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# George Bush’s continual contempt is why I hate him
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/george-bushs-continual-contempt-is-why-i-hate-him-20030702/
- Published: 2003-07-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:28:11.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Montana, #archive-import

*By Ed Silverstein*

(Editor’s note: Ed Silverstein is enjoying his holiday week basking in the Montana sun while fly fishing the rivers in front of his mountain compound. Not surprisingly, Silverstein didn’t submit a column this week, but the one below printed originally in January isn’t much different from his opinion today.) I don’t want to dwell on the fact that it took confusing, mostly Democratic, Palm Beach and Dade counties ballots (that weren’t counted); questionable, mostly Republican, military mail in ballots (that were counted); the illegal purging of 25,000 mostly black/democratic voters from the rent rolls; Jeb Bush, Kathleen Harris, Ralph Nader and the Supreme Court for George Bush to steal, sorry, I mean win the election. What rankles is that this president, who did not have a mandate, who did not win the popular vote, has pursued an agenda that ignores the desires of a majority of Americans.

Mr. Bush has embraced the far religious right, a group that is personified by Trent Lott who (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) isn’t a racist. This is exemplified by his choice of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a man who lost an election to a dead opponent and who is so far to the right it is a wonder he hasn’t fallen off the edge of the Earth that he probably still believes is flat.

The president has encouraged Ashcroft to trample over our civil rights and, while it may be somewhat justified since 9/11, I have yet to see him draw a line he will not cross with the possible exception of gun rights. For instance, the attorney general will not even consider laws that would require background checks for suspected terrorists buying guns. The president also claims he wants stronger state rights, yet he sat back while Ashcroft did everything he could to obliterate legalization of medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws passed by California and Oregon voters.

But even those home schoolers and speakers in tongues will be impacted by Mr. Bush’s cozy relationship with big business and their millions in campaign contributions. And only but the most naïve must realize that these companies expect a quid pro quo. With Mr. Bush, they’re getting it. It is why we don’t have the right to sue HMO’s when they withhold adequate care. It is why we pay more for prescription drugs than other countries, even though our government pays for much of the research. It is why there is no funding for alternative energy sources that might eventually get us out from under the thumb of religious despots, human rights violators and supporters of terrorism. It is why Bush didn’t have the Federal Energy Commission step in when California was being shafted by the likes of Enron. It is why multi-billion dollar corporations are getting billions in tax breaks. And it is why Bush has begun eroding environmental protections on the quality of our water, air and land all for the benefit of business.

Mr. Bush recently gutted the 1976 National Forest Management Act, making it easier for loggers and more perilous for wildlife. He unilaterally extended the rights of coal mining companies to dump their wastes into steams. He has refused to join the Kyoto Accord to reduce greenhouse gasses. And all of this was accomplished when the Democrats still controlled the Senate and were still able to block some of the president’s more heinous objectives, such as drilling in the Alaska wilderness and increased arsenic in the water. And Ralph, just for the record, there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans.

Then there’s the president’s tax cut, one of the most fiscally irresponsible pieces of legislation ever perpetrated. Can anybody really believe that this money wouldn’t be better spent shoring up Social Security, or providing a prescription drug benefit plan for the elderly? That he had the gall to tell the American people that this cut, which vastly benefits the rich and big business, was not going to cause a deficit shows the true character of the man. What is worse is that Mr. Bush has now fabricated a claim that during the campaign he said that he would never run a deficit except in the case of war, recession or national emergency. He never said it. It’s a lie.

And it is this that I truly hate about George Bush. It is his contempt.

It is with this contempt that he breaks his promise never to touch the Social Security surplus, or about pursuing a nonpartisan agenda, or about not knowing Enron’s Kenneth Lay, or about using drugs. It is there when he plays bait and switch; publicly supporting a popular piece of legislation, such as corporate reform, then quietly lobbying to ensure that it is never passed. It was contempt when he appointed Harvey Pitt as Chairman of the Security & Exchange Commission, a veritable fox guarding the chicken coop, or by breaking a written promise and delaying an appointment of a Democrat to the Federal Election Commission, which allowed the commission to approve loopholes subverting the McCain- Feingold campaign finance law. It is the cloud of secrecy (such as we haven’t seen since Nixon) in which the Bush administration operates under, yet his willingness to undermine privacy protections for the rest of us. And it is there when the president’s Minister of Propaganda, Ari Fleischer, uses intimidation, double speak, loss of access and even lies (much like Saddam Hussein) to fend off the press.

So here we are, at the brink of war with Iraq. Personally, I’m torn. Does Iraq pose a true threat, or are Hussein’s human rights violations sufficient that it is morally imperative that we step in, or is this just an oil grab? What I do know is that I can’t trust my president to give me those answers.

Having said this, I can only hope that I won’t be arrested on suspicion of terrorism without the right to see counsel or family, or even worse, have Christmas visits from the IRS for the rest of my life. (Ed Silverstein is a freelance writer living in Santa Monica.)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 2, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070203.pdf?ref=smdp.com)