Bush As Fool
© 11.13.06 By Bill Davis
The recent election has been heartening to those of us who think Bush is a loose cannon on deck. It's not that I am a Democrat - far from it. I'm not a Republican either. Indeed, one doesn't have to be anything other than sane to realize that Bush has managed to make a mess of things, both at home and abroad.
Congress isn't off the hook though. If this nation's government were functioning as it should, as it was meant to function, the legislative branch would never have allowed Bush to drag us into unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place. The problem is that everybody in Washington is cast from the same mold - regardless of party affiliation. The number one priority of the Beltway crowd is power; power at any cost. And, war - however brief - creates a black hole at the nation's capital that draws power to itself at an alarming rate. Consider the "Patriot Act." Never before in the history of this nation has so much power been granted to the federal government. The bottom line is that we live in a police state whether we want to admit it or not. It's easy to say that we are somehow morally superior to Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany, or fundamentally different in some way. Yet we are not. Any difference between those police states of yesteryear and this one is a difference of degree not of kind. The Soviets and the Nazis wielded absolute power with brutally. The United States government has its iron fist concealed beneath the velvet glove - so far. Nevertheless, there is nothing today that stands between the United States citizen and the destructive might of this totalist national regime. Once a nation ruled by law as embodied in the Constitution, we have become people bullied into a corner by bureaucratic government with an insatiable appetite for control.
There are many who call Bush a fool - and they're right: although they've defined the word improperly. Most folks define a fool as one who has no sense and is lacking in intelligence and social graces. However, the proper definition of a fool is one who lives his life as if there is no authority higher than himself. Somewhere in the Bible it says that "the fool has said in his heart; ‘there is no God.'" Bush says that he is a born-again believer - and I don't doubt that he has had some sort of conversion experience in the past. Nonetheless, he governs as if he answers to no one but himself. To Bush the constitution is just a scrap of paper. What he and his cronies think is right becomes the morally correct position. To criticize him and his opinions is considered treason. In other words, might makes right. Truly, Bush is a fool.
Hopefully the House and Senate will put the brakes on Bush now that they are in the hands of the Democrats. I'm not naive enough to believe that the Democrats are any less interested in power than the Republicans. I'm counting on the effects of partisan politics. Frankly the only thing that will turn this country around is a good old-fashioned revolution.
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