When you get right down to it, George W. Bush seems like a hell of a guy. He smiles a lot, he's very devoted to his lovely family and he can probably drink us all under the table, or at least he could back in his heyday. He's really strong in his convictions, and he and God seem to have a nice relationship. And he still has those boyish good looks.
Those are the reasons the American people like him. He may have created a monster deficit, gotten this country into a major quagmire in Iraq and lost a bunch of jobs, but in the end, Bush just seems swell. You may disagree with what he says, or you may have no idea. But for a majority of Americans, that really doesn't matter. There's a reason the Miss America pageant got rid of that part where all the contestants say they want to be happy and achieve world peace.
Miss America is not the smartest woman in the United States, nor is she the most talented. But, at least among those who are willing to walk across a stage, she is the most beautiful.
Just like Bush. The majority of Americans can't tell a budget deficit from a credit card debt. But they do know very well that they like a Southern gentleman more than they like a Northern aristocrat. NASCAR driver Darrel Waltrip, who painted a Bush-Cheney advertisement on his car, put it very nicely. \I'm not a big issue guy,"" he said. ""I do know that when John Kerry goes home, he goes to his mansion in Massachusetts. When George W. Bush goes home, he goes to his farm in Crawford, Texas.""
Nevermind that George W. Bush's farm in Crawford, Texas covers thousands of acres and has nary a subsistence crop growing on it. Bush has a down-home Southern drawl, and Kerry, God forbid, is fluent in French.
The American people want someone who is like them. They voted for a guy who is kind of an idiot because the average American is kind of an idiot. They voted for a guy who prays a lot because the average American prays a lot. They voted for someone they saw as a real, honest-to-goodness, everyday guy, because the average American sees himself as a real, honest-to-goodness, everyday guy.
The amount of people that will be helped by Bush being president is very small. If either candidate could have helped the middle class, it was Kerry. If either candidate could have pulled us out of Iraq, it was Kerry. If either candidate could have balanced the budget, it was Kerry. Not that he necessarily would have done any of these things; indeed, he probably would have fallen short on many fronts. But with Bush, we know what we're getting, and it sure isn't anything all that different than what he has already done.
For those people who may benefit from another four years of the same, more power to you. My friend Al voted for Bush because, knowing he was going to inherit his father's business sometime in the near future, he felt the current tax code would make it easier to for him to do what he had to do to achieve success. I applaud that Al had some convictions other than something like, ""I used to be an alcoholic. George W. Bush used to be an alcoholic. Huzzah!""
But for every Al, there are about five Darrel Waltrips, except most people who think like Darrel Waltrip don't make millions of dollars driving a really sweet car around in circles. Many Bush voters come from trailer parks and work more than one job just to feed their kids. Don't think for a second they voted for the president based on his tax policy.
The average American may be able to identify with Bush, but most people won't benefit from his presidency. We can hope he realizes a politicially polarized country that is more than willing to spend a whole lot more money than it has can't sustain itself for long. But the reality is that the man came into office the first time claiming to be a ""compassionate conservative"" and ""a uniter, not a divider."" He then proceeded to be anything but that, and most Americans didn't even vote for him.
Now that he is the first president to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote since his father 16 years ago, now that Colin Powell, the secretary of state who was the administration's only real voice of reason on foreign policy, has stepped down, now that the Republicans have picked up seats in both houses of Congress, more of the same is about the best we can hope for.
So I say good job to George Bush, who will retain his title of Mr. America for another term. He may not know what he's talking about, but, damn, is he pretty.
Sam Berns is a senior majoring in political science and religious studies.
