Why Did People Ridicule Bush?

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Clarissa

January 30, 2012

I’m especially appalled at the disingeniousness of people who claim that since college profs used to ridicule Bush’s way of speaking and don’t ridicule Obama’s, this must mean they aim to indoctrinate students in their Liberal ideology.

People who make this silly claim pretend to forget that the reason why the entire world laughed at Bush was that he couldn’t string two sentences along without making some egregiously funny error of grammar or vocabulary. College profs dislike it when people can’t express themselves in their only language. This has nothing to do with anybody’s political agenda. If Obama made the same kind of mistakes in his speeches, everybody would ridicule him, too. He doesn’t, though.

Those who like to find some huge Liberal conspiracy behind every corner would be better served to remember that, sometimes, the simplest explanation is the correct one. It is possible that people made fun of Bush because the way he spoke was funny.

Just think about this logically, folks. It wasn’t Bush’s appearance, family, voice, hair, clothes, etc. that were ridiculed, right? It was very specifically his endless blunders that people made fun of. So maybe if he made no blunders when he spoke, nobody would ridicule him, eh? Does that compute at all? Remember Bush, Sr.? He was also very conservative, wasn’t he? But did he make anybody laugh? Were there calendars and books of his funny verbal gaffes sold on every marketplace in the world?

Maybe people simply laugh when something is funny and not when they need to advance some non-existent Liberal conspiracy.

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30 responses to “Why Did People Ridicule Bush?”

P. rhoeas

January 30, 2012

“Remember Bush, Sr.? He was also very conservative, wasn’t he? But did he make anybody laugh?”

Shitty comedians did get a lot of mileage out of “read my lips, no new taxes”. He also got a reputation as a warmongering but ineffectual wimp. But yeah, he wasn’t the laffs cannon that his kid was. Pretty much every time Dubya opened his mouth you could expect some fresh mumbling inanity. Kept us on our toes for eight years.

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1. nominatissima
  
  January 30, 2012
  
  Those of us studying Japanese/Asian Studies get a lot of mileage out of Bush Sr. puking on the Japanese Prime Minister, but that’s about it.
  
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  1. P. rhoeas
    
    January 30, 2012
    
    Hah yeah! I remember that one. That was a good one.
    
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2. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 30, 2012
  
  There were stand-up comedians who made their entire careers off the guy. And then Palin came around.
  
  Things kind of got boring with Obama who knows all those long words and uses them correctly.
  
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thevenerablecorvex

January 30, 2012

I believe it was Robert Heinlein (an author that any self-respecting conservative should be able to get behind) who first said: “never attribute to villainy that which is satisfactorily explained by incompetence.”

Also: “College profs dislike it when people can’t express themselves in their only language.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember that GWB was also fluent in Spanish, and that boosting the US relationship with Mexico was a major part of his platform prior to 9/11,

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 30, 2012
  
  Bush fluent in Spanish. LOL LOL LOL. I almost peed myself right now. He is the guy whose language competency was limited to squeezing out a really badly pronounced “Hola, amigo” to the leader of a FRENCH-speaking country.
  
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GudEnuf

January 30, 2012

In Texas, George W. Bush was not known as a poor speaker. He spoke fine when he used his Texan accent. But when he ran for president, Bush decided to change his accent to sound more presidential. It backfired, and he ended up sounding like a Texan trying to imitate a Washingtonian.

It is also possible that Bush has dyslexia. He denied it, but his speaking are typical of people with dyslexia.

None of this is to say that Bush is stupid. He got better grades than John Kerry, after all. If you want to ridicule Bush, you should ridicule his political blunders rather than his speaking blunders.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 30, 2012
  
  Who’s talking about his accent??? Have you flipped through a single book of Bushisms? It isn’t his accent that they showcase. I specifically mentioned calendars and books in my post. Can you imagine them having to do with his accent?
  
  Seriously, do people have such short memories?
  
  What is our children learning? Spain is a republic?
  
  Come on, folks, don’t scare me with this memory loss.
  
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n8chz

January 30, 2012

thevenerablecorvex :
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember that GWB was also fluent in Spanish, and that boosting the US relationship with Mexico was a major part of his platform prior to 9/11,

Not sure, but I suspect you may be confusing GWB with his nephew GPB.

FWIW, I really didn’t participate in the Bush-era ridicule. Honest. Scan my internet traffic for that period. I’m nothing if not public and on-the-record. I’m opposed in principle to ridicule, even when a “legitimate target” presents itself.

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Rob F

January 30, 2012

Not to defend Bush, but according to the linguists at the Language Log (the discussions are spread out over a multitude of posts, eg here) Bush never made gaffes more often than anyone else. Bushisms basically arose because plenty of people hated him and plenty of people combing over his every word. Basically, there’s plenty of legitimate criticisms to make of Bush, and thus there is no need to use the Google to misunderestimate his verbal fluency 😉

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 30, 2012
  
  I never combed through anything for lack of time. Still, every time I happened to hear him say anything, it was extremely hilarious. I dislike Ron Paul passionately and Mitt Romney too, but I don;t find anything they say to be funny.
  
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nominatissima

January 30, 2012

P. rhoeas :
Hah yeah! I remember that one. That was a good one.

It even achieved eternal fame by getting referenced on The Simpsons: “I’ll ruin you like a Japanese banquet!”

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Tim

January 31, 2012

“Maybe people simply laugh when something is funny and not when they need to advance some non-existent Liberal conspiracy.”

You sure those people don’t see fun as a liberal invention to keep them from pulling themselves up by their bootstraps? I mean, I can hardy imagine any of their candidates having fun riding a rollercoaster, for example.

