Wed 4 Jul 2007
Dear Mr. George W. Bush,
Although your presidency is not at an end for more than a year, people are already looking for the next person to take your job. I imagine their feelings echo my own - that your time in office has caused a degradation of rights, a pointless war, and an increased distaste for politics for the average American. They want to forget you and the terrible things you’ve done to this country. I don’t know what your legacy will mean to other people, but here’s what I think it’ll mean for me:
- you, and your administration, have provided the strongest reason yet for the good, honest, and reasonable young men and women of this country to believe that not only could they never be president, but that they do not want to be president, since either the job corrupts those who hold it or it simply attracts the corrupt to it
- you are proof that it is not safe to put power in the hands of a seeming incompetent, believing that he does not have the ability to do much damage
- you have created an environment of fear and apathy together, stripping men of their dignity and hoping that they’ll forget that they are, in fact, human being who have rights and that they should protect those rights
In a way I hope that your commuting of Libby’s jail term is not the worst of your crimes before you leave office, and that whatever it is that you do is enough to snap people out of the apathy that you’ve helped to engender. I don’t want them to go after you as in a witch hunt - merely to hold you accountable for all the wrongs you’ve done that I can no longer believe were due to your own ignorance. If that means jail time for you, so be it. If not, that’s fine too, but I hope you’ll remember as long as you live that men have served time for less egregious acts.
Most of all I hope that history remembers your term in office for what it is: a disaster. I hope that in time the damage you’ve done will be repaired. And since I find it likely that you will serve out the rest of your term in office, I have only one request: put your head down, try to keep from doing or saying anything stupid, and get the hell out of our way.
Sincerely,
Brian Donovan
November 19th, 2007 at 19.38
Brian,
Politics suck, not because of the people involved! It sucks because of the people NOT involved. We are an apathetic country, less people vote every year than those that do not vote. Presidents are by far liars, cheats, thiefs and generally make bad decisions like the rest of us. Every President has done something that is shameful from George Washington to George W. Bush.
Good luck to you on your blog.
One suggestion Limit what you write, be concise!
Thx
Tom B.
November 30th, 2007 at 13.17
@Tom: You’re probably right that every President has done something shameful during his term, which is unfortunate.
I wrote this bit when I’d just gotten so frustrated feeling like there was nothing I could do about it. I still feel that way, just less frustrated. I realize it’s a rant, and not totally coherent, but it’s what I felt was appropriate at the time.