More Evidence that Bush Is a "Dry Drunk"?

[jansu]

A interesting read and it may answers a few questions we have had. From the question of "Why the War with Iraq when so many were against it" to "Why the new, out of the blue, plan to go to Mars"?

By Katherine van Wormer

“He tried to kill my Dad,” the President once explained. But I believe there was more to this unnecessary war than that. I believe there was a method in Bush’s madness, a method that most likely had as little to do with oil as it did to terrorism. For the answer we need to look deeply in the psyche of the man (inferred from his biography).

Earlier several other writers and I likened Bush’s personality characteristics to those of a person who, in AA parlance, is “dry” but whose thinking is not really sober. Grandiosity, rigidity, and intolerance of ambiguity, and a tendency to obsess about things are among the traits associated with the dry drunk. The dry drunk quits drinking, but his or her obsession with the bottle is often replaced with other obsessions. Twelve Step programs help their members modify their all-or-nothing thought patterns which associated with the disease alcoholism. “Easy does it” and “One day at a time” are among the slogans; the serenity prayer, similarly, helps persons with addictive tendencies to curb the tendency to excess.

In Bush’s irrational patterns of thought lie the clues to his single-minded obsession with Iraq. For the explanation for Bush’s vendetta against this one country, we have to look to his biography and to the meaning that Iraq held for his father.

The father-son relationship can be problematic in any family. When the father is considered a big hero, the first-born son, especially one bearing the father’s name, identity issues are common. As any chronology of George W Bush’s childhood will show, the son was set up to follow in the exact footsteps of his father. Sent away to the very New England prep school where his father’s accomplishments were still remembered, the younger Bush became better known for his pranks than athletic or academic achievements. His drinking bouts caused problems during his military service as well. (Remember that his father had been a war hero.) In college there was heavy drinking and other drug misuse, one arrest for a wild college prank and one conviction for drunken driving.

A much later religious conversion turned his life around. George W. Bush’s father set him up in business, and his father’s presidency helped him get his start in politics. His father, for all his success, experienced failure on three occasions. He was widely criticized for not finishing the job in Iraq-- for not moving the troops in to “take out” Saddam following the Gulf War victory--and he failed to get his bill to fund a NASA flight to Mars, and finally, he lost his bid for re-election.

http://hnn.us/articles/3165.html

[ochazuke]

1. Spread the word: Shrub's a drunken deserter

But, I wonder if that means anything to anyone. If you love him, he's a great man for overcoming alcoholism. If you hate him, it all fits into the story of a priviliged prick that got everything using daddy's calling card.

But, is there anyone who neither loves nor hates him, who looks at the evidence and says something like "well, it just seems that we shouldn't entrust the presidency to someone who has a history of drug abuse and alcoholism, even if he is in recovery".

I kinda think such people are very few in number.

Any thoughts?

[thebaghwan]

2. I'll take the Privileged Prick stance.

n/t

[izzie]

3. Well some of us ,on both parties ,vote for the party.

I vote for my basic beliefs no matter who runs and look for the good of the guy. I used to just vote for who my father voted for and he was a Republican. That is two types of voters right their. Some vote for the man and some vote for one thing. Half do not vote or about half.Maybe all drunks vote for Bush? He is odd. Like any ex-drunk I have ever met.I do not get this war stuff with all these Republicans at all. They used to be the no war party. What is with that?I find it so interesting that the solid Dem South is now solid Rep. Just how does that happen, as if I do not know.