Some of my fellow classmates seem to think that this hatred is caused by Bush's Christianity, on the basis of John 15:19-20 (which states "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you....If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you"). However, I think this view is incomplete.
To be sure, one aspect of the Bush hatred is religious in nature. According to my teacher, Bush has publicly stated that he seeks guidance from God about policy issues. This no doubt annoys the athiest; to him, this is the equivalent of the President calling the Psychic Hotline for guidance. The athiest begins to question whether Bush is incompetent, at best, or mentally ill, at worst. He wonders why others don't see it this way, and it makes him angry.
Another source of hatred is the perceived loss of rights under Bush--some of which come from the President's religious views. Between the Patriot Act, the "ban" on embryonic stem cell research, and the Federal Marriage Ammendment, Bush sometimes comes off looking like a force against freedom here at home. Taking away peoples rights, or even just looking like you're taking away people's rights, makes the people angry.
The other thing to bear in mind is that after 9/11 there was a vast outpouring of emotional energy, and I think there's still a lot of unresolved emotions left over from that event. People have all this rage and anger bubbling just below the surface that they can't deal with, so they just put it on the guy in charge--Bush. Which is easy because they believe he's either incompetent or mentally ill and therefore probably screwing up the war at a great cost in money and in human lives.
That's my guess. Any other thoughts?
Posted by Blog Jones at November 4, 2004 08:30 PM
| Category: Politics
It's funny, but I bet a lot of these people are not asking themselves a question that they should be: Why did people hate Bill Clinton so much? And Hillary? And John Kerry for that matter?
For them to pretend that Bush is the only national politcal figure who has become the target of hate betrays an alarming lack of sophistication - or perhaps just a great degree of isolation or blindness to their own point of view.
Perhaps you could ask your teacher and fellow students if they really believe Bush is more hated than Clinton was.
Their answers may be very telling.
Posted by: Bob at November 6, 2004 01:39 PMBob, I don't think that by asking this question they are saying Bush is the "only" political figure who has ever been hated. I think they knew why Clinton was disliked. At least by some. I guess the bigger question might relate to who dislikes whom and why.
I think Bill Clinton was disliked because of the whole Lewinsky scandal.
Hillary is hated, although I'm not quite sure why. (Of course I wasn't paying much attention to politics during the Clinton years.) Maybe because of her socialist views a la "it takes a village."
And Kerry was hated by the Swift Boat Vets because he, in their words, betrayed them by saying they were guilty of war crimes. Personally, I don't hate him. (I just liked Bush more.)
I do think there's an unfortunate tendency in politics for people to demonize their opponents. Kerry is not the antichrist, and neither is Bush.
Posted by: Blog Jones at November 6, 2004 11:20 PM