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Eight years ago today, I took my daughter Kennedy to see President Bush's inauguration. The weather was miserable, a cold drizzle of sleet and rain falling for most of the day, but that was of little concern to a dad taking his 11-year-old to watch a moment of history.Please read the whole thing.
Kennedy was homeschooled and, as part of her social studies lessons that year, she had followed the presidential election, assembling a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the campaign. . . .
Our journey downtown for the inauguration parade was sort of a field trip to culminate that project, but it was also an unexpected lesson for my daughter. The lesson was provided by the legions of anti-Bush protesters who showed up in an effort to spoil the fun for everyone.
UPDATE: A New Ace for a New Era notes the gloat.
UPDATE II: Bush hatred was never strictly a function of policy, Jeremy Lott reminds us:
America's elites do not merely disapprove of Bush. They loathe him. Back in 2003, when Bush was still basking in the reflected glory of his sun god-sized post-9/11 approval ratings, Jonathan Chait published a piece in the liberal journal the New Republic making the "case for Bush hatred". Chait objected to Bush's policies, as well as, for lack of a better term, his Texas-ness.Nevertheless, all must now praise Obama, or be accused of insufficient patriotism.
Chait complained about "the way he walks", "the way he talks", "his lame nickname bestowing", his good ole boyness and his social privilege. He admitted: "I suspect that, if I got to know [Bush] personally, I would hate him even more."
UPDATE III: Everyone seems to be enjoying a good laugh at the expense of Fred Barnes, who bids fair to be Bush's Monica Lewinsky.
UPDATE IV: Kerry Pickett provides video of obscenity-spewing anti-Bush protesters at his 2005 inauguration:
Memories, light the corners of my mind . . .
UPDATE V: Linked by Dan Riehl who asks, "what good conservative names their child Kennedy?" Ah, but I was still a Democrat when she was born in 1989. Nevertheless, my good Ohio Republican wife made me swear a promise at that time, so our 6-year-old daughter is named Reagan.
UPDATE VI: "MSNBC covered the send-off and viewers at home could hear inaugural attendees near the MSNBC location chanting 'Hey, Hey, Hey, Good Bye' as they watched Executive One fly over the Mall." UPDATE VII: Linked at The Hill's Briefing Room.
The answer was obvious: "Because we have jobs!"
ReplyDeleteThat was exactly my reaction when the makers of An American Carol suggested we "call in conservative." It would have been more appropriate for them to ask conservatives to go into work even if they were sicker than dogs, and to work late.
No one should begrudge liberals this occasion, but rather feel sympathy for them. Whether they are celebrating a Democrat's inauguration or, as eight years ago, protesting the inauguration of a Republican, liberals seek in politics a transcendent meaning it can never really provide.
To quote my daughter, "How lame."
From the mouths of babes...
I don't recall the schools airing the Bush inaugurations like they are Obama's, at either of my childrens' schools.
I kept my youngest home today (he's a little under the weather and could have made it, but I happily obliged), and my eldest* decided to go in late so he wouldn't have to watch it, and that was fine with me too.
*He's a Paultard like his mom.
My memories are these:
ReplyDelete1) The race-baiting by a Rev. during the inaugural benediction.
2) Listening to a graceless Obama take hypocritical potshots at his predecessor (who I don't even like) during his inaugural speech.
3) Watching the low-class Obama supporters singsong at Bush as he left like they were at a gd football game.
4) Being told that my belief in small government is a "stale political argument" which no longer applies.
Looks like Barry's "post-partisan, post-racial" era is getting off to a terrific start.
In short, what I will remember most is what a lowbrow affair it was.
"Money can't buy class."