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AnonymousDog

January 31, 2012

There used to be a guy in the US Senate from one of the New England states who was pretty inarticulate, and reportedly so dumb he couldn’t even buy his way through Harvard. His prose, when not supplied by one of his rich and powerful family’s paid retainers, was worse than Bush’s,

But, since this now deceased Senator was regarded by America’s ‘intellectual’/educational elite as being on the ‘correct’ side of the issues, his shortcomings in speaking(along with his other human failings, which were numerous) were overlooked by the people who agreed with him politically.

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1. David Bellamy
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  But, when he was scripted, he was eloquent. He was as you describe only when speaking extemporaneously. GWB could not speak any better when he had a text in front of him.
  
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2. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  “There used to be a guy in the US Senate from one of the New England states who was pretty inarticulate, and reportedly so dumb he couldn’t even buy his way through Harvard. His prose, when not supplied by one of his rich and powerful family’s paid retainers, was worse than Bush’s,”
  
  – This is very cryptic. Who is this guy?
  
  My suspicion here is that a Senator rarely gets the entire country to hear them like a President is.
  
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AnonymousDog

January 31, 2012

This Senator did because he was a close relative of a former president. For many years he was the front man for pretty much every big liberal cause in the US Senate. He, and the other political members of his family(and there were/are several) were regarded by the press as good looking, and possessed of ‘charisma’. And fawned over accordingly.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  I know, I know, it’s Kennedy!
  
  Why do people have to be so cryptic with a foreigner, I ask. 🙂
  
  Honestly, I never got the whole Kennedy-mania. But then again, I’m a foreigner, albeit a pleasant one. 🙂
  
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2. Patrick
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  To be fair, as I recall, Senator Ted was only incoherent when drunk. In those rare moments of sobriety, he was very astute and well spoken.
  
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David Bellamy

January 31, 2012

This guy is Edward M. Kennedy, I suspect. If not, I have no idea.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  Oh, David Bellamy already clarified it. Thank you, David.
  
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David Bellamy

January 31, 2012

Certainly lots of women found him irrestibly charismatic. As they did his brothers.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  This is a mystery to me. I mean the charismatic part.
  
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  1. Private Miss
    
    January 31, 2012
    
    It’s always been a mystery to me as well–the charismatic part and I’m not a foreigner either. I believe these people are shallow and the attraction lies in the power part. Given that I’m a registered Democrat it would have been considered–I’m certain–very disloyal for even having such thoughts, let alone saying them. I’ve always been more independent anyway.
    
    There are plenty of Senator’s who are neither charismatic nor eloquent speakers. Ditto for a good many people who occupy public offices. Some people just are not very comfortable giving speeches or in front of a camera or the media. I believe there is a video which shows a Democrat–Senator who made some comment about falling off an island, etc.,–talk about sounding stupid and uneducated. They just don’t tend to get the air-time and attention that a President does.
    
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Isabel

January 31, 2012

I don’t know who you are referring to in the OP, but if it’s me I never said any of this. Honestly, there can be no nuance or complexity in any arguments can there? I wasn’t talking about his “gaffes”. But for the record, his appearance, accent etc were definitely part of the whole shtick when it comes to that form of mockery.

During the 90’s I was an active anti drug war activist. My last activism was with a group trying to advocate for women, mostly mothers, who were sentenced to prison for decades because of their association with drug dealers (usually their boyfriends) who got lighter sentences because they were able to trade information, which the women didn’t posses. Usually their offense was something like answering the phone.

By this decade working Americans were routinely required to provide samples of their bodily fluids for potential employers, who could look for evidence of unapproved weekend activities. Police corruption was through the roof. Our civil liberties were rapidly eroding.

How did the average liberal progressive academic react to this? Or liberal progressive activist, or comedian? With a concerned expression, a shake of the head, and then a big yawn. No, our civil liberties were fine until Bush signed the patriot act! then the outrage was through the roof.

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1. David Bellamy
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  By this decade working Americans were routinely required to provide samples of their bodily fluids for potential employers, who could look for evidence of unapproved weekend activities. Police corruption was through the roof. Our civil liberties were rapidly eroding.
  
  How did the average liberal progressive academic react to this? Or liberal progressive activist, or comedian? With a concerned expression, a shake of the head, and then a big yawn. No, our civil liberties were fine until Bush signed the patriot act! then the outrage was through the roof.
  
  I know several [non-illicit-drug using] people who remained unemployed rather than submit to drug tests which they considered a violation of privacy.
  
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2. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  I wasn’t in the country in the 90ies but had I been I would have definitely supported this important activist endeavor.
  
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Private Miss

January 31, 2012

I actually enjoy some of the comedians. In fact, sometimes they get them so pitch-perfect it’s almost a let down to watch the real thing. SNL reruns segments on the presidents. I find those entertaining, especially the one’s about Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

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NancyP

January 31, 2012

Nu-ku-lar: “nuclear” 1. pertaining to fissile atoms, radioactivity, eg. “nuclear missile”, “nuclear power plant”, “nuclear medicine”, etc. An American Southern (broadly considered) regional pronunciation, mostly used by speakers of low educational attainment.

Dubya Bush undoubtedly knew the correct pronunciation, but used the regional pronunciation to conceal his upper class origins and masquerade as “the common man”.

The nu-ku-lar pronunciation is fairly common in Missouri (and undoubtedly in Southern Illinois, culturally similar to the South), also in Arkansas, Texas, and the rest of the former Confederate states.

I don’t mind it when the telephone operator pages overhead “code blue, Nu-ku-lar Medicine, ground floor”. I do mind it when a Ivy college-educated wealthy man from a wealthy family uses the pronunciation.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  January 31, 2012
  
  You think he did the “nukular” thing on purpose??? I never suspected that.
  
  As far as Southern Illinois, I still haven’t learned to pronounce the word ‘Southern” the way I should. Everybody giggles. 🙂
  
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