Bush-Bashing: The new great American pastime

Following the attacks on the World Trade Center, President George Bush made a speech that we all remember as the day we knew exactly what we had elected the previous year. Bush made it clear that we were in fact fighting an “Axis of Evil” as opposed to terrorists. Bush called a lot of other things evil too. In fact, I just accepted that there wasn’t a country out there besides America that wasn’t evil.

Now we are learning why Bush knew who all the evil people were. Apparently, he is evil too, or at least that’s what the Democrats say. While I am not certain the Democratic candidates have called the President “evil” yet, it is possibly the next step in what seems to be a contest of who can point out the most Bush flaws in sixty seconds. I want to support a candidate who can lead America in fixing some of the problems we currently have, but I don’t think the Democrats’ current strategy is helping them reach that goal. I would also like everyone to notice how I wrote that whole sentence without using the words “evil,” “Bush,” or “special interests.” It’s not terribly difficult, so why do we continue to hear sentences that begin “Bush hasn’t” as opposed to “I will?”

Part of the reason Bush-bashing has become the new great American pastime is many of the candidates think they can ride Bush’s dropping approval rating straight into the White House. Unfortunately, this only shows that we should elect someone, but that someone could just as easily be Madonna as it could be the current candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. At one point, none of the candidates were really criticizing the Bush administration, so it was a good idea to make the issues known. Now we know, so I guess the only thing the Democratic candidates have left to do is tell us some of their original ideas even though it isn’t nearly as much fun as calling people evil.

Elaine Ayo can be contacted at eayo@umsis.miami.edu.