Bush and Irony

irony [< Greek eiron dissembler in speech] 1. expression in which the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of their usual sense. 2. an event or result that is the opposite of what is expected

I will try to put this in chronological order.

Bush went to Yale and Harvard yet he speaks English like it is his second language. “They misunderestimated me.”

A million angry words were written by conservatives criticizing President Clinton’s drug use as a college kid and the “I didn’t inhale” thing. Bush was a former coke-head and he was convicted for drunk driving. I haven’t read anything in the press about Bush’s party days. By the way, Bush was no college kid when he was in his drug and booze phase.

Bush is our president although he wasn’t elected. He lost the popular vote by a healthy margin and was more or less appointed president by a very conservative Supreme Court.

When Bush took office he inherited a budget surplus put in place by a financially irresponsible Democrat. Within one year the country was again in the red as a result of Bush’s tax cuts for the rich.

Bush feigns disgust at the recent wave of corporate malfeasance yet he and his cabinet (most of them are former CEO’s) have been involved in dealings at least as shady as those now in the press. Clinton was investigated to death for some fucking hick land deal in Arkansas. ¿Donde está Kenneth Star?

He has deflected public opinion away from the sorry state of the economy by placing all of the nation’s troubles on those pesky al Qaeda boys (by the way, if my military Arabic serves me it is pronounced al caw id a). More people died of food poisoning last year than in the 911 attacks. About the only thing he is willing to talk about in public is the need to protect ourselves from Al Qaeda. Damn the expense of this protection either in dollars or in civil liberties. Republicans say that this country cannot afford health care for its tax-paying citizens. 30 million go without any health coverage and one half of all personal bankruptcies are the result of medical expenses.

Maybe I’m just a bit paranoid but when Bush mentions the war on terrorism it is starting to sound like “Reichstag Fire.” The next election is not too far off and the economy is for shit, let’s invade Iraq! He can’t do it this year because all of the jingoistic furor will have faded by election time and he will lose his reelection bid just like his daddy.

I can’t even count how many times I have heard that we should all get behind our president for the good of the nation in this time of peril. I never heard the Republicans mention this sort of partisan-free politicking when Clinton was in office. Clinton was elected by the people yet he was hog-tied at every step of his presidency from doing the things the people elected him to do, namely to reform healthcare. Bush wasn’t elected by the people yet he was easily able to pass his tax cut for the rich (I received $300. That is really going to change my life). Does that sound like democracy to you? To me it sounds like irony.