Former president George W. Bush gave the commencement address at Southern Methodist University, where his presidential library is located. In part, he lauded religious freedom in a way that left little doubt that he would prioritize one person's freedom of religion over another person's right to equal treatment: that is, to deny publicly offered services to those whom one's religion disapproves of, as in refusing to bake a wedding cake for lesbians because they are lesbians.
That's predictable and, though disagreeable, it's not what I wanted to write about today. What churned me up about Bush's address was what he probably considers some of his everyman wisdom (which really masks a rather enormous egotism, with not much to brag about IMHO).
Bush made fun of his lackluster grades at Yale (C+ average), telling the graduates: "Those
of you who are graduating this afternoon with high honors, awards and
distinctions, I say well done. And as I like to tell the C
students: you too can be president."
Yes, it's possible -- with the Bush family name, with Pappy's friends and rich donors, with Karl Rove deciding to be kingmaker, and then with Dick Cheney appointing himself the puppet-master to make it all happen.
Frankly, I don't think it serves George W. well to remind people that he really wasn't very smart. Maybe, if he'd been a little smarter -- or had studied harder at Yale and learned something -- his presidency might have been less of a disaster. And the rush to dumb down America might not have accelerated on his watch.
Ralph
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