George W. Bush: Civil Rights Activist

In a so-called "town meeting" on Social Security yesterday, apparently held in a town where all the citizens are Republicans that had been vetted by Karl Rove, the same President that repeatedly refused to address the NAACP prior to the election, as his father and Reagan both did, said:

Secondly, the interesting -- there's a -- African American males die sooner
than other males do, which means the system is inherently unfair to a certain
group of people. And that needs to be fixed. It's not a -- (applause.)

So, now, let me get this straight: the Bush regime has, by word and action, effectively claimed that there is no racism in America, no gap of opportunity between African-Americans and white Americans, by moves such as supporting the ending of affirmative action at Michigan State when that case went before the Supreme Court. But here, Bush is admitting that African-American males have a shorter life expectancy than white Americans.

And his way of resolving the inequities caused by two centuries of racism and oppression is to fuck up Social Security for everyone so that it won't be unfair to black men? Because, I guess, doing something about the causes of the lower life expectancy wouldn't make any sense. Once everyone's Social Security benefits have been ruined, black men can say to themselves, "Well, even though I won't live as long as I would if I were white, it's all fair now because not only will I be paying into Social Security even though I will never get the benefits, everyone is paying in and not getting the benefits. I feel so much better!"

That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. By admitting that black men have shorter life expectancies than white men, Bush is either admitting that black men are disadvantaged economically, socially, and in availability of health care, in which case those would be the places to start trying to make things more fair, or he's saying that black men are genetically inferior to white men and will die sooner no matter what, and therefore there's nothing to be done but make sure that Social Security screws everyone so nobody is getting singled out for screwing.

Oh my freakin... The most powerful man in the world, with a straight face, told the American people yesterday that the only important problem about black men having shorter life expectancies than white men is that black men pay into Social Security but don't get the benefit.

Maybe I'm just stupid, but it seems to me that the main issue with black men having shorter life expectancies is that they don't get to live as long! If we fix the gap in life expectancies, the Social Security problem resolves itself! Plus, black men get more years of life! Wow! Doesn't that seem like a better response to the problem than ruining Social Security so it won't be unfair?

To all apologists for Bush's intelligence out there, I have only to say: If Bush is not an idiot, then the term has no meaning.