'Bush Is Too Horrendous to Be Forgotten' (Philip Roth interview in Der Spiegel)

[swag]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,534018,00.html

SPIEGEL: What will remain of the current president, George W. Bush? Could he be forgotten once he leaves office?

Roth: He was too horrendous to be forgotten. There will be an awful lot written about this. And there's a lot to be written about the war. There's a lot to be written about what he did with Reaganism, since he went much further than Reagan. So he won't be forgotten. Someone has said he's the worst American president we've ever had. I think that's true.

SPIEGEL: Why?

Roth: Well, the biggest thing would be the war, the deceptions surrounding the entrance into the war. The absolute cynicism that surrounds the deception. The cost of the war, the Treasury and the lives of the Americans. It's hideous. There is nothing quite like it. The next thing would be the attitude towards global warming, which is a global crisis, and they were utterly indifferent, if not hostile, to any attempt to address it. And so on and so on and so on and so on. So he's done a lot of harm.

SPIEGEL: Since your book is set in that week during the 2004 elections, can you explain why Americans voted for Bush once again?

Roth: I suspect it was the business of being in a war and not wanting to change, and political stupidity. Why does anybody elect anybody? I thought highly of John Kerry when he began, but he couldn't stand up against Bush. The Democrats aren't brutes, which is too bad, because the Republicans are brutes. Brutes win.

[kurth]

1. The monster must NEVER be forgotten

He's not your typical village idiot gone mad.

[CJCRANE]

2. Future historians

will look back in wonderment at the Bush Era.

And not in a good way.

[hay rick]

10. chapter title

American democracy failed.

[Vincardog]

3. We will forget dim son as soon as we forget Hitler

[lunatica]

6. Hitler isn't forgotten

There are times when he isn't remembered for a while, but every time genocide happens, Hitler's name comes up and everyone remembers. It'll be the same with Bush. Perhaps Cheney too, although he's far worse, but he's kept himself hidden in the shadows working his nefarious agenda content to let Bush be the fool.

[Vincardog]

8. The only difference between them is the numbers not the nastiness

[liberal N proud]

[liberal N proud]

4. Just as we were taught to never forget what Hitler did, we must also

teach our children not to forget what the bu$h regime did to America and the world beyond.

Never forget the crimes against humanity at his hands.

[nancyr]

5. Yes, but.....

Hitler had the grace to kill himself at least. Bush will just keep going on his merry way with no consequences.

[Poiuyt]

7. This is why I worry about the $500 million Bush Library

It's not really going to be a library. It's going to be a think tank where Karl Rove types will write glowing books and articles about Bush. In other words, re-write history.

[lutefisk]

9. "Brutes win" . . . I think the brutes have won. Game over.

By stalling on any action to address climate and environmental issues, and even taking deliberate steps to make matters worse, the Bush Regime has "won" on that life and death issue. It really seems to be too late.

Bush has also done more damage to the US economy than can ever be fixed. The brutes have won.

I have a sick feeling that a Clinton or Obama administration will be 4 or 8 years of treading water, at best. We need radical action to survive in the world Chimpolini is leaving us, and I don't see that potential in our two candidates, unfortunately.

[Afje]

11. Bush is too consequensial to be

forgotten any time soon. His chickens are coming home to roost and we will have to deal with his fuck-ups for a long, long time.