Tuesday, February 22, 2005
(9:34 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
A Note to All Bush Fans
The powerful do not need your help. You should not be expending your energy writing apologetics for people who are going to do whatever they want regardless.My general guideline is to default toward opposing anyone with political power and great wealth, making exceptions for those who use their power and wealth to benefit those who are helpless. So, for example, I support Hugo Chávez, because he is using the apparatus of the state to redistribute wealth to the poor. If that is bad for the economy, then fuck the economy. By my standard, "the economy" does not deserve my support, because it is a codeword for the interests of wealthy people. I am not a wealthy person, and I hope never to be a wealthy person, because I believe that being wealthy is morally wrong. I know that the commonsense position is to recognize that rich people sign my paycheck and to be thankful for the existence of rich people -- because, I mean, you like paychecks, right? I am glad that people get paychecks and are able to work (which is a good in itself, apart from monetary compensation -- something our economic system continually causes us to forget), but the fact that wealthy people control the flow of labor and of money is not something for which I am grateful, but instead a problem that should eventually be corrected.
If it is argued that Bush himself helps the helpless by liberating them from a brutal tyrant, I would need to see some proof that the only way to help those people was by killing 100,000 of them. This is a case where the cure was likely worse than the disease -- and that's the only example where it's even remotely arguable that Bush was helping the helpless.
Therefore, I repeat: President Bush does not need or deserve your support. You would be better off spending your time in other pursuits. He will fight whatever wars he wants, cut whatever taxes and social spending he wants, etc., regardless of whether you support him. So go read a book. Listen to some music. Learn to cook. Pick someone up at the bar. Bush can take care of himself. You have a life to live.
