Unqualified Bush

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE (LETTER)

.E. Fisher
Published September 24, 2005


Chicago -- A message to all conservative Republicans who keep attacking liberals who criticize President Bush.

Contrary to your accusations, most of us liberals do not hate the president.

He would be harmless enough if he weren't the most powerful man in the world.

Our concern is that he is the poster child for the Peter Principle, which postulates that people will advance to a level in their organization where they are incompetent.

Since Bush is the most powerful man in the world, that's very scary. The strength of our feelings about the president would be mitigated if we felt he had done even one thing correctly since he was first elected, but he has failed in every arena:

- He created No Child Left Behind and then failed to support it.

- He has trashed laws protecting the environment, jeopardizing our and our children's health.

- His prescription drug program for the elderly will not help them much but will enrich drug companies.

- He gives campaign contributors plum jobs they are unqualified for.

- He continues to reward rich people at poor people's expense via his tax cuts.

- In cutting taxes, he has eviscerated key governmental programs.

- He has pushed our idebtedness to all-time highs.

- He declared war on a country that constituted no threat to us for completely bogus reasons.

- He continues to act as if global warming isn't a reality in the face of overwhelming evidence.

- He restricted our freedoms to improve our national security but has not accomplished this.

- He continues to undermine the traditional separation of church and state.

As far as Katrina is concerned, it goes without saying that we don't hold Bush responsible for the hurricane itself. To suggest otherwise is disingenuous. We merely point out that, if Bush had approved sufficient funding so the levees could be reconstructed instead of granting tax cuts to the wealthy; if he had hired competent people to oversee the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and if he hadn't sent so many national guardsman overseas, the catastrophe would not have been nearly as bad as it was.

While we recognize that the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana share responsibility for what happened, neither the city nor the state has the resources to do what the federal government can do.

The truth is, our emperor-president isn't wearing any clothing and increasingly people are starting to recognize this. Unfortunately there are none so blind as the conservative Republicans who will not see.

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune

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