Bush: Not Just Another Father of the Bride May 12
Presidential progeny usually get a pass from the press when they’re young. No matter how you might feel about their parents, this is probably a good thing. Presidential kids have enough pressure on them without someone dogging their every move. Otherwise, the kind of 24×7 glare they’d suffer would be enough to warp anyone, much less a kid in the Bush family.
In their teens and early 20s, the Bush twins - Jenna and Not Jenna - did their share of stupid, although perfectly normal adolescent things. Jenna was picked up for underage drinking (I’ve always wondered what happened to the Secret Service agent on duty that night). At other times, pictures showed both twins sprawled drunkenly on the pavement or using their butt cracks as beer cup holders. Stupid actions, yes, but no stupider than many other kids that age. Without stupid kids, Florida’s tourism industry would collapse without Spring Break traffic and Girls Gone Wild producer Joseph Francis couldn’t pay his extensive legal bills.
Republican Cloth Coats Be Damned
Jenna, the blond one with Daddy’s unfortunate genetic smirk, was married over the weekend. The White House took great pains to keep the ceremony low-key, unlike, say, the Nixon girls who mounted full-scale coronations at the White House - respectable republican cloth coats be damned. I bear no ill-will against Jenna. I don’t know if she’s a good kid and besides, it’s not her fault she was fathered by such a boob. The wedding seemed to be standard fare for any girl who’s a member of a wealthy family and as long as Dad didn’t embezzle the money to pay for it, that’s fine. However, I would feel better if a GAO audit checked that.
I’m sure one of the reasons the ceremony was out of the public eye was to avoid the inevitable protests that would have sprung up. Instead of a nice, quiet wedding, Jenna would have begun married life to shouts of “NO MORE BUSH! NO MORE BUSH!” It’s true her Dad is one of history’s biggest crapweasels, but there’s no need to remind her of it. She probably already knows.
When Dad gave Jenna away, he wasn’t thinking of her wedding as a political act. He was just another happy Dad and she was simply a thrilled new bride. But when you’re President of the United States, you carry the baggage of politics everywhere. When the story of the wedding hit newsstands, thousands of Americans found it impossible to be happy for the Bushes. They found it impossible because they’re the families of married soldiers who will never celebrate another anniversary or fiances to betrothed who will never return. They are newlyweds holding their firstborn children and waiting for the spouse who died in a completely avoidable war.
Grinning Toasts of Death
It’s said of Bush that he sleeps well, but is profoundly affected by the deaths he’s caused. He can certainly shed tears - as he sometimes has for Medal of Honor winners or the rare, hand-selected troops he meets - but it’s impossible to tell if those teardrops are cynical or genuine. It’s equally impossible to know whether he reflected on his awful mess as he smirked through his club soda toasts. We don’t know if he thought of his missions unaccomplished or of the lives snuffed out. We don’t know if waving goodbye to his little girl caused him to reflect on the thousands of other little girls and boys sent off with waves of the hand to die in bloody Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m sure Jenna and the rest of the family love George as much as any family loves their father. They’re aware that Dad is among the world’s most hated men, but I’m sure they don’t much feel it personally. They’re just happy to have him around to give Jenna away or go fishing on the ranch. To them, he’s just Dad. So Jenna was able to have her day and enjoy it. There were no protest calls or ugly epithets. She stood on the bank of the lake under a sunset and said “I do” as pretty as a picture. For a moment, they could all live as if Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t exist.
It’s just a shame so many other families can’t.
The Poobah is a featured contributor at Bring It On!
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Imana May 12
I was brought up quite differently than you apparently,even as you sought to show some grace which is usually lacking you end up the Fool. What a sad place to exist.(in your mind that is)
If you couldn’t be decent enough to leave all political feelings out and send good wishes to the family on their happy moment then you are nothing less than a heartless clown.
Omnipotent Poobah May 12
Imana,
You may be right. I may be heartless, but I reckon I’m no more nor less heartless than someone who has wrought the destruction he has. I feel sorry for Jenna and the rest of the family. For him, not so much.
Bock the Robber May 12
Good wishes to the family.
How’s that?
Now, back to reality. Tomorrow, after the wedding celebration is over, Bush will still be responsible for countless unnecessary deaths, and by the way, some of them will be be American.
He’s also responsible for the deaths of nearly a million less-important people, like Iraqis, though I realise that doesn’t matter as much, since they’re just foreigners.
Jess Wundrun May 13
Heartless? Wowza.
Heartless is using a machine that copies your penmanship to sign condolence cards. Heartless is saying that you can’t take photographs of the caskets of the men and women who believed enough in our country to go to war for it, trying to bury them in obscurity. Heartless is the fact that Jenna and not-Jenna never even went and they aren’t royalty, though in Britain the actual royals (at least one) went.
I thought your post was full of grace, Omnipotent.
Threading Water tells us that last year 26 women who were mothers were killed in the unnecessary wars. Twenty six families who will not have a mother of the bride either.
But lest we be heartless, we should forget them too.
Jess Wundrun’s last blog post..The Made In America Update
fairlane May 13
I must be a truly heartless bastard because the only thing I think about when I see Jenna is, “How the fuck did that semi-literate yokel get published?”
fairlane’s last blog post..I Fought the Law, and All I Got Was a Bucket of KFC