MysteriousFaith

Bush on the Couch

New York Magazine has a collection of very short essays (paragraphs really) which caricaturizes what it is we are seeing from President Bush. Surrounded by the failure of his vision, his public persona has only recently shown any apologies for his conduct or decisions. Where does this one-dimensional stubbornness come from? When analysis has left you drained, and irony seems apropos to the task of lightening the moment, check out these pieces. Some of my favorites:

Jonathan Alter, Newsweek - You don’t have to be Freud to see that Bush has snubbed his father’s closest advisers (who turned out to be right) and hired men who held his father in contempt, like Don Rumsfeld (who turned out to be wrong). It was no big surprise that he rejected the Baker-Hamilton report. As with many former substance abusers, he became fanatically disciplined—maybe the most disciplined man to hold the office. But with discipline came rigidity. Former drunks sometimes fear that if they change their lives too abruptly after straightening out, they’ll pull a thread on their recovery and sink back into chaos. They never admit their helplessness, so when they succeed in staying sober anyway, it helps their confidence. It’s a reflection of their will to stay the course. This is too simple an explanation for Bush’s failures as president, but it helps illuminate his mind-set.

Melvin Laird, counselor to President Nixon - Bush is an inveterate optimist with a strong sense of self. He wants Congress and Americans to give him the time, resources, and freedom of action to get the job done in Iraq as he sees fit. But the result is that the public and Congress are left out of the thinking process.

Joshua Wolf Shenk,author of Lincoln’s Melancholy - No matter the external reality, Bush maintains a confident—even aggressive—stance.

This isn’t merely an attitude; it’s a fixed belief that confidence is right and skepticism wrong. In this sense, he is the apotheosis of an ideology that afflicts the culture at large—that an optimist is a good person. He is the optimist-in-chief. But another phrase applies in his case: “pathological optimism.” Refusing to engage reality only works as long as reality is kept at bay.

Lincoln showed another path. His insistence on grappling with the worst conceivable scenarios—and candidly assessing errors—was crucial to his strength, not least because it drew his allies closer to him at times of trial. Perhaps Bush’s presidency faces a crisis not just because times are hard but also because he won’t see the hard times for what they are.

Deepak Chopra, President of Alliance for a New Humanity - One of the most unnerving things about George Bush is his smile. As the situation in Iraq has grown more calamitous, the smile hasn’t disappeared. It’s become markedly patronizing, saying, “I’m right on this. The rest of you just don’t understand.” A pitying smile … Having accomplished little in his life, he nevertheless expected the highest rewards. He wanted victory to come easily, as his birthright. When it did come in 2000—to the astonishment even of his family—the smirk said, “I told you so.” His smile turns into a go-to-hell smirk whenever Bush hears a hostile question. He’s shielding himself from impudence while reining in his own simmering anger … Bush’s smile also tells us, almost guilelessly, that he isn’t suffering inside. This fact maddens his critics the most. Lincoln suffered terribly during the Civil War, as Churchill did in World War II. Bush has to remind himself to put on a sad face when he talks about his war. The black dog, as Churchill called his depression, doesn’t nip at this president’s heels. Have we seen a more inappropriate smile from any politician since Nixon? I doubt it.

Franklin Foer, editor of The New Republic - Where Nixon was a barrel of laughs, the Bush presidency simply isn’t very funny. There are no masterful Bush impersonators. Nixon’s comedic appeal resided in his dark interior life. When he spoke in public, you knew that you weren’t getting the full Nixon. Back in the private quarters of the White House, he was famously brooding over his enemies, sipping scotch, and talking to the portraits on the wall. The fact that the leader of the Free World was neurotic, paranoid, and palpably creepy made him a genuinely excellent premise for jokes. Bush has none of these qualities. Even as his entire presidency has tanked, he shows no signs of acquiring psychological complexities. He remains the “simple,” “resolute” man that his hagiographers once venerated. If you put Bush on the couch, I’m afraid he’d still take a nap.

Susan Anderson, professor of psychology, NYU - As haunting as events in Iraq have been, debate in the White House remains in perpetual lockdown. This may in fact mirror what goes on inside the president’s mind. This same lockdown may exert a chokehold on inconsistent thought, complexity, and contradiction, sequestering such things away in quarantine to enable an unsullied inner confidence and a fixed worldview impervious to external facts. When people are under threat, they tend to hold ever more tightly to their pre-existing beliefs. Self-esteem can be inflated as well, leaving one emboldened against criticism.

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• January 29, 2007

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