Is George Bush really a "miserable failure"?

[Dari]

I was speaking to a psychoanalyst on Sunday. Our conversation delved into politics. I asked him about the "miserable failure" quip that has come to characterize the Gephardt camp(aign). He said it was less a criticism of Bush than a self-appraisal (valuation) or an appraisal of the Democratic party. I concurred since Bush has taken all the major issues head on (Social Security, Medicare, security). He agreed. I asked how the Democrats may fare in 2004 if their psyche doesn't change from a depressed state to self-confidence. Being a critic of the Bush administration, he went into a long tirade about the deficit and the (devil is in the) details of the aforementioned issues. But I got what I was looking for: The Democratic Party is scared

 

[alchemize]

Bush has not taken Social Security and Medicare head-on. Nobody has. They are chicken of the Baby Boomers and retirees.

But I agree, the Dems are scared. They can't touch him when it comes to defense. And if the economy turns around, they've got nothing but the defiicit to chime on about. All of the sudden they are fiscally conservative?

 

[Jhhnn]

From Alchemize, in reference to the Dems-

"All of the sudden they are fiscally conservative?"

Compared to the Lootocracy now in power, yes, Dems are fiscally conservative. The Reagan/BushSr admins quadrupled the debt, Dubya can continue adding insult to injury if re-elected...

Dems have reason to be very concerned with the next election- it seems clear that the Repubs intend to institute the kind of changes that will keep them in power for the foreseeable future, "regardless of the mood of the electorate" from that now famous memo about Texas redistricting.

If anything, the Republicans are running scared. They know that they haven't run a mainstream centrist administration, as they promised, and that campaigning to the center will be tough, given their record. They also know they're sitting on a few powderkegs, like the 9/11 probe, The FBI investigation of the Plame affair, Cheney's energy taskforce notes, and a few other festering sores...

And the Repubs seem to be starting the campaign a little early- given that we haven't even hit the primaries. And the likely candidate, Dean, doesn't fit into their normal attack lanes- hard to paint him as a gun-grabbing tax and spend liberal milquetoast. Last I heard, the Republicans were flaunting gay marriage as a major issue, along with the usual flag-waving displays of militarism, faux prosperity, and even more faux security...

Not to mention that Dean's internet fund raising scares them half to death... 2 million Americans at $100 each isn't unreasonable...

To base the notion that the Dems are scared from the observations of one guy seems a little far-fetched, anyway...

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

But I agree, the Dems are scared. They can't touch him when it comes to defense. And if the economy turns around, they've got nothing but the defiicit to chime on about. All of the sudden they are fiscally conservative?

Technically, the country was safer (based on outcome) during the Clinton years than Bush . . . so the defense argument is hollow. The Coast Guard, Border Patrol, and security around international/domestic shipping remains less than secure. The single most significant element to our nation's security remains two big bodies of water and borders with two countries that are more or less allies. Bush has deployed the majority of US forces (if you count troop rotations) to places that represent tangential security threats while removing our primary domestic security force (National Guard).

Republicans cried about the Clinton recession and how Bush (or any President for that matter) does not dramatically effect the economy. Of course now that the economy is looking up . . . GOPers are tripping over themselves trying to give Bush credit. Last week Bush tried to take credit for increased volunteerism in America . . . he renamed AmeriCorp to the Freedom Corp . . . whoopee.

There's little doubt that Dems in Congress have zero credibility as fiscal conservatives . . . but at least they are talking about the problem of poor budgetary management. The current administration just keeps writing checks for the next three generations to pay . . . and then rotates in a new excuse for deficits.

 

[Moonbeam]

But I got what I was looking for
-------------------
So sad.

 

[Bitdog]

AND, BushCo has enough money to buy the next presidential election also.

I'm not Democrat or Republican. About 10 years ago I changed from voting for a president to voting against a president.
So I had to vote for the person most likely to beat the worst presidential canidate, so I didn't vote for a Bush or Regan.
They won & the national debt increased imensely during their reign,
the drug war increased,
the environment suffered,
and war was the theme for them.

If Bush is re-elected I suspect that we will get more of the same double fold.
Remember that the medicare bill was the one called the, No lobist left behind, bill.

