High Anxiety
I thought of Mel when Bush leapt from his stool in the second debate and threatened to rip off Charlie Gibson’s head, but at the last moment restrained himself and marched around the stage bellowing a roll call of his coalition cohort instead:
Tony Blair! Sergio (sic) Berlusconi!
(Don’t forget Poland, Mr. President)
I am not forgetting Poland!
Aleksander FUCKING KWASNIEWSKI!
The contrast between Bush’s amped up performance in St. Louis and the first night in Coral Gables, when he slumped behind his lectern and whined like a disheveled sock puppet, was so great that a second thought popped into my mind:
Is this guy on drugs?
Specifically, is this guy on crank?
Is that what the shouting, aggressive posture, clenched jaw, foot-tapping, winking, and twitching were all about?
Is the White House Dr. Feelgood pumping him full of some vitamin/amphetamine mix to replace the energy and conviction that a death spiral of inadequacy, error, and political crisis have drained out of him?
It would not be the first time in Bush’s life that he has turned to chemical antidotes for fear and failure. His “lost years” travails with alcohol are widely known; his involvement with cocaine just as widely rumored.
More recently, an article in Capitol Hill Blue - quickly excoriated by lefty bloggers not wishing to appear absurdly and irresponsibly partisan — claimed that the prez was taking powerful anti-depressants.
Anti depressants? That looked like Coral Gables Bush.
St. Louis Bush: well, that was something else.
Not a contradiction in terms. Two sides of the same coin.
Anti-depressants or barbiturates to get that desperately needed sleep at night; amphetamines to shake off the haze next morning and climb the mountain of another miserable day.
It’s hard work being George W.Bush.
Like it was hard work being Elvis.
To my untrained eye, Bush looks like Elvis, declining into confusion and paranoia as he desperately yoyos the meds searching for that magic combination of reds, greens, time, and mood that will allow Bush to act and feel like Bush for a few hours a day.
I guess every generation gets the Elvis it deserves.
In Bush, we get the 1970s Elvis, a pathetically addled mix of mediocrity and pomposity and self-delusion.
So the media focus on “Furious George” to some extent misses the point.
George Bush’s anger, malice, and vindictiveness are well-known, and are nothing new.
What was new in St. Louis was that Bush seemed constitutionally (and perhaps chemically) unable to keep his usual anger in check.
That’s why I find it interesting that Bush postponed his annual August physical until after the election.
Maybe George, like a lot of dry drunks, is subconsciously recalling and recapitulating a superficially successful strategy that that probably got him out of a pharmacologically induced hole in 1972:
Blowing off his Texas Air National Guard physical.
If this is the case, and our prez is fleeing his inadequacies and insecurities with the same strategy of self-medication, self-destructive behavior, denial, and delusion that got him out of his unwelcome flyboy obligations…
…but this time on a world stage with the future of the planet at stake…
…then his erratic, aggressive behavior is truly a matter of High Anxiety...
…for all of us.
Copyright 2004 Peter Lee
Peter Lee is the creator of the anti-war satire and commentary website Halcyon Days. He can be reached at peter@halcyondays.info.
