What Happened to Bush?
Published in La Repubblica
(Italy) on 8 April 2009
by Michele Serra (link to original)
(Italy) on 8 April 2009
by Michele Serra (link to original)
Translated from
by Claudia Pellicano.
Edited by Christie Chu.
What happened to Bush? What happened to the retired warmonger, his military lobbies, and the alleged moral, religious and political supremacy? Obama, as everybody can see, has practically overturned the foundations of the American politics: He talks about disarmament, cooperation with allies and dialogue with Islam, in the name of an America that doesn't demand - and maybe doesn't even want - the difficult and unpopular role of "owner of the world."
In the face of such a quick and overall easy end to "'Bushism," the sudden silence of the massive and powerful crowd of people who praised him (even here in Italy), and the way the snarling and vain exhibition of moral and religious supremacy by the theo-conservatives was forgotten, you need to ask yourself what kind of consistency that ideology really had. It was blown away first by the liberalism crisis, then by the believable politeness of a colored outsider who tried to explain, successfully, that pompousness and presumption aren't useful and don't succeed.
We didn't hear a single word of reflection or self-criticism (wishful thinking!) by the group, including some Italians, which led our friend Bush to catastrophe. Some of them now want to cheer for Obama just as they applauded Bush, but we don't buy their sincerity.
In the face of such a quick and overall easy end to "'Bushism," the sudden silence of the massive and powerful crowd of people who praised him (even here in Italy), and the way the snarling and vain exhibition of moral and religious supremacy by the theo-conservatives was forgotten, you need to ask yourself what kind of consistency that ideology really had. It was blown away first by the liberalism crisis, then by the believable politeness of a colored outsider who tried to explain, successfully, that pompousness and presumption aren't useful and don't succeed.
We didn't hear a single word of reflection or self-criticism (wishful thinking!) by the group, including some Italians, which led our friend Bush to catastrophe. Some of them now want to cheer for Obama just as they applauded Bush, but we don't buy their sincerity.
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