A Wrest Coast Perspective

by Frank Darbe

Darbe’s Fixation on President Bush

Perhaps the most valuable use of the Internet is the ability to use it as a tool for self-evaluation and self-exploration. Since it has been suggested that I might have a “Fixation on President Bush” it seems a good time to explore what that means. Being a person who greatly enjoys words, I don’t think that I could discuss my “Fixation” without at least defining the word. The best place to start is with the definition form the handy-dandy Internet dictionary.
Answers.com

quote:

“Fixation (Noun)
1. The act or process of fixing or fixating.
2. An obsessive preoccupation.
3. Psychology. A strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behavior that persists throughout life.”

First, and you will have to take my word on this, I do not have a strong attachment to George Bush formed in childhood or infancy. I was born in Blackwell Oklahoma on March 12, 1952. Bush was born in Born in New Haven, Connecticut on July 6, 1946. I grew up in Oklahoma and Bush Grew up in Texas, Washington, Connecticut, China and other places. To the best of my recollection, we never met. I possessed little awareness of him during the administration of his father, and, like most Americans, only became aware of him when he erupted on the stage as a possible Presidential candidate in 1998. That whole attachment formed in Childhood or infancy thing is out, along with the rest of the Psychology of Fixation.

That is not to say that I am not concerned about his actions as President. As a retired American service member and an American citizen, I consider it one of my highest responsibilities to stay informed. I watch events, especially as they affect the United States, its position in the world, and the freedom of its citizens. I do not indulge in the luxury of accepting everything that this President or any President says as gospel. As an informed citizen it is my responsibility to pass judgment on the actions of the President, the Congress, and every other level of government. If, in my opinion, they are screwing up, it is my responsibility to say so. Silence is the most beloved conspirator of Tyranny. As a free man I refuse to conspire with Tyranny in any guise. A government only remains free if we hold its gonads (or ovaries) of our elected representatives to the fire of loud criticism.

Certainly, my views on politics have a strong influence on the stands I take, and on the possibility that I engage in a “fixation.” As I liberal I find that I agree with the “Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics” in respect to the primary goal of liberalism in general and this liberal specifically.

quote:

Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics
Iain McLean
Pg 286-287
…it is the aim of politics to preserve individual rights and to maximize freedom of choice.”

I do not buy into the idea that it is the goal of a government to keep me safe and protect me from the current big bad boogieman out there, whether it be a Fascist, Nazi, Communist, Islamofacist, or whatever political flavor of the month arises on the national stage. A President who cries wolf at dangers out there must meet a very high standard if he wants me to support sending free Americans to die while hunting that wolf. When a President repeatedly lies about that danger he looses my support, because those lies lead by their nature to American’s who must give up, at least temporarily, their freedoms and individual rights for the greater good. When a President lies and takes the freedoms away from people it is my responsibility to subject him to the fire of loud criticism.

Another point to consider in my possible fixation is the nature of the relationship between the government and the governed.

quote:

Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics
Iain McLean
Pg 286-287
“…Political power was legitimate if, and only if, the governed consented to it. That power was to be directed at the public good, limited by its purposes and regulated by settled and known law.”

Many of the results of my supposed “fixation” have been under the influence of this idea of what a government is and what it should be. When the President subverts known law to get Telecom companies to turn over all of the phone conversations and Internet operations of their clients he has, in my opinion, subverted settled and known law, as well as subverted the Constitution that is the foundation of those known laws and the relationship between government and the governed. When the President appoints an incompetent like Michael Brown as head of FEMA, a man who I should say had been fired from his previous job overseeing horse shows for the International Arabian Horse Association he is not directing government for the public good. When the President repeatedly appoints men to high public office who are ill-informed, ill-equipped, incompetent, or possibly criminally negligent he has violated the trust between the government and governed at such a visceral level that it is my responsibility to subject him to the fire of loud criticism.

To sum all this up, as a citizen in a free country I have a responsibility to speak out when I feel something is wrong. After examining as much of the data available to me, I feel that this President has screwed up far more than he has done correctly. Whether or not I like this President or not is irrelevant to my duties as a citizen. Though for the record, I don’t like President Bush, Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger, or pretty much any of the current crop of political leaders. As long as President Bush continues, in my estimation to violate law, trample the constitution, and act inefficiently and negligently in his job, I will continue to criticize him. If you want to call this fixation, be my guest.

Well I just wrote a thesis and it disappeared into thin air. I sometimes think when that happens that there is a higher power that is saying, "Kathy, did you really want to put all that down?"

Frank, you have written a very thought provoking essay. I'd say, "Frank, don't fixate on GWB."

I admit that I voted for "W." I initially supported the war. I had to be brought to another way of thinking slowly. I still secretly hope that the man will be recorded 50 years from now as being successful. You see, I love my country more than I dislike the things GWB has done. I still want there to be justification for the lives that have been lost post 9/11.

quote:

Though for the record, I don’t like President Bush, Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger,

But do you like us? Frank do you really like us? I hope you do because we like you and the way you tell it the way you see it.

Kathy

Great column, Frank! Now I need to be introspective, myself!

Kathy, I do like you and the Wrest of the Wrest.

As for fixating, well I will let others decide if they want to put that label on me. The subject came up elsewhere, and I thought it would make a good topic of discussion.

