If he can walk the walk, should we bash the talk?
Posted on September 13, 2007
Moron, imbecile, dunderhead, dunce. These are just a few of the words that have branded the reputation of cowboy turned president, George W. Bush. While Bush is undoubtedly inarticulate, I am inclined to believe that his lack of fluency does not reflect his intelligence.
If we judge a person’s intellectual capacity solely on his or her’s ability to manipulate language than we are the stupid ones. Though it is painful to watch the president as he stumbles through speeches with as much grace as the elephant that represents his party, we should direct our criticism toward what he is saying, not how he is saying it.
When a president dares to pose the question “is our children learning?” as Bush did in 2001 in a speech given at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner, I think it is understandable that the American public asks in return ‘‘is our president and idiot?”
I can appreciate how difficult it is to look past Bush’s bumbling exterior and consider that he may be an intelligent and capable leader, but no matter how challenging it may be, it is necessary to entertain this possibility. After all, there have been plenty of intelligent people who have had difficulty using language fluently. In fact, Albert Einstein, the epitome of intelligent thought, struggled through school as the result of his dyslexia.
Bush is not the first president to show language deficiencies. President Woodrow Wilson, who to this day remains the only president to hold a doctoral degree, also happened to have dyslexia. Therefore, despite the fact that Bush struggles to put together a coherent sentence and trips over words consisting of more than three syllables, we cannot jump to the conclusion that he is incompetent. Instead, we must closely examine his speeches and his policies to determine whether or not he is an effective leader.
Unfortunately, the media have discovered that they can capitalize on Bush’s ‘stupidity’ and have served to perpetuate this stereotypical image of our president. Author Jacob Weisberg, for example, has published three books of “Bushisms” which are nothing more than a compilation of the dumbest phrases uttered by our president. Comedy Central’s show “Lil’ Bush,” which first aired in June, stars an elementary school-aged animated version of our beloved, blundering president.
While the media have found criticizing Bush’s intellect to be profitable and we, as consumers of the media, enjoy the occasional laugh at Bush’s expense, the truth of the matter is that nothing good can come of it. We have nothing to gain by critiquing the president on his fluency when this is something that he apparently has little control over.
Instead, we should turn our attention to issues like the war in Iraq, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and illegal immigration which Bush does have some control over. If we had spent more time criticizing Bush’s decision to go to war over inconclusive evidence of nuclear weapons in Iraq and less time commenting that he doesn’t know how to pronounce the word ‘nuclear,’ maybe our nation could have avoided the Iraq war debacle.
As a matter of fact, it is a definite possibility that Bush’s tendency to stick to his policies even when all objective evidence indicates that it’s time for a change stems from his desire to prove to the American people that he is not as stupid as he sounds.
As responsible citizens, it is our duty to question our leaders and call them out if they are behaving irresponsibly or immorally. Last time I checked, however, being a good citizen did not require that we turn into bullies.
Yes, President Bush has desecrated the English language, but he has not done so by choice and ridiculing him for it is just cruel. What should concern us is not that he has made a mockery of our language but that he has made a mockery of our foreign policy. We should criticize the president, it is a necessary part of democracy, but only if that criticism is constructive. I’m pretty sure name-calling doesn’t apply.
Caroline Carter is junior SMAD and psychology major.
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