The Rhetoric of "Bush Derangement Syndrome"

There are times when bloggers have so many topics to choose from that it is difficult to choose one particular issue to discuss.  The news since Saturday have mostly concentrated on the Tucson massacre.  As I watched the new today I was at a loss for words.  We had received some sad news and it took some time to ponder and reflect on our friend's grief.  I had guests for dinner and needed to concentrate on getting things ready.

While I worked I listened to the news and the daily programs I watch.  I made time to read the news sites which I visit daily, but no light bulb went on, no ideas came.  Then after all had been cleared, and I settled down with my laptop, I began to catch up with my social networking site.  There, before me was a post from IBDEditorials and the most magnificent cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Ramirez!  It was brilliant! In one cartoon he expressed what many of us could not put into words. Readers of this blog know that we are Ramirez' fans and use his cartoons whenever possible.  But this cartoon had an image, so perfectly drawn, of the Tucson shooter, that I decided not to use it.

In yesterday's blog we included an article written by Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle.  She'd decided not to use the shooter's name because that would feed his ego and his craving for infammy.  We decided that as long as we could refrain from doing so, he would remain "the shooter" to us, and we'd not publish his image.  As things happen, when one least expects it, I received an email from a friend which included Michelle Malkin's blog and pictures that were produced by the left of Sarah Palin.  But Michelle went a step further and posted some of the horrid pictures that had been published, posted and sold of George W. Bush and his presidency.  Instantly I had tonight's blog.


I like George W. Bush.  In fact, I'll pull a Sally Fields moment and say that I really, really like George W. Bush.  I don't believe anyone but God is perfect and I don't expect perfection from anyone.  George W. Bush was my governor before he became my president.  I had the privilege of voting for him on four separate occassions.  My husband was even more fortunate.  He had the opportunity to meet him at a local event and have a nice chat with him.  George W. Bush is just a regular, really nice man.  The kind of man we Texans understand and appreciate.  He's not a perfect man, but he is a good man - a man of integrity and faith.

Dana Perino, who worked for Mr. Bush and was his last press secretary, was on television today, and as they discussed the treatment that George W. Bush received at the hands of the liberal left wing, she said something that we all knew to be true.  He never whined or complained.  He never pointed fingers or called anyone names.  He was a class act when it came to taking abuse.  Regretfully, his stoicism and his silence were mistaken for weakness, and the abuse continued.

Barnes & Noble bookstores are like a beacon of light that call to me.  Not only am I an avid reader, I like to give books as gifts.  I spend quite a bit of time there.  During the Bush years one could scarcely walk into a bookstore without seeing an anti Bush book.  Talk about rhetoric!  People one would not imagine would be meanspirited enough to write very unflattering and unpleasant books about the man who was serving his country as Commander in Chief, did so. A man who ran for the presidency on a domestic agenda, and was eight months into his presidency thrust unto the international stage by the events of September 11, 2001, was disparaged and maligned without mercy.  Even his attempt to diffuse a backlash of violence and anger against Muslims after 9/11 backfired, and he made enemies on the right as well when he called Islam, "a religion of peace." 

When Dr. Charles Krauthammer coined the term "Bush Derangement Syndrome," I don't think even he knew how widespread the hatred was.  When Bush made the decision to go into Iraq, many in the nation turned on him.  Led by the Hollywood left wing, they followed like sheep, and hung on their every word.  Opportunists took advantage of the nation's dislike of their president and wrote book after book about the man.  The man they'd accused of going to war for oil, was now the source for them to line their pockets with the sale of books that disparaged his presidency and his character. Words - Rhetoric.

These book jackets represent a thimbleful of the books that have been written about George W. Bush by the liberal left.  Inflammatory language? Tone down the rhetoric? Vitriol?

I am simply appalled at the gall, the unmitigated gall, of these hypocrites who accuse the right wing of having motivated that lunatic in Tucson to create the blood bath on a street corner on a quiet Saturday morning, when they themselves were guilty of the very same language they criticized. 

If anyone can be accused of using inflammatory and disparaging language it would have to be the Pima County Sheriff Dupnik.  His initial accusations emboldened others to blame the right. The man is a disgrace. 

How easily did those on the left forget what they themselves are so guilty of doing.  When I replied to my friends' email this evening I said that I had NEVER in all my years seen such disrespect, such insulting and condescending judgement towards a seating president. 

Where were the cries of outrage?  Where were the loonies inspired to commit crimes because that bumbling fool George Bush took us to war? The rest of this blog is a reminder of what we lived, and what we saw during George Bush's presidency. The left needs to evaluate their actions closely. Then, and only then, can we truly discuss influencing people's minds, and using rough, vitriolic, inflammatory, hate filled rhetoric.

                               BUSH DERANGEMENT SYNDROME