I believe that Dr. Sanity confuses the use of metonymy in references to Bush's so-called genius. I’ll illustrate what I mean through my view.
I do believe that Bush is, for someone who occupies the presidency, a profoundly dumb man. He seldom seems to know the subtitles of the issues he discusses, he often repeats the same stock phrases, he frequently uses malapropisms, he shows bad judgment when he acts on his own thoughts (e.g. Harriet Miers), he has admitted that he doesn’t like to read and so on. Now I am sure (and I hold the belief of multiple intelligences on general principles) that he is quite intelligent in other ways but not in any of the ways I happened to mention.
In order to disabuse people that this is merely some lefty ragging on a republican president, let me say that I think Bush’s father was a very bright & clever president; Nixon was extremely bright (too bad he was a paranoid)Ford was a lot smarter than most people give him credit for. And I don’t think that all Dems are bright. Gore never impressed me as an intellect, Bayh (sp?) is too dumb to be prez in my view, Kennedy is too overrated as an intelligent Prez, etc.
Now if I say something like “Bush cleverly withheld that part of the information….” I am using metonymy. What I mean is that the Bush administration was clever (and certainly many members of it are quite bright, Cheney for example, Rove is another), not Bush himself. But “Bush” in my statement stands for his administration, just as someone could use the word “the crown” as a shorthand for “the royal government.”
When you lay out all of the facts about Bush's lying, corrupt, treasonous administration Republicans hit the panic button and say, "You just hate Bush."
It must create cognitive dissonance for them to know that Bush is a train wreck, but feel required to defend him in public at all costs.
Though I'd not accuse Ryan of defending Bush at all costs, I do think that occurs with way too many Republicans these days.
Of course, others, such as Bush himself, has moved onto the "dissent means you hate America" theory of dealing with his approval ratings droping. I found his statement that those who oppose the war in Iraq are helping the insurgents very irresponsible and idiotic. Just as most in the anti-war movement have moved beyond blaming the troops, I had hoped war supporters had matured to the point that dissent would be welcomed. Bush has proven otherwise.
Dana, that is an excellent point as to metonymy (those English classes came in handy), but you did not address why people hate the Bush Admnistration so much.
Jason, listen to Mike.
Mike, I think there is a line between dissent and actually hurting the war effort. I also feel that Bush did outline it, showing (for once) a degree of nuance.
Why do people hate the Bush admin so much? In my view, chiefly for two reasons:
1. They feel the admin has lied to them about many matters.
2. Most of Bush's projects have turned out badly.
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