From The State You Love To Hate

Across the political spectrum, people, including far too many Texans, enjoy thinking of George W. Bush - a willfully ignorant, boorish, fratboy thug - as the quintessential Texan, even though he wasn't born here and, more importantly, is neither well-mannered nor tough, two characteristics commonly ingrained in Texans of a certain age (your skepticism is easily forgiven).

It's not hard to see why the shtick works. Conservatives, of course, will believe any lie another conservative tells them. And liberals beyond the state's expansive borders are all too happy to buy Bush's Texas Act because it confirms pre-existing, entrenched prejudices toward the people of this state, a point I was reminded of thanks to Salon readers responding to Bill Sasser's article, Texans Turn Against Bush's War.

It ain't easy bein' a Texan these days. But that's another post.

The article itself was unremarkable with the exception of the following:

But elsewhere in Texas Bush has become a figure that former supporters say they no longer recognize. "I was very enthusiastic for Bush when he first ran, embarrassingly so looking back now," says Paul Burka, executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine. A political independent who has covered Texas politics for 30 years, Burka twice voted for Bush for president. "Early on his approval rating in Texas was around 80 percent, and he did well with Democrats as well as Republicans and independents. Now there's widespread disappointment he hasn't led the country in the same way he led Texas. To a lot of us he doesn't look like the same person he was as governor. I would say it's been an enormous disappointment."

Despite my calcified cynicism, I was nonetheless stunned by the complete lack of self-awareness in Burka's lame-ass commentary. Although the self-described "independent" political observer admits to being "embarrassed" for his uncritical support of GWB, I don't think it is unreasonable to suggest that any human being with even the tiniest shred of conscience would be more than "embarrassed" for playing a role in the creation of the Bush Frankenstein fronting our ignoble empire. Remorseful or repentant would be a start. Burka, a major player in the vanguard of what passes for conventional wisdom in Texas, is neither.

George W. Bush was never anything but a transparent fraud, at least to those of us not enthralled with aristocracy, power and wealth - the holy trinity of what passes for virtue these days (and not just in my state, either). Paul Burka would have us believe Dubya The Great has changed - devolved - since his days as Governor of Texas. This is surely among the most ridiculous things I have ever seen in print. It ranks right up there with war-loving Democrats attempting to justify their shameful role in invading and occupying Iraq by claiming to have been deceived by George and Dick. These highly implausible assertions may appear to be unrelated, but they share a common source: the American obsession with winning.

Back a winner, be a winner.

Back a loser, blame the loser.

I've worked for countless self-entitled elitist fuckwits who were cut from the same cloth as our dictator-president. Ugly, venal, narcissistic assholes. People for whom the usual and customary rules do not apply. In my class-conscious brain, these guys - and girls - stand out like chartreuse against an orange backdrop. Burka either lacks my finely tuned bullshit detector, or he's one of them. Considering his line of work and his enthusiastic support of GWB in 2000 and 2004, the latter is a safe bet.

Either way, like much of America's political class (the ones entwined in microphones, TV cameras and massive printing presses), Paul Burka isn't qualified to pour piss from a fucking boot. Maybe this is why Texas Monthly has long been a spectacularly dreadful magazine unfit for parakeet shit, unless the parakeet is in the market for a watch that costs a hundred grand.