Holderness

About G.W. Bush

I must respond to the (absurdly sycophantic) testimony by the honorable Senator Miller from Georgia. I don’t think there is any truth at all in what he says. I think he sold out. I wonder for what.

Bush is not a simple, straight-talking, down-home fellow. He comes from the equestrian class (the very wealthy, both old and new) and his only loyalty is to that class (which cuts across nationalities). He attended Philips Andover Academy, one of the old elite New England boarding schools. He went to Yale. At Yale he was president of the animal house fraternity, DKE, made very mediocre grades, but nevertheless was “tapped” by Skull & Bones, the super-elitist “Secret Society” that literally guarantees its members wealth, of which his father, and probably his grandfather, were also members. He went to Harvard Business School, probably getting through only because of his name, where he picked up the idea that what’s good for business is good for America, plus many valuable contacts. His businesses didn’t do well, but infusions of “investment” by Saudis like the Bin Laden family, who were maintaining favor with Bush senior and his wide equestrian-class circle, kept them from outright failure. He did not risk his own money, but he made a lot of money risking other peoples’.

No one from a background like Bush’s could be simple, straight-talking, or down-home. That is obvious. He has been brought up in a world that absolutely lacks all those attributes. His world is heavy on cynicism, strong on the necessity of hiding the true extent of its unjustifiable advantages, righteously defensive of its property, and paranoid about efforts of the vast underclass to take (tax) away its almost entirely inherited wealth.

(For sheer cynicism, how could you possibly improve on the aircraft carrier/flight suit/mission accomplished incident off California? The entire Navy, the whole military, should have thrown up in unison, but Bush figured they would eat it up instead. And they did.)

Bush himself is possibly unaware that his view of the world is so utterly different from the view of 95% of the citizens of his country. He is now and always has been surrounded by people from the same world, and people who want to be in it. It’s like water to the fish, air to the bird; they are not aware of it. Not one of his friends and advisors, I feel perfectly sure, ever mentions the true interests of the American people (the ones not of the equestrian class) to him, except from the standpoint of concealing from them the effects of his legislation and overall agenda. He barely knows about them, except as voters, who are there to be fooled most of the time.

The Bush agenda, simply stated, is any and everything that can be done to secure the wealth and advantages of the equestrian class. That goes both ways: reducing regulation and taxation of big business (not small business; that’s just a nuisance to big business) and wealthy individuals and families, and, on the other side, reducing education, labor protection, Social Security and Medicare, and the rights of everyone else. A dumbed-down population, too busy surviving to make any trouble, and well controlled, will maintain the supply of low-cost labor, so that senior management can continue to pay themselves huge multiples of actual workers’ salaries. The religious right, keeping a low profile in their recent stealth strategy and unfazed by worldly doubt, is more interested in control than in Christian compassion (as has ever been true), and they and Bush each think they are using the other for their own interests.

Bush is either a crafty, cynical, fake, or he is an unintelligent puppet, unable to see enough of the big picture to understand what his advisors are having him do. I lean toward the latter. Either way, the agenda is the same, and that agenda is not only immoral and unjust; it is also the way to disaster for our country. It will lead to national loss of credit, depression or deep recession, international isolation and loss of respect, and, generally, to severe suffering by all Americans, even, eventually, the equestrian class.

I claim this much credibility: I attended one of those old New England boarding schools, I mingled with the equestrian class’s kids there and in the summers. I went to Yale (where my grades were as disgracefully mediocre as Bush’s), I knew the DKE house, I knew as much as most about Skull & Bones and the other “secret societies.” I know those people, and many of them are fine people and my friends, but none of them are simple, down-home folks, and in political matters, whether in corporations or public affairs, they are not straight talkers. They are calculating talkers; they have to be to get ahead.*

Also, I was a Marine, and I served in Vietnam. I am deeply offended by tough-guy, “bring ‘em on,” military posturing by Bush, who not only used the Air National Guard to avoid Vietnam, but also used his name to avoid much of even that duty.

Incidentally, I read recently that Bush didn't even have to go to OCS or any other training before he was commissioned. He got a "direct commission." That's a little extra sickening. How would he even have known what being in a military organization meant? Even the Prince of Wales and his kids have had to go through military schools and training.

I used to be a Republican. Can’t do it anymore. They pretend to be on my side, but everything they do is against my interests and the interests of everyone below that 95th percentile of wealth, in other words, against the interests of the American people. We need another FDR, and pretty soon we’ll need him to help us out of another Great Depression.

I appreciate your reading the whole thing. I feel quite strongly, as you can tell. I am sincerely puzzled by those who do not see what Bush is and how unjust and wrong-headed his policies are. I fear for our country and our children’s quality of life.


*I admit it's contradictory to call Bush a "calculating talker," when he speaks pure gibberish so much of the time. I suspect his calculator is defective.

-- JH