Article: An Inconvenient President - Our Modern Tragedy

An Inconvenient President - Our Modern Tragedy

"If one of my patients frequently said one thing and did another, I would want to know why. If I found that he often used words that hid their true meaning and affected a persona that obscured the nature of his actions, I would grow more concerned. If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an oversimplified distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his ability to grasp reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged-even sadistic-indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched. For the past three years, I have observed with increasing alarm the inconsistencies and denials of such an individual. But he is not one of my patients. He is our president."
Justin A. Frank, M.D., Bush on the Couch

One cannot view Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth eco-documentary without thinking what a completely different country, world, and environment we would now have if Gore had won the presidency and the election had not been stolen by Bush - via an "unprecedented" 5-4 politicized majority of the Supreme court determined to avoid "harm" to George Bush.

Imagine no war in Iraq, imagine a tax policy that kept budget deficits in line or eliminated them, imagine a stronger dollar, imagine greater auto mileage standards, less pollution, less corruption, less oligarchy and war crimes and, finally, a sane, truly conservative, environmental policy geared to protecting our children's world rather than big oil's interests.

Imagine... and weep.

What one feels in viewing this well-done documentary - on virtually the greatest issue of our time - is that "we" clearly made a terrible mistake in the choice of our president (due also to the electoral college trumping Gore's winning the popular count by some 3 million votes).

In short, the Bush regime has proved to be a total disaster for the country, for the vast majority of the American people, the Iraquis, the Constitution, and the planet.

The price we, the people, our country, environment and world have paid for this reprobate regime is truly incalculable. Worse, there is no recompense, not even impeachment at this late date restores the loss of prestige, the theft of billions, pays the war debt, or offsets the added harm to our environment.

That Bush has not already been impeached or resigned is further testament to the shortcomings of "our" political system and its near complete control by money and the ruling elite's corporate media.

In the mind of the people's court, however, the man has already been judged a sociopath, and a walking talking example of the Peter Principle.

How does he sleep? Given the misdeeds, one would almost expect a collapse in karmic pain.

Clearly, we are witnessing an American drama, straight out of a Greek tragedy, as our protagonist continues in his delusions, denies reality, and ignores the voice of the people.

Sad to say the inner workings of the Bush mind/regime appear to be explained not only by fundamentalist religious dogma but by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, a diagnostic tool used to "rate a person's psychopathic or antisocial tendencies. People who are psychopathic prey ruthlessly on others using charm, deceit, violence or other methods that allow them to get with they want. The symptoms of psychopathy include: lack of a conscience or sense of guilt, lack of empathy, egocentricity, pathological lying, repeated violations of social norms, disregard for the law, shallow emotions, and a history of victimizing others."

Sounds like George.

Normally, I don't like to indulge in, or give great credence to, at-a-distance psychological assessments but, after six years of his presidency, we now have plenty with which to verify the above profile.

We, and he, don't need more time today, we need a stepdown, a resignation as real statesmen do when they lose the confidence of the people. When our statesmen (I use the word loosely) lose our confidence, and fail to do the responsible thing, we are then forced to go thru aggravated processes to remove them. It is more pain on top of pain, and cost upon cost.

The sad thing is that George might have made a good or great Baseball team owner or coach had he the good sense to live his own life and not try to fulfill his father's imperial dynasty expectations. It is a costly lesson, both for the American people and the Bush family.

The Peter Principle is about rising to the level of one's imcompetence. It is a Chauncey Gardiner's "Being There" phenomena in the corporate and government worlds wherein we are pushed or pulled into positions of power for which we have either no, or inadequate, knowledge or training worthy of the office. We should have known that when a rich kid grows up and, despite the money and time to do so, does not even travel outside of the United States to broaden his education, then we were dealing with a less than competent man for the highest office in the land.

Regardless, the implications of the Peter Principle are that the state or organization is then prone to mistake, misjudgment, and eventual collapse when the incompetent one, or many, rise to their level of incompetency - thus resulting in the inability of the state or organization to perform both rationally and efficiently.

This sorry condition defines the Bush presidency and its dismal, defeated, deficit-ridden, and corrupt regime that serves to illustrates what has become a tragic mistake, and a modern tragedy, for America, the world, and our planet.

Kent Welton,
OligarchyUSA.com