George W. Bush--embarrassment or embodiment?

There is a certain kind of American man who feels socially insecure his entire life. He was never taught (or he didn't pay attention during the lessons) what to wear for different types of occasions, how to greet people, how to engage in conversation, the value of reading, and so many other things that launch children and adolescents into true adulthood. Many such men simply retreat into very small worlds, often refusing to go anywhere, even with their spouses. Unfortunately, many more become boors, thrusting themselves on the rest of us.

You see them everywhere: They joke about matters that are not funny, make fun of the many things they do not understand, initiate unnecessary conversations with busy wait staff and desk clerks, make "jokes" with perfect strangers, call people they do not know by their first names, and engage in seventh grade-level flirting with women and girls. Some of them drink too much, which makes matters even worse.

Women put up with these men because women tend to put up with almost anything. Women make excuses for them, or rush to list their good qualities. They may be embarrassed by their yahoo husbands and fathers and brothers, but they generally keep that to themselves.

George W. Bush is such a man. He has never in his life demonstrated that he can successfully initiate or complete a project, he is not very literate, he lacks intellectual curiosity, he has always counted on his parents in order to get by, he has no concept of appropriate social behavior, he invades the boundaries of others, and has bad table manners.

These are things we have known for some time. What is significant is not that Bush is a boorish dunce, but that he is the alleged leader of the free world, placed in that position by crooked elections, yes, but nevertheless tolerated by constituents and their elected representatives. The news media goes out of its way to excuse his behavior. Conservative religious people care only that he assists them in hating gays and women. Wealthy conservatives like the money he puts in their pockets.

Bush is not the first modern (alleged) president to have personality flaws. John F. Kennedy was a drug addict and had an impressive sexual compulsion. Bill Clinton couldn't keep his mind off of women who were not his wife. Both of them knew how to behave in public, however (though that certainly does not forgive the hurt they caused others or the bad judgment they exercised). If Bush's flaws were confined to his personality, he would still be a supreme embarrassment, but perhaps we could just grit our teeth and bear it. But it is not just that he is an 11-year-old boy in a man's body: He is an incompetent, dishonest, war-mongering tool of rich men who mean to destroy the country as we once knew it--a country far from what it should have been, but better than what it has become.

As the U.S. moves farther and farther away from respecting education, the arts and the concept of social propriety, we can expect cruder and cruder elected officials. People did not care that Reagan was not very bright. He had a pleasing personality, and he engaged enthusiastically in carrying out official campaigns against gays, women, liberals, and people of color, and that is what Americans wanted from him. They want the same thing from Bush, and they get it.

Bush is not an abberation; he is the face of American apathy, racism, sexism, homophobic zeal, greed, and anti-intellectualism. He is the face in the mirror.