What Bush’s award to Ali tells us about Bush

A reader writes:

I read your post about President Bush awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Ali, and then read Daniel Pipes’s story about it. It SO depressing to me to watch a grown man, President Bush, self-destruct like this. Why do “moderates” and “conservatives” seek the approval of liberals and radicals, like the little brother tagging along with the big kids?

I have come to the conclusion that if you are traditional, no matter what you do liberals are going to genuinely, actually and truly, deep down past all the politeness (if they are polite) HATE YOUR GUTS.

I wonder if GW was surprised by Ali’s mockery, or did he dismiss it after a few thoughts? No reasonable person would do that unless they were trying to avoid the simple conclusions they would reach by doing so.

GW is not one of us, but he isn’t one of them either. He needs to choose.

But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit thee out of my mouth.

My reply:

There was a certain justice here, it seems to me. Bush honored this anti-American, and, lo and behold, the anti-American behaved like an anti-American!

However, Bush’s heart is so traitorous I doubt he would have learned any lesson from this.

The reader writes back:

You’re probably right. We have no leadership. We can count on President Bush to eke out a little bit of conservatism for show, but it doesn’t come from his guts. He can’t be trusted ever again. The only way to get good out of him is to hold his feet to the fire of public pressure and not let up.

My reply:

That is so well stated. That is exactly the way conservatives should view him and deal with him for the rest of his presidency.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 02, 2005 12:45 AM | Send