Abhor. Detest. Disdain. Despise. Loathe. There really isn't a word in the English language that can quite sum up my feelings for the U.S. President George W. Bush. For that I would need a word that simultaneously evokes disgust, disbelief and despair. It would have to be the sort of word that dribbles out of your mouth, and down your chin, before you wipe it away with your shirtsleeve, and then incinerate the shirt.
But as the U.S. elections draw closer, what really disturbs me is not the fact that Bush is such an extraordinary clown. No, what I find most profoundly disturbing about Bush is the fact that millions of U.S. voters put him into power in the first place.
I know that some Americans can be psychotically sensitive when it comes to any criticism of their nation, but how - will someone please explain to me - can anyone with at least a kindergarten degree of education have voted for him? The stupidity, ignorance and insularity of Bush is, in fact, a frightening measure of the stupidity, ignorance and insularity of so many Americans.
How long will certain televisually inbred Americans go on believing in some absurd, mythical U.S.A., a bastion of moral decency and democracy aloofly overlooking the rest of the world?
When will America come to terms with its countless contradictions? When will it accept the fact that it's an abstract monster of a nation? Bush's political language could almost be taken as a grotesque parody of everything that is wrong with America, if it weren't for the fact that it has such serious consequences for the rest of the world.
In all honesty, I believe the most useful thing that has come about after four years of Bush's presidency is that his election victory taught us all a little-known word in the English language. Few lexicographers probably even knew of the word "chad" until Bush came along. But now we know all about chads, even the "pregnant" and "hanging" kind. Bush's righteous cause has been served. New president, please.
