alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

July 10, 2007

MacBush

by AltHippo @ 11:24 pm. Filed under Bush

Who can really add anything to this brilliantly succinct look at what motivates Bush? I can’t:

People ask what we’re doing in Iraq. And you can answer in a hundred ways and in a thousand shades of literalism to metaphor. But at some level we’re in Iraq because President Bush wanted a parade. It’s not hard to imagine how he must have imagined it. A withdrawal of most American troops from a staunchly allied pro-American Iraq. Waving flags. Heartfelt thanks and vindication for the president who had the guts and character to see it through.

Every so often I try to pretend that I’m playing the character George W. Bush in a theatrical production. It’s a very difficult exercise because you need to get inside the head of who you are playing. You need to answer the basic questions that the theater demands: Who am I? What do I want? What’s stopping me?

The way that Josh Marshall answers these questions are pretty close to the way I’d answer them, again assuming that I was playing the part of George W. Bush.

Who am I? The king.
What do I want? To be acknowledged. To be respected. That I should be celebrated as the greatest king ever.
What’s stopping me? The naysayers. The liberal media, Democratic Party pretenders to the throne, back-stabbers in my own party.

Over the years I’ve tried to come up with a good analogy in classic drama as a way of understanding the Bush administration. While Shakespeare’s tragedies come to mind, particularly Julius Caesar and Macbeth, it’s probably better to look at this as a drama outside of these traditions.

The Bush years may not have an approximate parallel, either in the theater, or in history.

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2 Responses to “MacBush”

  1. KathyF Says:
    July 11th, 2007 at 3:38 am

    I’ve always liked the Emperor’s New Clothes analogy, myself, which is certainly outside the traditions of MacBeth and Julius Ceasar, but perhaps bears some similarities to Twelfth Night.

  2. AltHippo Says:
    July 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pm

    The Emperor’s New Clothes (one of my favorites) certainly gets at the vainity.

    What it doesn’t get is the destructive nature of the Bushies. Here, I’m thinking in particular of the twisting of information to get us into Iraq.

    Even the Emperor in the story knew that he was unfit for his post- which is why he can’t see the new suit of clothes. I don’t get that Bush even has a basic idea of what his limitations are. I definitely don’t get that he sees the amount of destruction that he’s caused.

    I’ll have to go re-read Twelfth Night.

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