Regrets?

Voting
Originally uploaded by nodigio

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/11/bush.post.presidency/index.html

It’s not the things he should not have said so much as it’s the things he should have said and didn’t.

His constant use of “you” instead of “we”, for example, alienated a lot of people. His “pride” in America has often been spoken in the same paragraph as his “pride” in people of other countries – and again, it’s a “you”, not a “we”, as if he’s not part of America or who or what Americans are.

When Bush’s book is written, it will still contain a lot of separatist language. He will speak of what “he” did, and what “he” told us to do, and he’ll fill it with his generic “pride” in “you” instead of “us”.

He even had to tell people “I’m just as American as…” and people who really identify with being American rarely have to tell other Americans they are American or compare their Americaness with someone perceived to be American. He obviously doesn’t identify with us, doesn’t really consider himself American (although he may well consider himself Texan – he’s identified with Texans and said “we” far more about them than about us Americans in general), and doesn’t consider that pride in American accomplishments is personal as well as national and should never be as impersonal as he always makes it in his speeches.

The way he complimented Americans (that’s us, you know) always felt like he was taking time from his busy schedule to indulge us just before he swatted us on the bottom and told us to run and play now (or go shopping – and he even gave us a few dollars to shop with) – you know, so we’d go away and leave him alone with his secret porn collection.

There’s a lot he should have said and didn’t, and that’s what he should be regretting. Well, that and dozens of policy changes that weakened America, crippled our economy, took away our privacies and rights, and gave us back only debt and strip searches to visit grandma.