Conservatives will probably dismiss what I have to say here on the grounds that it's only another harangue by a "Bush hater," but they'll be wrong. I have never hated Bush, even though I've criticized virtually everything he's done and said for the past eight years.He's not worth hating. He is – and so far as I can tell, he has always been – such a sorry excuse for a human being, so altogether pathetic in every way, that he simply does not rise to the level of hateable material. You can't honestly hate a maggot; it's simply the creature's nature to be a maggot; it cannot be anything else; and although it may be disgusting to behold, it still has a useful function to perform in the natural order. Likewise, you can't honestly hate Bush; it's simply his nature to be an intellectual and moral cipher; and although he may be disgusting to behold, he still has a useful function to perform in the political order.
That function, it would appear, is to serve as the warm body the ruling elites prop up to pretend to be the rightful lord and master of the known universe. Americans want somebody to serve this function. They stoutly insist on such a display of divinely ordained power – when did you last hear anyone complain about the imperial presidency, as opposed to demanding that the all-powerful president set right everything from cholera outbreaks in Africa to the value of a middle-class worker's 401(k). Americans demand that the president tame the business cycle, cure cancer, reverse global warming, and keep the heathen from raging. No one can carry out these tasks, of course, but the people demand that the president promise to carry them out and, once in office, make believe he is doing so. Failures can be conveniently blamed on the opposing party's obstructions or on al-Qaeda.
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