Deconstructing the Child President

You may not believe me when I say this, but I can't help but feel empathy for George W. Bush; my latest entry will attempt to tell you why.

By now, you are familiar with his less than impressive oratory skills - his propensity to struggle finding the right words and stutter uncontrollably when addressing an audience or faced with a question requiring thought - and have been quick to chide him for his perceived stupidity. You might think me to be mad for coming to his defense, given everything for which he stands, but I feel obligated to say thus: that bumbling, stumbling boy you see on stage is me.

"How on Earth can you compare yourself to, of all people, George W. Bush?" you might ask, and rightfully so, for we seem to be polar opposites of one another. Throughout my life, I have sought to rationalize how I was different from everyone else, how I was not them, and, in a way, I was right; but, as time passed, I witnessed the barriers I erected between myself and others in the process, and learned to see how we are the same, which is why I can sit here today and tell you straight up that I am the same as George W. Bush.

The most obvious place to begin my comparison is his perceived stupidity. Growing up, nearly everyone I met thought me to be utterly dumb until they saw my report card. They came to this conclusion after hearing me speak, that is to say, struggle to speak. I am, in every sense of the word, a lousy orator. I have great difficulty explaining things to people, even when writing; the difference here is, when I write, I have time to ponder and formulate an appropriate response, whereas, with speech, a live audience does not afford me such a luxury. If you and I were to have ourselves a conversation, and you put me on the spot, you would see first-hand my struggles to convey my thoughts to you. I firmly believe I have lost out on many a job opportunity because of this, as one requires a fast tongue to make a favourable impression in the professional world, something I lack.

Reason being for my social ineptitude is my inability to think on the spot and make snap judgments. The wheels in my brain need time to turn, to absorb and process the input before generating the proper output. Further, I have a horrid attention span, frequently drifting off into daydream mode, my mind adrift in a sea of a thousand and one simultaneous thoughts. George W. Bush, I imagine, is probably the same way, and it shows in the speeches and responses to interrogation he delivers. He is, by no means, a "stupid" man - the way I see it, there is no such thing as "stupid" (I intend to elaborate on this mantra in a later entry).

Another reason why I feel empathy for this man is his experience in the shadow of his father and the family empire; the former, particularly, is something to which I can attest. Every one of my twenty-seven-and-a-half years out of my mother's womb have I been under the scrutinizing gaze of my father, though don't tell him, for he will vehemently deny this. I don't blame him for it - we all have expectations as to what our children will do with their lives - but, unbeknownst to him, his expectations of me have not sat comfortably with me, to say the least; to this day, I have never conjured the courage to tell him how I felt about it. I feel George W. Bush may have had (and continue to have) a similar experience with his father, who had such high hopes for the boy who bore his namesake, even had his future mapped out for him. No need for young George to find himself: Father did the finding for him. Nothing left to do but party his sorrows away resign himself to a lifetime of servitude for Father Bush and his gang of suits.

George W. Bush, I doubt you're reading this, but, if fortune happened to put your eyes before my essay, my message to you is thus: break free of your father's mould; it is not who you are. If you have truly accepted Jesus the Christ into your heart, now is the opportunity to repent. Don't let your father continue to pull your strings; he's using you for his personal gain. I know you say the things you say out of ignorance; I know you say these things because you're doing as you're told. Now is the time to stop being your father's son, and start being you. Now is the time to grow up and start taking responsibility, start recognizing you are one with the people whose utter ruin you've ordered. You have the opportunity to attone for your sins. Do you wish to be rememberd as the Child President who wrought death, despair and chaos on the world so his Father and friends could strike it rich?

You may be philosophically opposed to me, but you are just like me.