Bush vs. West- The Battle of Idiots, Part 1

I find that the moment I try to keep my political comments to myself, someone does something just ridiculous enough to make my comments necessary. I can absolutely say that I pull no punches when it comes to the office of the Presidency- I have written about some of my disappointment with a President that I have voted for and those I have not voted for. I think that it is important to be able to intelligently show dissent; it is part of the political process. Dissent is the reason that “proper” people don't discuss politics at dinner parties, right? That has definitely been a rule at some dinner parties I have attended. But dissent is also the reason that people are so passionate about their parties, their candidates, their own agendas. I am going to not make friends with some of my posts... I am ok with that, so let's get into it.

I am currently watching Matt Lauer's interview with former President Bush on my iPhone. I have to say, I wasn't as disgusted as I thought I would be. I have never been a Bush supporter (no secret). I don't like how he “won” the election in 2000; I don't like his policies and I am not a supporter of his tactics- but that is a completely different post. Seeing this interview, I must say that former President Bush is a little more put together than I thought. Often I see him as a bumbling idiot, and currently I only seeing him as...an idiot, so at least he has dropped out of the bumbling category, right?! I think he is very calculating, or at least the people who run him are, and I think that comes to light in this interview. So which parts pissed me off? There were a few. One stood out a little more than the rest. So there he is, one on one with Matt Lauer, reflecting on his eight years of...ruling. His Presidency started on a bad note with the election against Al Gore, was in its infancy when September 11th happened, the United States reputation was obliterated with the affair at Abu Ghraib, Hurricane Katrina demolished three states (and some citizens still haven't bounced back from that), he was directly responsible for starting and continuing TWO wars in the Middle East- which is costing us trillions of dollars TODAY, and an economic recession that is the second worst financial pitfall in American history (as I see it). However, when asked about his worst moment of his Presidency, Bush didn't mention any of those.

When asked about the time surrounding Hurricane Katrina, President Bush said that the lowest point in his Presidency was when Kanye West said that he “didn't care about Black people.” Dude, what? What the hell is he smoking? Are you kidding me? All the shit that happened when he was in office, all the names that he was called (mostly by me, I admit), all of the destruction that was seen during his Presidency, and THE worst moment in his eyes was when a rapper said that he didn't care about Black people? Ok. This shows exactly how ass backwards George W. Bush is. Kanye is a nobody. He is one rich guy that showed his dislike for another rich guy. George says that Kanye called him a “racist.” Hell, maybe he is. Millions of Americans are still presently suffering from the wrath of hurricane Katrina, five years later. We live in the richest country in the world and after five years, parts of New Orleans still have not been rebuilt. Thousands of displaced people from New Orleans are Black. They didn't receive the help that they should from the state or the feds. The response from the federal government was lacking, which Bush admits. Why is that? Where were they? Spending tons of money and sending more troops to our never ending war fronts? Bailing out banks? Does that make Bush a racist?

I am not one to overuse the race card. I don't (necessarily) think that Bush is racist. I think he was and is completely shortsighted in his approach- to most things and especially the Katrina disaster. In 2005, nothing should have come before fixing the three states hardest hit by the waters of Katrina. There is no excuse that five years later, whole neighborhoods still lie vacant, carrying the stench of death and hopelessness- no matter who used to inhabit those houses. There is no excuse that after five years, people- Black, White or other- should be sleeping in FEMA trailers. Finally, after five years, there is no excuse for people to still be waiting on the government to do what they said they were going to do. Where is the pledged help? What happened to all the money raised? Where is the urgency to help your fellow man?

So, at worst, Bush is a racist and at best, he is an elitist that doesn't care about poor people. The fact that the people who are still displaced are poor and MOSTLY Black is something he *might* want to look at... Hmmm? I wonder if, after reading this blog post, former President Bush will say that this was the hardest moment of his life after the White House?