Sherry Chandler

Random, Rambling Thoughts on Being George W. Bush

Years ago, reading a Robertson Davies novel, I came across this statement:

Everything taken to its extreme becomes its opposite.

The great wheel. The golden mean. The Davies statement struck me then as a rare truth, and I have thought of it often in these days of red and blue, black and white. Every human endeavor needs checks. Our government needs checks and balances and so does our freedom. So does religion. So does capitolism.

Ponder, for a moment, this passage from Laura Miller’s review of The Cold War: A New History by John Geddis.

Having persuasively shown us how the Cold War shaped and dismantled communism, he doesn’t consider asking how the absence of the Cold War and a viable communist alternative is changing democratic capitalism. Early in the book, Gaddis describes 20th century capitalist elites as so worried about a popular groundswell of communism that they instituted a series of reforms. The result was the social welfare state, an effort to “preserve capitalism by mitigating its harshness.”

Now that the fear of communist revolution is gone, why should the harshness of capitalism be mitigated? Sure enough, the protections offered by the social welfare state are slowly but steadily being trimmed back across the industrialized world. People are starting to complain, and even the once comfortable middle class is feeling the pinch in housing, retirement and healthcare costs. The world seems an increasingly ruthless place for those who aren’t lucky enough to be rich.

So did Ronald Reagan, or George H. W. Bush, or even Western democracy, win the Cold War? I am a pacifist in large part because I’ve come to think nobody wins a war.

Mind you, no sane person could argue for totalitarianism of any stripe. But totalitarianism can come from the left or the right, as it did during the early parts of the 20th century. Those who believe capitolism should now reign unrestrained should read Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck to see what life was like before the social welfare system was put in place.

I have thought that the greatest punishment for being George W. Bush is being George W. Bush. Given the the absence of any ultimate court, do I still believe that?

Consider Northrop Frye here (from Northrop Frye Unbuttoned):

My principle that what we believe is what our actions show that we believe is only a definition of functional belief. It’s the first step in getting rid of ideology, and ideology is, I suppose, most of what Jesus meant by hypocrisy.

I’ll grant that I’d like to see the man publicly repudiated, humiliated in some way, but I have also said that I don’t believe in justice. Justice is never achieved and is too difficult to separate from revenge.

What happens if I turn that statement around: The greatest reward for being George W. Bush is being George W. Bush.

Is that what a reward looks like?

If I don’t believe in justice, I do believe in mercy. Do I have mercy in my heart from George W. Bush? Only insofar as I believe that the greatest punishment for being George W. Bush is being George W. Bush.

Possibly related posts:

George Bush has decidedly NOT turned into Gene Kelly

“War is not a time of joy.” — George W. Bush

Thoughts on Roe V Wade

Indulging myself in some Bush Bashing

An Anecdote

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