 

[Red Dawn]

The Democratic Party is scared

Well with the Choice they have for a Nominee they should be scared. But fear can be healthy. What is more disturbing is that Republicans are satisfied with Bush as if he is the best they could possible do. I even heard that hysterical little twat Sean Hannity say the he would hope that in 2008 Jeb Bush would run for President. Now that is fscking scary!

 

[GrGr]

Here's what another psychologist has to say about Bush. Is this really the type of personality we want in the White House?

Bush the Authoritarian

...The outcome of this [Bush's] childhood was what psychologists call an authoritarian personality. Authoritarianism was identified shortly after the second world war as part of research to discover the causes of fascism. As the name suggests, authoritarians impose the strictest possible discipline on themselves and others - the sort of regime found in today's White House, where prayers precede daily business, appointments are scheduled in five-minute blocks, women's skirts must be below the knee and Bush rises at 5.45am, invariably fitting in a 21-minute, three-mile jog before lunch.

Authoritarian personalities are organised around rabid hostility to "legitimate" targets, often ones nominated by their parents' prejudices. Intensely moralistic, they direct it towards despised social groups. As people, they avoid introspection or loving displays, preferring toughness and cynicism. They regard others with suspicion, attributing ulterior motives to the most innocent behaviour. They are liable to be superstitious. All these traits have been described in Bush many times, by friends or colleagues.

His moralism is all-encompassing and as passionate as can be. He plans to replace state welfare provision with faith-based charitable organisations that would impose Christian family values.

The commonest targets of authoritarians have been Jews, blacks and homosexuals. Bush is anti-abortion and his fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible would mean that gay practices are evil. But perhaps the group he reserves his strongest contempt for are those who have adopted the values of the 60s. He says he loathes "people who felt guilty about their lot in life because others were suffering".

He has always rejected any kind of introspection. Everyone who knows him well says how hard he is to get to know, that he lives behind what one friend calls a "facile, personable" facade. Frum comments that, "He is relentlessly disciplined and very slow to trust. Even when his mouth seems to be smiling at you, you can feel his eyes watching you."

His deepest beliefs amount to superstition. "Life takes its own turns," he says, "writes its own story and along the way we start to realise that we are not the author." God's will, not his own, explains his life.

Most fundamentalist Christians have authoritarian personalities. Two core beliefs separate fundamentalists from mere evangelists ("happy-clappy" Christians) or the mainstream Presbyterians among whom Bush first learned religion every Sunday with his parents: fundamentalists take the Bible absolutely literally as the word of God and believe that human history will come to an end in the near future, preceded by a terrible, apocaplytic battle on Earth between the forces of good and evil, which only the righteous shall survive. According to Frum when Bush talks of an "axis of evil" he is identifying his enemies as literally satanic, possessed by the devil. Whether he specifically sees the battle with Iraq and other "evil" nations as being part of the end-time, the apocalypse preceding the day of judgment, is not known. Nor is it known whether Tony Blair shares these particular religious ideas.

However, it is certain that however much Bush may sometimes seem like a buffoon, he is also powered by massive, suppressed anger towards anyone who challenges the extreme, fanatical beliefs shared by him and a significant slice of his citizens - in surveys, half of them also agree with the statement "the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word".

Bush's deep hatred, as well as love, for both his parents explains how he became a reckless rebel with a death wish. He hated his father for putting his whole life in the shade and for emotionally blackmailing him. He hated his mother for physically and mentally badgering him to fulfil her wishes. But the hatred also explains his radical transformation into an authoritarian fundamentalist. By totally identifying with an extreme version of their strict, religion-fuelled beliefs, he jailed his rebellious self. From now on, his unconscious hatred for them was channelled into a fanatical moral crusade to rid the world of evil.

As Frum put it: "Id-control is the basis of Bush's presidency but Bush is a man of fierce anger." That anger now rules the world.

 

[kage69]

Miserable? Maybe. Failure? Definetly.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: GrGr
Here's what another psychologist has to say about Bush. Is this really the type of personality we want in the White House?

