A BUSHED COUNTRY

Dear Readers,
I hear the nation holding it's breath today, preparing to expel a huge sigh of relief, set to go off tomorrow, around noon. Yes, the George W. Bush era finally reaches the end of it's natural lifespan at that hour, expiring, in full public view, on a platform built for somebody else. I've seen a fair few of these handovers, and I'm always amazed at how flawlessly it always happens. Politicians reach the top of the pile by being willing to claw out someones innards to get ahead, and no one is immune from being 'thrown under the bus' in order to advance their power, but in this most unique of situations, the old President - still breathing - meekly, peacefully, nay happily surrenders the keys to the castle and walks away from the throne.
Perhaps the current occupant of the Oval Orafice hands over power happier-ly than most, as Bush leaves office having presided over eight years of the most gilded chaos in American history. The party of free-enterprise, less government and avoidance of hopeless foreign entanglements has left the country divided and unsure of itself. Perhaps the only uniting and certain thing about us this day is that we are all relieved to see the old government go. Hardly the outcome envisioned, I should think.
Why on earth do people want so badly to be President, anyway? Ego, I guess, is the first thing to mind, but there's got to be more. Is it merely to enrich ones friends, business associates and families? Is it all a contrived scheme to get yourself a library with your name on it? Are Presidents people who are so craven and cynical that just getting there was the whole point? Does anybody seriously believe they will implement the party's platform? Or are Presidents a magnificent malfunctioning mix of our best and worst aspirations, a jerry-rigged mess of conflicts and contradictions? The true schizoid man (or woman, someday, surely) -that's our leader.
George Bush may turn out to be the most spectacular example of this theory, as he rode into office on the backs of the ironic right-wing - a group that wants to tell everyone else how to live, but don't want government interference - and betrayed them time and time again. For their pains, he gave them (and us, the collaterally damaged others) a brace of no-win wars, a giga-bloated federal deficit and a government giveaway program that makes LBJ's Great Society legislation look like a free bowl of soup at a Salvation Army lunch-wagon. Surely, even the right must feel a little let down. Plus, Bush failed to push through constitutional amendments banning gay marriage and legal abortions -hobby-horses chosen by the right wing to impose on an unwilling nation. (Why they chose those biblical taboos to enshrine in the constitution, I'll never understand - why not some of the better of the Ten Commandments first?) By any measuring stick, the Bushies failed, succeeding only in making everybody miserable in one way or another.
In his embarrassing farewell to the nation, Bush cited his success in preventing another 9/11 as his proudest achievement, forgetting, conveniently, that he was the President when it happened in the first place. It's a crime that some 3,000 people had to die first to give Bush the theme for his dubious presidency. That crime led to countless other deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan - Bush 'gifts' that keep on taking. And while his homeland-security satraps issued a blizzard of silly color-coded alerts, his government sat on it's hands while Hurricane Katrina wiped away most of New Orleans.
I can't think of too many Presidents who left office having achieved all their goals (thank God!) but I'm still glad we have a system that functions to the degree that someone with so much sheer power gives it all up without a fight. And I'm still romantic enough to believe that, no matter how inept, wrong-headed and destructive a President was, he mostly intended to do the right thing by the country. In spite of all the divisions, hatreds and suspicions we have of one another, there is an American spirit that exists that keeps us all striving for the same goals of comfort, security, opportunity and satisfaction, a spirit that's almost impossible to upend, even by the worst of leaders. It's a weird, wonderful something in the air that keeps us hopeful, and makes us able to recognize the good and bad reflections of ourselves in those who we choose to govern us. We may crash and burn, but we never even think of quitting. It's out there and it's real. Maybe it's time the Presidential oath of office was amended to include a line from Star Wars - 'use the force, Luke', ...err, even if the guy's name isn't Luke. We'll all understand.
Sadly, I was not invited to Warshington to see the Inaugural, but I'll be watching on TV and cheering as we sweep out the old crowd for good. And I'll keep the kettle going, knowing that somewhere, all day, it'll often be 4 o'clock, and time to toast the new crew with a nice cup of tea.