[Vision2020] Fw: Not like most of us

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

In the New York Times today, David Brooks has written what I think is one of 
the most egregious pieces of Bush apologetics that I have ever seen:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/10/opinion/10BROO.html

Incensed even more than usual, I wrote the following and emailed it to Mr. 
Brooks.  In the interests of our ongoing political discussion, I forward it 
also to you.  BTW, has anyone read Kevin Phillips' new book, American 
Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of 
Bush?  Phillips is a former White House strategist for Richard Nixon and no 
liberal, by any stretch of the imagination.  I think he's now registered as 
an Independent, but he's a cradle Republican.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment

>----- Original Message -----
>From: Joan Opyr
>Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 10:13 AM
>To: dabrooks@nytimes.com
>Subject: Not like most of us
>
>Dear Mr. Brooks:
>
>You begin your column re-casting Mr. Bush's conversation with Tim Russert 
>by saying, "Like most of us, President Bush doesn't have the facility for 
>perfectly expressing his situation in conversation."  Within this simple 
>sentence lie the seeds of what make so many of us desperately unhappy about 
>Mr. Bush's occupancy of the Oval Office.
>
>Unlike most of us, George W. Bush is not a plumber, a factory worker, a bus 
>driver or the guy who asks, "Fries with that?" at the McDonald's 
>drive-thru.  No, he's the President of the United States, and as such he 
>can, should, and must be held to a higher standard.  It's okay to be vague 
>and inarticulate when you're shopping at the Wal-Mart or waiting for an oil 
>change at the Jiffy Lube.  It's not okay when you're the leader of the free 
>world; when you make life and death decisions; when you a lead a country to 
>war using faulty, inadequate, and jazzed up intelligence.
>
>I put myself through college, attending full-time while working three 
>part-time jobs.  I graduated on time, cum laude, and with double pneumonia 
>and a bad case of pleurisy.  I worked hard for my degree, and I worked hard 
>for my good grades, but I despaired as I watched less intellectually able 
>characters skate through their classes taking minimal course loads and 
>maximal incompletes, all given a pass and a buy and the benefit of a doubt 
>because they were rich, they were spoiled, and they had the expectations of 
>privilege.  George W. Bush skated through Yale and Harvard on a gentleman's 
>C.  He skated through the Texas Air National Guard, through Arbusto, Harken 
>Oil, and the Texas Rangers on his family's good name, good connections, and 
>good credit.  Now, unelected, unprepared, and undeserving, he has skated 
>into the presidency of what should be the world's greatest meritocracy.  
>How you can defend that, Mr. Brooks, is beyond me.
>
>Merit: what the founding fathers meant when they said, "No more kings."
>
>Yours sincerely,
>
>Joan Opyr

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