A Down Day

I understand there's a basic human psychological reaction going on here, Bush: the more the unintended consequences of your actions deteriorate into adversity, the harder it gets to be to admit the original mistake you made. With nearly fifty citizens being blown to pieces yesterday in Baghdad as they went about the ordinary business of doing their marketing, you, Bush, are headed out on the road today with more fine speeches, in the attempt to bolster waning support in this country for your war. I hear you're sending out your minions, too, with the same purpose in mind. Yesterday I watched one of your senators on a morning talk show, tying himself in foolish knots with the tired old defensive line that it's the media to blame, reporting only the bad news while neglecting the good. It would have been funny, were the truth not quite so dreadful. I suspect that you, along with the rest of the world, have not the first idea what to do about this hornet's nest you've stirred in the Middle East with your profound cultural ignorance and your impulsive, arrogant aggression.

So now it's all about stitching together the remaining tatters of your personal reputation--and of course rescuing the Republican Party from impending disaster at this year's elections. No small task. I noted the results of the straw poll at the weekend, with McCain doing his "support our president" act and your Frist coming out on top. What a nightmare! I caught a few seconds' clip of Frist on the television news this morning, and found myself literally shuddering with distaste for this man's patronizing rectitude and his pious complancency. Will the Democrats come up with a candidate strong and clear-minded enough to reverse the powerful tide of self-protective conservatism that seems to have permanently risen at this moment in this country's history. Is there someone out there who can appeal, not to the self-interest of the vast army of those committed to the tax revolt and the protection of their "rights", but to the larger interests of the nation and its people--even, and perhaps especially those less fortunate than themselves?

Sadly, Bush, I'm aware of my own deep and growing pessimism for the future of the human species on this planet. I'd like it to be otherwise. I have grandchildren. My natural inclination, I believe, is to have faith in the great spirit with which we are endowed. And on an individual basis, I look around and see so much evidence of the best in our human nature. The question that beggars the imagination is how that best will survive in the face of the pandemic insanity that seems currently to infect us as a species, amounting alomost to a collective death wish. How will we survive the great challenges of our time, when we seem fated to behave in every way that militates against our own best interests? Riddle me that one, Bush, with another fine speech.