words to stir the heart. I distinctly remember myself blinking as I watched the campaign and saw the studied look of compassion appear on the face of the man whose speechwriter had stolen "Leave no child behind" from the Children's Defense Fund. Gulp? What about the children left behind in Texas, as it fell to the bottom of all lists for insurance and health care available to children? Well... uh... he must have meant good, godfearing, children of his Republican donors. Must be that he didn't want THOSE children left behind.

But after one of the debates, my phone rang. My mother, saying she'd just watched it and you really had to admit one thing: George W. Bush was a kind man. I stuttered, seeing his face as he mimicked Karla Faye Tucker a few months earlier, screwing up his mouth and saying, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die." And that led to a passing flash of all 152 people whose execution orders he signed.

Even more than the disturbing feeling that he never memorized the names of the 152, it bothered me that he didn't want to exclude the mentally retarded from those we kill, but while in Europe, he did stumble over some statement that he was opposed to executing the mentally retarded. No one has explained. What about those six now-dead prisoners with IQs around 70? What about the guy who kept trying to study, because he thought he was being executed for his inability to read? Has George W. changed his mind? Or was the statement to the Europeans something in the line of "When in Rome, do as the Romans"?

Tax relief. That's not quite as gushy as most, but it does tend to evoke a hardworking family who struggles to make it. Relief implies difficulty. You just don't usually equate "relief" with people making over $100,000 a year. Oh well - tax cut to tax relief, estate tax to death tax, we're all used to it now and don't use these word plays to misunderestimate the boy.

One that really bothers me is "reaching across the aisle." He claimed that while he cleaned up Washington (Was there EVER a politician who didn't pack for D.C. without a scrubbrush and some lye soap?), he would continue to be a great uniter. His eyes almost misted over while he promised us to be a great uniter, reaching across the aisle, etc. The problem is, as it so often is, George W.'s unfamiliarity with the English language. On top of having no earthly idea of the meaning of bi-partisanship, he is confused about the meaning of the word compromise.

Compromise does NOT mean looking a man in the eye, holding his hand, appearing to listen attentively, slapping him on the shoulder about three time more than is considered good grace, and then doing exactly what you planned all along. Compromise does NOT mean that if you give someone a cutesy nickname you don't have to consider his or her ideas.

The cliche that is truth for Bush is "my way or the highway." He hasn't yet shown a single sign of truly "reaching across the aisle." Sure, he pretends to listen, he's generous with the nicknames, he invites Ted Kennedy to watch a movie at the White House, but then everything he hears goes into the nearest dumpster. There is no give; there is CERTAINLY no uniting. Don't take my word for it - ask Jim Jeffords. Heck, ask John McCain!

And when all else fails? We're about to see it. Bush doesn't want a Patients Bill of Rights that is against the wishes of the insurance companies and those poor HMO executives. Before our hearts warm over with TOO much sympathy for how these executives might suffer if their HMO can get fully sued for negligence, we might remember the ABC NEWS finding that the ten highest paid executives in the field raked in an average of $11.7 million apiece last year.

These guys make a killing, and someone DARES to suggest that it is wrong to sue to the extent of our loss if they get careless and kill our child. This is one that matters to George W. Bush, and he's not about to forget their contributions to his elections. After the fight is over, after all the sweet-nothing gush-words about wanting a Patients' Bill of Rights "GOOD for American families" (meaning one where the executives of HMOs are protected), he lets fall the "kind" facade and, for once, tells it like it is. We pass the Patients Bill of Rights and he'll veto it. That's that. He's got the bully pulpit and he damned well knows how to use it.

Now, while he has us all confused as to who the good guys are versus the bad guys, he keeps pretty busy alienating our traditional friends. At the same time, during his brief meeting with Vladimir Putin, Bush assures us that he has "looked into his eyes and seen his soul." And found him a man to be trusted. Well, could be. I'm not very good at seeing souls, being more inclined to follow what Al Hunt calls the tendency to look into a soul and see eyes. Sounds good. You have a leader who can spot souls in only minutes, you hang on to him, even when the spotted soul returns to Russia and basically declares he isn't giving an inch.

What a lot of people really cozy up to is the promise to "restore honor and integrity to the White House." It has taken me five months to realize that there is a large group of people out there who would define "honor and integrity" as celibacy. There's not a reason in the world to suggest that George W. has swerved off the straight and narrow sex-wise, and for that - and that alone - honor and integrity are restored to the White House? In a sexually-obsessed, sometimes sexually-repressed culture, perhaps celibacy is the key to sainthood. By such narrow standards, we could put Timothy McVeigh above a lot of people. Maybe we should consider kicking John Calvin out of our moral philosophy, but to do so would leave George W. with no claims to honor or integrity.

The whole picture tends to turn all the syrupy words into exactly what they are. Who, besides Tom Daschle, has truly "reached across the aisle"? Who, besides Ted Kennedy, has worked to "leave no child behind"? We are being emotionally ravaged by some speechwriters who know a good thing when they see it. And the deceit inherent in their influence over the soundbite-students shows us, more clearly than we want to be shown, what we are all learning at breakneck pace, with no need for any sweet words to announce it:

George W. Bush is a liar.

--Lisa Thomas
Mad Grandparents for Justice




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