Why I want Bush to win

MANY people see George W Bush as the embodiment of all that is bad about America – he is an ignorant southern hillbilly, a backward-thinking religious zealot, an unenlightened and offensive socially inept idiot and a right-wing ultra-conservative.

Worst of all, the man is a power-hungry imperial tyrant who is the “poodle” of big business and completely unaware of the delicacy of foreign cultures and international relations – a danger to world peace. Yet any serious analysis of the man will prove that he is in fact none of these things.He is not by any means an intellectual, the man is not nearly as clever as say Bill Clinton, yet he does have an innate moral intelligence.He surrounds himself with some of the most cerebral people in the country in order to make up for his deficiencies:his chief political advisor, Karl Rove, is not nicknamed “two brains” for nothing.This ability to recognise his own shortcomings is certainly admirable in the most powerful man in the world.It must be remembered that Ronald Reagan, the most popular and successful President of modern times, was also no brain-box.George Bush is a religious man (though this is certainly exaggerated in order to appeal to the religious wing of the Republican Party), but although I myself am not religious I find this characteristic appealing.It means that he has a strong sense of morality, of what is the right thing to do for the world and his people.It gives him a sense of purpose and responsibility if he knows that he is answerable to God.He did not invade Iraq for oil or out of some personal vendetta but because he believed in the justness of the war.And some of the most intelligent people in the world agree with him.In public he often comes across as brash and dim-witted, especially to foreigners.Yet the man is from Texas, that is his style and those who have met him often remark on his humility, his personal warmth and his openness to debate and criticism.He is right-wing in many of his views but he is by no means a traditional conservative.Bush has increased public-spending, pushing up the medical aid budget and giving cut-price medicines to pensioners.A conservative would have not interfered in global politics.As we have seen, this is untrue and as far as his interest abroad only for American benefit goes, Bush has presided over the biggest charitable donation in history to combat AIDS.Yet it is his escapades abroad that draw him the most flak.The war in Iraq is enormously unpopular and is failing on many levels.Yet Bush was right to invade.He is a man of the 21st century, a man who believes that the post cold-war world is a dangerous place and the appeasement of the 1990s is not a viable policy.He is an optimist who believes in the fundamental values of democracy.He wants to spread democracy the Middle East in order to give Muslims a chance of fair government.America is, as the French call it a “hyper-puissance”, the most powerful force the world has ever seen.George Bush believes that after 9/11 he has the chance to use this force for global good, to promote democracy throughout the world and make sure that it is a safer place for all.As far as Iraq is concerned:before there was a murderous tyrant, now he is gone and now there is a chance to build a viable democracy, even if it does take a while.I believe in this interventionist ideology that is driving George Bush and furthermore I trust and believe in the man himself to govern a dangerous world as only America can do.What is wrong with the idea of a global policeman if the policeman is fundamentaly just, furthermore nobody else will or can do the job that needs to be done.It is common knowledge that Europeans favour a multilateralist approach (using the UN), but this is only because they lack the power to do things in a more effective unilateralist way (on their own), it has nothing to do with enlightened “Kantian” ethics.I have no gripe with the flip-flopping Frenchman John Kerry, in fact I believe that little would change if he did become president, I just don’t think that he has the vision or purpose of his counterpart, he is not as they say:”a commander in chief”.Ultimately it comes down to a very simple question:do you believe that Americans are “good people”? Are the people who rescued Europe from Hitler and the world from the threat of Stalin and communism right to rescue it once again? * Sam Witherow is a British student interning at The Namibian.Yet any serious analysis of the man will prove that he is in fact none of these things.He is not by any means an intellectual, the man is not nearly as clever as say Bill Clinton, yet he does have an innate moral intelligence.He surrounds himself with some of the most cerebral people in the country in order to make up for his deficiencies:his chief political advisor, Karl Rove, is not nicknamed “two brains” for nothing.This ability to recognise his own shortcomings is certainly admirable in the most powerful man in the world.It must be remembered that Ronald Reagan, the most popular and successful President of modern times, was also no brain-box.George Bush is a religious man (though this is certainly exaggerated in order to appeal to the religious wing of the Republican Party), but although I myself am not religious I find this characteristic appealing.It means that he has a strong sense of morality, of what is the right thing to do for the world and his people.It gives him a sense of purpose and responsibility if he knows that he is answerable to God.He did not invade Iraq for oil or out of some personal vendetta but because he believed in the justness of the war.And some of the most intelligent people in the world agree with him.In public he often comes across as brash and dim-witted, especially to foreigners.Yet the man is from Texas, that is his style and those who have met him often remark on his humility, his personal warmth and his openness to debate and criticism.He is right-wing in many of his views but he is by no means a traditional conservative.Bush has increased public-spending, pushing up the medical aid budget and giving cut-price medicines to pensioners.A conservative would have not interfered in global politics.As we have seen, this is untrue and as far as his interest abroad only for American benefit goes, Bush has presided over the biggest charitable donation in history to combat AIDS.Yet it is his escapades abroad that draw him the most flak.The war in Iraq is enormously unpopular and is failing on many levels.Yet Bush was right to invade.He is a man of the 21st century, a man who believes that the post cold-war world is a dangerous place and the appeasement of the 1990s is not a viable policy.He is an optimist who believes in the fundamental values of democracy.He wants to spread democracy the Middle East in order to give Muslims a chance of fair government.America is, as the French call it a “hyper-puissance”, the most powerful force the world has ever seen.George Bush believes that after 9/11 he has the chance to use this force for global good, to promote democracy throughout the world and make sure that it is a safer place for all.As far as Iraq is concerned:before there was a murderous tyrant, now he is gone and now there is a chance to build a viable democracy, even if it does take a while.I believe in this interventionist ideology that is driving George Bush and furthermore I trust and believe in the man himself to govern a dangerous world as only America can do.What is wrong with the idea of a global policeman if the policeman is fundamentaly just, furthermore nobody else will or can do the job that needs to be done.It is common knowledge that Europeans favour a multilateralist approach (using the UN), but this is only because they lack the power to do things in a more effective unilateralist way (on their own), it has nothing to do with enlightened “Kantian” ethics.I have no gripe with the flip-flopping Frenchman John Kerry, in fact I believe that little would change if he did become president, I just don’t think that he has the vision or purpose of his counterpart, he is not as they say:”a commander in chief”.Ultimately it comes down to a very simple question:do you believe that Americans are “good people”? Are the people who rescued Europe from Hitler and the world from the threat of Stalin and communism right to rescue it once again? * Sam Witherow is a British student interning at The Namibian.