Bush the Authoritarian

...The outcome of this [Bush's] childhood was what psychologists call an authoritarian personality. Authoritarianism was identified shortly after the second world war as part of research to discover the causes of fascism. As the name suggests, authoritarians impose the strictest possible discipline on themselves and others - the sort of regime found in today's White House, where prayers precede daily business, appointments are scheduled in five-minute blocks, women's skirts must be below the knee and Bush rises at 5.45am, invariably fitting in a 21-minute, three-mile jog before lunch.

Authoritarian personalities are organised around rabid hostility to "legitimate" targets, often ones nominated by their parents' prejudices. Intensely moralistic, they direct it towards despised social groups. As people, they avoid introspection or loving displays, preferring toughness and cynicism. They regard others with suspicion, attributing ulterior motives to the most innocent behaviour. They are liable to be superstitious. All these traits have been described in Bush many times, by friends or colleagues.

His moralism is all-encompassing and as passionate as can be. He plans to replace state welfare provision with faith-based charitable organisations that would impose Christian family values.

The commonest targets of authoritarians have been Jews, blacks and homosexuals. Bush is anti-abortion and his fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible would mean that gay practices are evil. But perhaps the group he reserves his strongest contempt for are those who have adopted the values of the 60s. He says he loathes "people who felt guilty about their lot in life because others were suffering".

He has always rejected any kind of introspection. Everyone who knows him well says how hard he is to get to know, that he lives behind what one friend calls a "facile, personable" facade. Frum comments that, "He is relentlessly disciplined and very slow to trust. Even when his mouth seems to be smiling at you, you can feel his eyes watching you."

His deepest beliefs amount to superstition. "Life takes its own turns," he says, "writes its own story and along the way we start to realise that we are not the author." God's will, not his own, explains his life.

Most fundamentalist Christians have authoritarian personalities. Two core beliefs separate fundamentalists from mere evangelists ("happy-clappy" Christians) or the mainstream Presbyterians among whom Bush first learned religion every Sunday with his parents: fundamentalists take the Bible absolutely literally as the word of God and believe that human history will come to an end in the near future, preceded by a terrible, apocaplytic battle on Earth between the forces of good and evil, which only the righteous shall survive. According to Frum when Bush talks of an "axis of evil" he is identifying his enemies as literally satanic, possessed by the devil. Whether he specifically sees the battle with Iraq and other "evil" nations as being part of the end-time, the apocalypse preceding the day of judgment, is not known. Nor is it known whether Tony Blair shares these particular religious ideas.

However, it is certain that however much Bush may sometimes seem like a buffoon, he is also powered by massive, suppressed anger towards anyone who challenges the extreme, fanatical beliefs shared by him and a significant slice of his citizens - in surveys, half of them also agree with the statement "the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word".

Bush's deep hatred, as well as love, for both his parents explains how he became a reckless rebel with a death wish. He hated his father for putting his whole life in the shade and for emotionally blackmailing him. He hated his mother for physically and mentally badgering him to fulfil her wishes. But the hatred also explains his radical transformation into an authoritarian fundamentalist. By totally identifying with an extreme version of their strict, religion-fuelled beliefs, he jailed his rebellious self. From now on, his unconscious hatred for them was channelled into a fanatical moral crusade to rid the world of evil.

As Frum put it: "Id-control is the basis of Bush's presidency but Bush is a man of fierce anger." That anger now rules the world.

So how is George Bush really different than anybody else. This could be Corn or Dari, or the good Doctor here, and tons of others, no?

 

[Ultima]

Bush is the antichrist. :evil:

 

[busmaster11]

Originally posted by: Dari
I was speaking to a psychoanalyst on Sunday. Our conversation delved into politics. I asked him about the "miserable failure" quip that has come to characterize the Gephardt camp(aign). He said it was less a criticism of Bush than a self-appraisal (valuation) or an appraisal of the Democratic party. I concurred since Bush has taken all the major issues head on (Social Security, Medicare, security). He agreed. I asked how the Democrats may fare in 2004 if their psyche doesn't change from a depressed state to self-confidence. Being a critic of the Bush administration, he went into a long tirade about the deficit and the (devil is in the) details of the aforementioned issues. But I got what I was looking for: The Democratic Party is scared

Well, if you call purging and borrowing from SS so that instead of wondering whether it'll still be around when they retire, Americans can know for certain it won't be, "taking the issue head-on", then, um, sure...

