A Bellicose Bush
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It sure was hard to take Bush’s second inaugural address.
The vainglory, the sanctimony, the cant.
How else to react to a laugher like, “America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling”?
What, pray tell, is Bush doing in Iraq, then?
How else to take a line like, “America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one”?
But America’s vital interests, as defined by this president and several before him, are to protect oil supplies, ensure corporate profits, and to fight terrorism. And if that means coddling Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, or winking at General Musharraf in Pakistan, or sleeping with dictators in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, Bush has no problem with that (see “Beyond Ukraine: Bush Sides with Dictators,” by Amitabh Pal, in the February issue of The Progressive).
How else to stomach Bush’s religiosity? He mentioned “the image of the Maker of Heaven and Earth,” and he said that though “God moves and chooses as he wills,” history “has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty.”
If God is the author of liberty, Bush certainly sees himself as that author’s agent. “Because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom,” he said. “By our efforts, we have lit a fire as well—a fire in the minds of men.”
Then, in a creepy way, Bush fell in love with the fire metaphor. Early in his speech, he alluded to 9/11 as “a day of fire.” But here he embraced the fire of liberty. “It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world.”
If that isn’t messianic, I don’t know what is.
And to linger over the image of an untamed fire burning those who stand in Bush’s way is not pleasant, to say the least. It also conjures up “the Lake of Fire” and the Armageddon that is so much a part of the rightwing evangelical liturgy.
In megalomaniacal fashion, Bush boasted of being the champion of all oppressed people everywhere. “American’s influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America’s influence is considerable,” he said, “and we will use it confidently in freedom’s cause.”
He set the country on a worldwide crusade, though this time he was prudent enough not to use the word. “All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors.” And he warned “the rulers of outlaw regimes” that their days were numbered.
To Iran and North Korea, this was more than a murmur of war. It was war cry.
Bush seemed animated only when he was on the warpath. He discussed domestic issues in the most fleeting way, barely touching the bases of schools, Social Security, and health insurance. Jobs and the environment, among other issues, did not clutter the regal mind.
“We will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and equal,” he said. But the thrust of his economic programs these last four years, and every indication of his programs to come, is to increase the ranks of the poor and widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
He stressed the need for “private character” even as the government’s public character becomes coarser and more indifferent.
He tossed out a veiled reference to protecting the fetus (“even the unwanted have worth”) and hinted at defending the exclusive institution of heterosexual marriage (as when he referred to “ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever”).
But he skated over these sections with little of the enthusiasm he displayed for his martial darts.
Fortunately, a few faint voices of genuine freedom could be heard before Bush finished, These brave dissidents, exercising their First Amendment rights, managed to heckle the President and throw him slightly off pace as he came to the end.
These voices, and those of protesters along the parade route, serve as a reminder to Bush that he is not king, not yet.
-- Matthew Rothschild
progressive.org |
