The Oaf of Office

I have always kept a close eye on affairs of state. Years before the term was even coined, I was, no question about it, a "political junkie". It all started, as it did for so many of my generation, with Watergate. Richard M. Nixon resigned in disgrace exactly one week before my sixteenth birthday. When it was all over, I felt sort of let down in an odd way. At the time, I remember thinking that it would never again get as interesting as Watergate, I was wrong. In 1974, in my wildest dreams, I could never have foreseen a walking, talking obscenity by the name of George W. Bush. The Chinese have a saying which is both a blessing and a curse: "May you live in interesting times". Well, we sure do live in interesting times but, at the moment, I don't think it's a blessing.

A year before the election of 2000, Bush's corruption, incompetence and mind-numbing stupidity were all matters of public record. Had most of us bothered to read Molly Ivins' excellent 1999 book, "Shrub: The Short, Happy Political Life of George W. Bush", we wouldn't be having this conversation today. Interpreting the election of this moron as a disaster for the United States was such a no-brainer that in December of 2000, a full month before he even took the oath of office, I predicted on the radio that his administration would end in impeachment. Fortunately someone taped that particular broadcast for me. On the very last day of the Bush presidency, I'll be playing that tape for EVERYONE!

For someone like me, who gets positively giddy watching the corrupt fall of their own weight, flat on their faces, this White House - really, the entire political climate in Washington - is the gift that just keeps giving.

So look on the bright side of things, kids! Sure, the damage that is being done to our once-great country by this disgustingly out of touch administration is incalculable. Sure, our great grand-children, who will never even know our names, will still be paying for the recklessness and greed of our generation. Sure, we'll be living with the mistakes of a brain-dead, hideously dumbed-down electorate for the rest of our natural lives. And yet with all of that (and so much more) taken into consideration, you've got to admit this one, undeniable fact: In terms of pure "stupidity as entertainment", it just doesn't get any better than this. It really doesn't.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net