The only thing the Democratic party is scared of is that Americans have short memories... The economy will eventually rebound despite what bush does, and if things are going good come election time they may not remember how hard bush tried to kiss big corp/Isreali arse at the expense of Americans and people worldwide...

 

[kandarp]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: GrGr
Here's what another psychologist has to say about Bush. Is this really the type of personality we want in the White House?

Bush the Authoritarian

...The outcome of this [Bush's] childhood was what psychologists call an authoritarian personality. Authoritarianism was identified shortly after the second world war as part of research to discover the causes of fascism. As the name suggests, authoritarians impose the strictest possible discipline on themselves and others - the sort of regime found in today's White House, where prayers precede daily business, appointments are scheduled in five-minute blocks, women's skirts must be below the knee and Bush rises at 5.45am, invariably fitting in a 21-minute, three-mile jog before lunch.

Authoritarian personalities are organised around rabid hostility to "legitimate" targets, often ones nominated by their parents' prejudices. Intensely moralistic, they direct it towards despised social groups. As people, they avoid introspection or loving displays, preferring toughness and cynicism. They regard others with suspicion, attributing ulterior motives to the most innocent behaviour. They are liable to be superstitious. All these traits have been described in Bush many times, by friends or colleagues.

His moralism is all-encompassing and as passionate as can be. He plans to replace state welfare provision with faith-based charitable organisations that would impose Christian family values.

The commonest targets of authoritarians have been Jews, blacks and homosexuals. Bush is anti-abortion and his fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible would mean that gay practices are evil. But perhaps the group he reserves his strongest contempt for are those who have adopted the values of the 60s. He says he loathes "people who felt guilty about their lot in life because others were suffering".

He has always rejected any kind of introspection. Everyone who knows him well says how hard he is to get to know, that he lives behind what one friend calls a "facile, personable" facade. Frum comments that, "He is relentlessly disciplined and very slow to trust. Even when his mouth seems to be smiling at you, you can feel his eyes watching you."

His deepest beliefs amount to superstition. "Life takes its own turns," he says, "writes its own story and along the way we start to realise that we are not the author." God's will, not his own, explains his life.

Most fundamentalist Christians have authoritarian personalities. Two core beliefs separate fundamentalists from mere evangelists ("happy-clappy" Christians) or the mainstream Presbyterians among whom Bush first learned religion every Sunday with his parents: fundamentalists take the Bible absolutely literally as the word of God and believe that human history will come to an end in the near future, preceded by a terrible, apocaplytic battle on Earth between the forces of good and evil, which only the righteous shall survive. According to Frum when Bush talks of an "axis of evil" he is identifying his enemies as literally satanic, possessed by the devil. Whether he specifically sees the battle with Iraq and other "evil" nations as being part of the end-time, the apocalypse preceding the day of judgment, is not known. Nor is it known whether Tony Blair shares these particular religious ideas.

However, it is certain that however much Bush may sometimes seem like a buffoon, he is also powered by massive, suppressed anger towards anyone who challenges the extreme, fanatical beliefs shared by him and a significant slice of his citizens - in surveys, half of them also agree with the statement "the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word".

Bush's deep hatred, as well as love, for both his parents explains how he became a reckless rebel with a death wish. He hated his father for putting his whole life in the shade and for emotionally blackmailing him. He hated his mother for physically and mentally badgering him to fulfil her wishes. But the hatred also explains his radical transformation into an authoritarian fundamentalist. By totally identifying with an extreme version of their strict, religion-fuelled beliefs, he jailed his rebellious self. From now on, his unconscious hatred for them was channelled into a fanatical moral crusade to rid the world of evil.

As Frum put it: "Id-control is the basis of Bush's presidency but Bush is a man of fierce anger." That anger now rules the world.

So how is George Bush really different than anybody else. This could be Corn or Dari, or the good Doctor here, and tons of others, no?

I don?t think this makes him too different from most people however it does provide a good background on how he is prone to come to oversimplified conclusions to complex problems deriving from his evangelical ideology. This is dangerous, to say the least, when your the leader of the free world and are confronted by 9/11, not to mention being surrounded by ideologues with a penchant to achieve goals with the sword first and then look for the pen. This same viewpoint molds all to well (if the psychoanalysis is right) with GWBs old testament like interpretation of the Bible (i.e. an eye for an eye). An example of this the seen in the very name "Axis of Evil", it was first written (by a speechwriter) as the "Axis of Hatred" and it was GWB himself who changed it to "Axis of Evil" so as to conform with his almost fanatical viewpoint of a dichotomist world.