I supported the Afghan war, but have watched in dismay as that "victory" was tossed away through poor management and poor planing. We used just 4,000 troops to invade and capture the country, and will have 32,000 fighting there this summer. My wife works at Balboa Hospital, and every time I go there I see kids missing arms and legs, in wheel chairs. We asked them to sacrifice everything and they answered. When we ask that kind of sacrifice we have a responsibility to make sure it's necessary. In my opinion, the current administration did not perform due diligence in answering that question.

I am aware that my ideas of the responsibility of citizenship are considered antiquated in some quarters. But they are mine and I'm not going to discard them because it is politically expedient.

quote:

I am aware that my ideas of the responsibility of citizenship are considered antiquated in some quarters. But they are mine and I'm not going to discard them because it is politically expedient.

and indeed you shouldn't. It is that right and responsibility that we seek to protect. Right?

Kathy

Frank,

Terrific essay! I really did learn a lot about fixations (though I'm not certain if that is the same thing I feel when my tongue drools on the floor when I see Angelina Jolie...sorry Brad).

I know that it is important that we take these essays with a certain amount of seriousness...which may explain why I voted for GWB the first time around. I think, if I remember right (been having trouble with that lately...remembering) that I was:

• Drunk (at the time), and:
  
  
• Ripped. A friend had found some fantastic Maui Wowie (left over from a long ago and far away trip to Hawaii...we had been drinking Cuervo Slammers and enjoying a bit of the "Native Grasses", using a Bong).
  
  
• Not totally of "Sound Mind". Hmmm...I'm often accused of that!

In my own defense, in GWB, Part Deux, I voted for "None of the Above", a choice that I believe our Constitutional First Amendment requires be a choice, though I have never seen it offered. Hey, but you can write it in, ya know (and please, don't Bogart that Joint!)!

I really did enjoy your essay. It's given me some new ideas about those things on which I should fixate! I am anxious to try 'em out!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Spencer Lehmann,

Frank, my idea of what "fixation" is can be somewhat summed up with #2 and #3 of your definition. If you are fixated on anything, I believe it may be on your ideal vision of what America can be. We would all be better off if more Americans, especially those in public office, were to share in that fixation.

Accepting everything that anybody says as "gospel", be that person the President, the priest/rabbi/imam, or good old Dad, is to give up the faculty of rational thinking. It's good to see you haven't done that either.

Your "concise" definition of liberalism sums up what I believe, as well: my individual rights and freedom of choice must be preserved...without diminishing the individual rights and freedom of choice of my fellow citizens.

And all this garbage about protecting us from the bogie man in the closet or under the bed or in the latest incarnation of the "Evil Empire" is just a way to keep us under control. People like Hitler, Moussolini, Stalin, and George Bush (aided and abetted by Dick Cheney and Karl Rove) have been some of the experts in that field.

Speaking out when you see something you think is wrong--even if it is you who are in error--is something you must do, as a free person in a free society. Pointing out that the Emperor is naked, even if you are the only one who perceives that fact or has the gonads to say it, is similarly the obligation of every free-willed and free-thinking person.

Fixated? On reality, maybe. Just as others are fixated on their own version of what they think is real.

Maybe it's all just a matter of point of view. As long as a person is being honest and is giving the other party every opportunity for the same, what's the problem?

quote:

“Fixation (Noun)
1. The act or process of fixing or fixating.
2. An obsessive preoccupation.
3. Psychology. A strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behavior that persists throughout life.”

Since the second definition is the one that is the more accurate description of Darbe's "fixation" with Pres. Bush it is not surprising that he chose another definition to use. One he could easily point that obviously did not fit him.

quote:

Since the second definition is the one that is the more accurate description of Darbe's "fixation" with Pres. Bush it is not surprising that he chose another definition to use. One he could easily point that obviously did not fit him.

Really, Senator.

Several questions:

1. What is your source for that definition?

2. Just how far would you like to push this?

3. Personal attacks are not permitted here (referencing your first comment about your perception that Frank has a "Bush fixation", Here.

4. I know of no one (except perhaps a rock, chair, or a table) that doesn't have strong opinions on certain issues. So what? That doesn't make them fixations, that makes them strong opinions.

5. Please remember that two key words that we use here are "Civility" and "Respect". That applies to everyone.

quote:

Originally posted by Senator Hatrack:

quote:

“Fixation (Noun)
1. The act or process of fixing or fixating.
2. An obsessive preoccupation.
3. Psychology. A strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behavior that persists throughout life.”

Since the second definition is the one that is the more accurate description of Darbe's "fixation" with Pres. Bush it is not surprising that he chose another definition to use. One he could easily point that obviously did not fit him.

That may be your misconception, but the rest of us see it differently.

Senator, Senator, Senator, help me out here. Try to focus on a discussion, not an attack.

Kathy

quote:

1. What is your source for that definition?

Darbe's post to start the thread.

When I used the word "fixation" it was not done with malice aforethought it just seemed like the right word to use at the time. That Darbe is taking it the way that he is, is something I have absolutely no control over.

By your own definition, Senator, you would seem to have a fixation with Mr. Darbe.

Either I have a fixation on Darbe or a desire to defend those who cannot defend themselves. Since it is highly unlikely that Pres. Bush is going to join the Wrest someone here needs to defend him. Guess who that is.