Garrison Keillor: The Little Man

[kskiska]

History will remember Bush as an incompetent and incurious man overwhelmed by a world too big for him.

Feb. 08, 2006 | The headline of the AP story was "Bush Urges Confidence in His Leadership" -- which is like "Author Says Memoir Is True" or "FEMA Offers Contingency Plan" -- and I didn't bother to read further. The Old Brush Cutter never got the knack of urging, and whenever he tries, he looks small and petulant, like a cartoon of himself. He photographs well in formal situations, and he is good at keeping a low profile when necessary, which is a key to survival in politics, as in boxing, but when it comes to the hortatory, he gets all hissy and squinty.

(snip)

Republicans believe in smaller government and deregulation, but it takes more and more of their friends and loved ones to not regulate us, and who can blame them? Washington is the perfect place for the slacker child who flubbed his way through college and flopped in business and whom friends and family kept having to prop up -- find him a government job. Government service is a broadening experience. It certainly has been for Mr. Bush. He has traveled to China and Europe and other places that never interested him before. He has come into contact with the poor people of New Orleans in a way that never would have occurred to him in his earlier years. He has met opera singers and jazz musicians and journalists. This is all good.

And he has met the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and visited with young people horribly wounded in the war, which would be a soul-searing experience for any commander. To see a beautiful young woman who must now live without an arm as a direct result of decisions you made -- who could see this and not scour the depths of your conscience?

(snip)

So why does he still seem so small, our president? In his presidential library, he'll be portrayed as Abraham Lincoln after Chancellorsville and FDR after Corregidor, but to most of us, the crisis in Washington today stems from a man intellectually and temperamentally unequipped to rise to the challenge. Most of us sense that when, decades from now, the story of this administration comes out, it will be one of ordinary incompetence, of rigid and incurious people overwhelmed by events in a world they don't dare look around and see.

more…
http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/02/08/keillor/

[ClayZ]

1. Bravo! K & R

:applause:




:kick:

[yellowcanine]

10. "when it comes to the hortatory, he gets all hissy and squinty. " Hail to

the master of the eloquent jab, Garrison Keillor. That is priceless. He gives Molly Ivins a run for her money.

[ixion]

2. great read

Keilor is an American Classic. :applause:

[Hekate]

3. After reading about the KB&R detention camps and upcoming war with Iran...

... I certainly hope for all our sakes that Mr Keillor is right, and that the Bush cabal is too damn incompetent to complete their overthrow of our democracy and ruination of our country.

Tonight's DU reading has been anything but restful, but it's always a pleasure to read or hear Garrison Keillor's musings. Thanks for the post.

Hekate

[kiraboo]

8. I fear that the bush admistration is as incompetent and anti-intellectual

as at least half the citizens of this country. I admit it: I have lost hope. Bush was elected because he is "one of us." He epitomizes the american: brash, overconfident, undereducated and proudly ignorant of much of what goes on in the world. I truly fear that we have the leader we deserve.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. Wow, our present day Will Rogers strikes again...

Look at this snippet...re: gwb's visiting troops in the hospital.

And to suffer pangs of conscience even as you exhort the public to have confidence in you -- this has to be an interesting experience. Your mistakes are responsible for terrible suffering, but you stand among your victims and urge public support for your policies as a sign of support for the people those policies have injured. This is a plot worthy of Shakespeare.

Here's to you, Mr.Keillor :toast: MKJ

[katinmn]

5. K&N

:)

[yurbud]

6. this has been true from the start and the media treats this Quayle like

he's FDR.

[rodeodance]

7. His wife is from Denmark--wonder if he will comment on the cartoon

issue. I believed he also lived there for a while before he came back to Minnesota.

[Lisa]

9. "hissy and squinty" -- perfect!

The petulant (and peevish) president! Although I hate to admit it, the "little man" descriptor does fit, in the literary context. I'm rather short myself, and have always rebelled against the notion that physical size is somehow an indicator of adequacy/competence (just as I know that a tall person isn't necessarily aggressive or bullying). But I recognize that there are cultural conventions.

p.s. others have pointed out that from a dramatic point of view, the Bush persona is rather interesting (as an example of a tragic situation) -- maybe not operatic, but verging on Shakespearian, at least. He exemplifies traits which were missing from Nixon (Tricky Dick may have been duplicitous and paranoid, but he wasn't willfully ignorant), and Ford (who had an undeserved reputation for clumsiness, but he wasn't incompetent). I imagine that writers and dramatists will have a field day with him, in the decades -- possibly centuries -- to come.

I swear, the only thing that gets me through a Bush speech is imagining that he is really an actor playing a role (like Kevin Kline pretending to play the piano badly in the Cole Porter movie -- or Stephen Colbert pretending to be an arrogant blowhard).