#419 - Six Reasons from Bill Buckley, but We'll Just Count Them as One Because of the Sarcasm

From yesterday’s editorial on Yahoo! News by William F. Buckley, "Bush Is Evil":

In a private forum the question arose, Why do they hate Bush so? And ... what will they do with that hatred? How far can they carry it? How will it affect the next presidential election?

The participants agreed that it is a singular hatred, greater by far than what was felt by dissenters against Ronald Reagan in 1984, and rivaling what was felt for Nixon in 1973-'74. It supplies a useful context here to recall that hatred of Nixon was very much alive in 1972, but he carried 49 states in his re-election bid. The decapitation of Nixon was in due course effected, but required his cooperation.

Bush, by contrast, is not ever going to engage in suicidal activity of an extra-political character. Does this mean that the animosity toward him will wash away in the flood tide of a re-election victory? An examination of this point needs of course to acknowledge that you don't have to do a Watergate to end your career. George H.W. Bush ended his without any brush with felony.

The inquiry continues: Why the feelings toward Bush? The answer, as agreed upon in this improvised study, was: 1) He is not legitimately president of the United States. The other guy got more votes. Bush slipped in because of capricious conduct by the courts. 2) Bush is a Christer. He takes every opportunity to inform the American people that he is in touch with the Lord and therefore that, by deduction, what he does is the Lord's work.

3) He gravely miscalculated the onus of what he set out to do in Iraq. The consequences of that miscalculation are deaths unending, and more money spent than King Solomon dreamed of. 4) The economy lacks the kind of resiliency it might have shown if more resourcefully tended. 5) His truckling to the rich in his tax cuts shows a callous disregard of civil adjudications between America's poor and America's rich.

And finally, 6) He is a liar. He specifically informed the public that Iraq had in hand instantly deployable weapons of mass destruction. These, it proved, did not exist.

The question then was: How will the opposition communicate this animosity? When Democratic Candidate X faces President Bush in the televised debate, how will he express, or capitalize on, the odium? One participant recalled the deep, histrionic sighs of Al Gore when confronting Bush in debate. But of course the consensus was that Gore was hurt, not helped, by the body language.

Will the average voter wish to hear about the evil of Bush? What is the good of hating Bush if you can't interest your neighbor, and his neighbor, in hating Bush? That, after all, is the point of this exercise -- to send Bush back to his ranch, permanently.

Say whatever else you like about Bill Buckley, the man sure is articulate.

And he offers a useful reminder: while we often fail to resist the urge to vent our frustration over the more outrageous acts of the Bush administration, venting our frustration isn’t the point.

The point is to remind the majority of voters that Bush has given them good reasons to kick him out of the White House.

When the time comes, vote against him because the lying and manipulation have gone too far, or because you want your kids to breathe clean air and drink clean water and not be saddled with debt, or because you think corporate interests have too much power in Washington.

Hell, do it for sheer, unmitigated financial self-interest, because the money he’s spreading around isn’t getting to you.

Sarcasm aside, Buckley’s right (no pun intended - well, okay, maybe a little intended): Bush didn’t have the support of the majority last time. We don’t need our neighbors to hate Bush - we just need a few of them to help widen the margin of his defeat beyond the assistance of the electoral college system and the Supreme Court.