For a long time, I accepted the idea proposed by psychologists like Frank that he was simply trying to prove he a more macho man than his father who wimped out after winning the first Gulf War. That explanation did not explain the total indifference to life, the contempt one sees in Bush II when he talks to other people and his actions that border on sociopathy.
I believe that his entire self image is built around showing up those who think he is dumb or weak.For example Professor Tsurumi, his teacher at HBS has called him an indifferent student and a braggart forever claiming that he has special dispensations not available to others.I think a connection can be made between his fear of intelligent and perceptive men like the good professor and his need to show that he can best them by reaching a position of authority where he can dismiss their pronouncements with contempt.
While he fears the opinions of self made men like Professor Tsurumi, he has no fear of people below his socioeconomic level,even if they were intelligent.Here he pulls the age-old response to such people, ” how come if you are so smart, you are not as rich as I am”?
That perfectly describes his attitude toward the Press.
When he was approached by one such person who prefaced his question with “I think”, Bush asked him “Who cares what you think”? In that one contemptuous dismissal one can see all the traits we have come to associate with this man— arrogance, contempt for those less fortunate than himself, his anti-democratic instincts etc.
All of these traits pale into insignificance when one looks at his contempt for the lives of those at his mercy.When Karla Faye Tucker pleaded with him for clemency, he mocked her.He has sent thousands of our soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians to their deaths in his pursuit of a war based on lies. He has even outdone himself by his depraved indifference to the lives of his fellow citizens in New Orleans. That their deaths have not bothered him is the ultimate proof of the sadistic pleasure he derives in inflicting pain on the less fortunate.
In his tenure, our government looks more and more like a criminal enterprise and less and less like a group entrusted by the people with the solemn task of preserving our Constitution.All his advisers, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, remind me of the Consiglieres and others like Chertoff, Kerik, Giuliani,Rove look like made men of the gangs.In that environment, you are valued highly if you can dissemble without blinking your eyes and you can carry out ruthless assignments like destroying war heroes like Max Cleland.
He was unable to face Cindy Sheehan because he finally could not use his time worn sneer against a mother who has lost her son.He is in a similar fix with Katrina because his cruelty and remorseless indifference has been laid bare for all to see.
Humpty Dumpty has had a great fall and all the king’s men cannot put humpty dumpty back together again. That is what he fears most– being found out for the emptiness and shallowness at his very core.This is why he is making such frantic attempts to go back over and over again to NO to repair the damage to the levee of his soul.