In mathematical terms

GWBs good and evil ideology + 9/11 + close aids with the "they only thing that works is force" view on foreign policy + ruthless brutal dictatorships in the ME = "lets democratize the region starting with Iraq"

 

[PrinceofWands]

Yes. He is supposed to serve the people of the US. Instead, he is destroying the nation from within, while empire building abroad and all out of religious zeal and financial greed (not necessarily his own, his administration shares in this evil). It doesn't matter what he accomplishes, he's not doing his job (servant of, by and for the people) and therefore he failed.

 

[Zebo]

I was speaking to a psychoanalyst on Sunday.

He can't help you. Only a real MD, a psychiatrist for instance, can persribe lithium.

 

[LunarRay]

Originally posted by: Zebo

I was speaking to a psychoanalyst on Sunday.

He can't help you. Only a real MD, a psychiatrist for instance, can persribe lithium.

Hehehehehe.. I'm trying to figure out the what makes a psychoanalyst more adept than the trash collector to answer question proffered.
But, I would agree with "I got what I was looking for" since the analyst seeks to help uncover the deep and hidden truths that cause the conscious manifestation or irrational behavior. The uncovering what is in the patient.. not what is in the analyst. IMO

 

[Wolfdog]

All you have to do is ask if the country is better off before he started. While all wouldn't scream a resounding "yes", there are some that are adamantly positive towards his job. I would really think though that the 3 million people that were laid off during this last year, should be the ones not voting for him. Along with congress they have been unaccountable to running the country in a good fashion. With a national debt the largest we have ever seen it. Putting aside the lacklustre "low % of GDP" argument, we still have to repay this debt. My personal favorite was the congress and senate giving themselves a big pay raise while millions are being laid off. They have failed in many respects to truely govern the country. Such things as the failure to renew the ban on internet tax. Like the phone services aren't taxed enough? Adding weeks onto the unemployment benefits for the jobless during the holiday season. The total failure in the world aspect of global wellness from the environmental sense. AKA not leading the world in either the Kyoto treaty, or another US based program. Sending our troops into harms way on a lie. There are no weapons of mass destruction. The most current reports from our inspector Kay reiterate that assumption. Using social security like his own piggy bank a week before 9/11. Allowing companies to sell out the American worker by allowing offshoring to continue at a record pase. Selling out the american steel workers by promising three years of help, but falling far short. Sidestepping the issue and telling them they had enough time. These are just a few of the real issues that will ultimately decide my vote. America can not afford another four years with the current beige, nondescript way of doing government.

 

[busmaster11]

Originally posted by: Wolfdog
All you have to do is ask if the country is better off before he started. While all wouldn't scream a resounding "yes", there are some that are adamantly positive towards his job. I would really think though that the 3 million people that were laid off during this last year, should be the ones not voting for him. Along with congress they have been unaccountable to running the country in a good fashion. With a national debt the largest we have ever seen it. Putting aside the lacklustre "low % of GDP" argument, we still have to repay this debt. My personal favorite was the congress and senate giving themselves a big pay raise while millions are being laid off. They have failed in many respects to truely govern the country. Such things as the failure to renew the ban on internet tax. Like the phone services aren't taxed enough? Adding weeks onto the unemployment benefits for the jobless during the holiday season. The total failure in the world aspect of global wellness from the environmental sense. AKA not leading the world in either the Kyoto treaty, or another US based program. Sending our troops into harms way on a lie. There are no weapons of mass destruction. The most current reports from our inspector Kay reiterate that assumption. Using social security like his own piggy bank a week before 9/11. Allowing companies to sell out the American worker by allowing offshoring to continue at a record pase. Selling out the american steel workers by promising three years of help, but falling far short. Sidestepping the issue and telling them they had enough time. These are just a few of the real issues that will ultimately decide my vote. America can not afford another four years with the current beige, nondescript way of doing government.

*excellent*