[PEN-L:32618] Bush, moron?

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Published on Thursday, November 28, 2002 by the Toronto Star
Bush Anything But Moronic, According to Author
Dark Overtones in His Malapropisms

by Murray Whyte

When Mark Crispin Miller first set out to write Dyslexicon:
Observations on a National Disorder, about the ever-growing
catalogue of President George W. Bush's verbal gaffes, he meant
it for a laugh. But what he came to realize wasn't entirely
amusing.


Since the 2000 presidential campaign, Miller has been compiling
his own collection of Bush-isms, which have revealed, he says, a
disquieting truth about what lurks behind the cock-eyed leer of
the leader of the free world. He's not a moron at all ? on that
point, Miller and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien agree.

But according to Miller, he's no friend.

"I did initially intend it to be a funny book. But that was
before I had a chance to read through all the transcripts,"
Miller, an American author and a professor of culture and
communication at New York University, said recently in Toronto.

"Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a puppet. I think that Bush is
a sociopathic personality. I think he's incapable of empathy. He
has an inordinate sense of his own entitlement, and he's a very
skilled manipulator. And in all the snickering about his alleged
idiocy, this is what a lot of people miss."

Miller's judgment, that the president might suffer from a bona
fide personality disorder, almost makes one long for the less
menacing notion currently making the rounds: that the White
House's current occupant is, in fact, simply an idiot.

If only. Miller's rendering of the president is bleaker than
that. In studying Bush's various adventures in oration, he
started to see a pattern emerging.

"He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking
punitively, when he's talking about violence, when he's talking
about revenge.

"When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are
fine," Miller said.

"It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion,
or idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious
mistakes."

While Miller's book has been praised for its "eloquence" and
"playful use of language," it has enraged Bush supporters.

Bush's ascent in the eyes of many Americans ? his approval rating
hovers at near 80 percent ? was the direct result of tough talk
following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In those speeches, Bush
stumbled not at all; his language of retribution was clear.

It was a sharp contrast to the pre-9/11 George W. Bush. Even
before the Supreme Court in 2001 had to intervene and rule on
recounts in Florida after a contentious presidential election, a
corps of journalists were salivating at the prospect: a
bafflingly inarticulate man in a position of power not seen since
vice-president Dan Quayle rode shotgun on George H.W. Bush's one
term in office.

But equating Bush's malapropisms with Quayle's inability to spell
"potato" is a dangerous assumption, Miller says.

At a public address in Nashville, Tenn., in September, Bush
provided one of his most memorable stumbles. Trying to give
strength to his case that Saddam Hussein had already deceived the
West concerning his store of weapons, Bush was scripted to offer
an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame
on me. What came out was the following:

"Fool me once, shame ... shame on ... you." Long, uncomfortable
pause. "Fool me ? can't get fooled again!"

Played for laughs everywhere, Miller saw a darkness underlying
the gaffe.

"There's an episode of Happy Days, where The Fonz has to say,
`I'm sorry' and can't do it. Same thing," Miller said.

"What's revealing about this is that Bush could not say, `Shame
on me' to save his life. That's a completely alien idea to him.
This is a guy who is absolutely proud of his own inflexibility
and rectitude."

If what Miller says is true ? and it would take more than just
observations to prove it ? then Bush has achieved an astounding
goal.

By stumbling blithely along, he has been able to push his image
as "just folks" ? a normal guy who screws up just like the rest
of us.

This, in fact, is a central cog in his image-making machine,
Miller says: Portraying the wealthy scion of one of America's
most powerful families as a regular, imperfect Joe.

But the depiction, Miller says, is also remarkable for what it
hides ? imperfect, yes, but also detached, wealthy and unable to
identify with the "folks" he's been designed to appeal to.

An example, Miller says, surfaced early in his presidential
tenure.

"I know how hard it is to put food on your family," Bush was
quoted as saying.

"That wasn't because he's so stupid that he doesn't know how to
say, `Put food on your family's table' ? it's because he doesn't
care about people who can't put food on the table," Miller says.

So, when Bush is envisioning "a foreign-handed foreign policy,"
or observes on some point that "it's not the way that America is
all about," Miller contends it's because he can't keep his focus
on things that mean nothing to him.

"When he tries to talk about what this country stands for, or
about democracy, he can't do it," he said.

This, then, is why he's so closely watched by his handlers,
Miller says ? not because he'll say something stupid, but because
he'll overindulge in the language of violence and punishment at
which he excels.

"He's a very angry guy, a hostile guy. He's much like Nixon. So
they're very, very careful to choreograph every move he makes.
They don't want him anywhere near protestors, because he would
lose his temper."

Miller, without question, is a man with a mission ? and laughter
isn't it.

"I call him the feel bad president, because he's all about
punishment and death," he said. "It would be a grave mistake to
just play him for laughs."

Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited




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Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx