Bush “exhibit number one for the danger of having a nut job in the oval office”

bush-frustrated.jpgVERDICT OF HISTORY ON BUSH WILL BE HARSH, AUTHOR SAYS
By Sherwood Ross

The judgment of history may well be that the United States has been “taken into, and kept in, the Iraq War by a guy who is not quite right in his head,” a distinguished legal scholar says.

“It may take 25 or 50 years, but it is almost certain that one day this character will be exhibit number one for the danger of having a nut job in the oval office,” says Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

Writing in his latest book, “An Enemy of the People,”(Doukathsan Press) Velvel said, “In everyday life, someone who refuses to recognize the actual facts of the world around him, and who instead lives in a dream world in his head, is regarded as not being sane, as being, to use the blunt words, insane or crazy. Why is it different when it is a national leader who refuses to recognize facts in the world and instead lives in a dream world in his head?”

Velvel goes on to say, “Most interesting is the idea that Bush suffers from a condition called “˜dry drunk’. Essentially, this means that even if one eventually stops drinking, as Bush did, years of alcoholism cause irreversible damage to brain chemistry. Results of this damage include such Bushian traits as rigid judgmentalism, irritability, impatience, grandiosity, obsessive thought patterns, incoherent speech and other unlovely characteristics.”

“Bush also seems to have chacteristics,” Velvel continues, “that, whether or not they are characteristic of “˜dry drunks’ are symptomatic of people who don’t fully have a grip. These include immense anger, exploitativeness, arrogance, lack of empathy, and difficulties arising from relationships with one’s father.”

“With regard to the specific analyses of Bush, there seems to be wide agreement that Bush is a sociopath, defined, one gathers, as someone who feels no empathy with others, who cannot feel for others, who does not feel or care for their pain (to use Clintonian jargon,”) Velvel writes.

“That Bush is utterly devoid of empathy seems plainly true to me. Unlike Lincoln or even Lying Lyndon Johnson, who sent people to their deaths but agonized over it, Bush is thought by the shrinks, and appears to the lay eye, to give not one damn about how many Americans he kills, let alone Iraqis.”

Explaining why Bush can’t feel guilt, Velvel writes: “Given his defense mechanisms, one gathers, and his psychology of having to overcome obstacles, overcome his father, etc., one gathers that Bush is a sociopath (or another word for it, a psychopath). Using charm as a vehicle for aggrandizement, he can’t allow himself to feel guilt and so feels no empathy for all those he smashes up in his pursuit of is grandiosity and delusions.”

Velvel professes amazement that a man of Bush’s character could rise to the White House: “One wondered how he could have been picked as the nominee and then elected. After all, it was clearly early-on that he not only had been a long-time drunk, but had failed at every business venture, so that time and again he had to be rescued by Daddy’s friends and wanna be friends.”

He goes on to say, “Bush’s life refutes fundamental values we grew up with: hard work, competence, intelligence, modesty. His life, with its drunkenness, serial failures, lack of competence, repeated salvation via Daddy and Daddy’s friends, all followed by the presidency no less, and by disastrous ill-considered policies, makes a joke of the values we absorbed as youths and still try to live by.”

Living in his Father’s shadow, Velvel writes, “his own lack of diligence and intelligence caused him to be mediocre or a failure everywhere for about 25 years; he was mediocre at Andover; he was mediocre at Yale; he was a drunk to the point where he could cure himself only by stopping cold turkey”¦ conceivably he escaped a securities prosecution only because Daddy was president.”

Velvel writes, “One view is that Bush has a narcissistic personality. Due to insecurities, he has constructed a grandiose vision of himself and is thus immune to the criticisms or views of those who do not go along with his views. Because he is no intellect (to put it mildly), he dismisses intellect entirely, and utilized his strength, personal affability, to win over others. Narcissistically, he apparently will do anything to protect his psyche from the destruction of being shown wrong—including causing the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis in pursuit of a mere long shot opportunity to proceed.”

The author believes it is necessary for psychiatrists to investigate political personalities to find out what makes them different from the rest of us once in power. “It seems to me that people in today’s America who seek and reach office are different from you and me and other decent people in this society,” Velvel writes.

“They are willing to say and do things that would make a lot of the decent people gag, maybe make all of the decent people gag. Psychiatry should investigate, should analyze, what kind of people these are who will say and do these things, and why they are like they are. Why investigate and analyze this? For the obvious reasons, so that we can know what we are faced with, and can start looking for and electing a better kind of person.”

Dean Velvel is cofounder of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, a law school purposefully dedicated to providing minorities, immigrants, and working-class students a quality, affordable legal education. The dean has been honored for his contributions to the reform of legal education by The National Law Journal and has been described as a leader in the law school reform movement by The National Jurist.

(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based writer who formerly worked for major dailies and wire services. Currently he is Media Consultant to Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. Contact him at [email protected] )

(Submitted directly to IFP by the author)

14 Comments

  1. MIKAEK’-9/11 hAD OVER SOURCES OF COMMUNICATIONS.

    “Project Mkultra”Esp,telepathy and all the other humanbrain to humanbrain/computor communications
    systems really nothin more than brain washing.In my view the jet was a mind control ride(9/11).
    Bush must be on”Project MKultra”

    impeach!

  2. Dr. Justin Frank examined the mental illness in other members of the Bush family as well. He specifically noted his mother’s severe mental illness.

  3. You know, everybody is pointing fingers at the people for voting for this man who obviously IS going through dry drunks, but what I believe to be the problem for the average American person, is the information the (paid) media keeps pumping out through the papers and television.We just dont get the kind of information to make good judgement calls and the average person doesnt know how to do substantial homework. If we dont start talking to everybody and help opening up the eyes of our fellow man we are gunna be rounded up and put into these FEMA camps they have all through the country and then its too late. Thats what they did to the jews, and its happening the same way today. Our country needs to start praying again.

  4. The fact is that way over 80% of ALL amerikans were in favor of slaughtering the poor innocent Iraqis & Afghans. It’s only that you are losing that you are looking for a scapegoat. Murderers…all.

  5. What about the mental health of Dick Cheney? or the rest of the administration? Condi Lies, Powell lied, Gonzales lied. Karl Rove-

  6. I think the concensus will be down range that Mr. Bush – who won two federal elections is indeed a great leader – whose wisdom is difficult to access at this time. We should huddle together in prayer and hope that his brave war on terror can be even half as successful as the war on drugs. We can only trust that the working, God fearing people will bring us Mr. McCain and his minion Sarah to the Presidency!!

  7. When the author said, “Bush” … “nut job in the Oval Office”, I though for sure there were going to be pictures of the low iodine one, El Dubilito, playing milk the stallion with Jimmy/Jeff Gannon/Geckert!

    shucks..

  8. This is great MIKAEL,now impeachment hearings to go along with
    article and also in my belief I feel Bush is not mentally fit for
    the job.
    impeach!

  9. Bush’s “reelection” tells alot about the perspicacity of the american people.More importantly, it tells alot about the quality of the educational system in this country.

    Is there a correlative betweeen being the most religiously oriented western nation on the globe, and the likes of a Bush to be able to be “reelected” as president? Only the dinasours climbing up the gang plank to Noah’s ark as depicted in a mural in the Kentucky museum of creation can answer that question.

  10. A madman with Nukes is dangerous. Bush says this about the President of Iran but I think he is refering to himself. He was smirking and giggling when talking about world war 3.

  11. Impeaching a man that openly wants to be a dictator is very difficult. Dealing with a person that is delusional is also very difficult.

  12. Dennis Kucinich was the only person that questioned his mental status. He publically said this. If Pelosi tried to Impeach Bush, it could create world war 3. Impeaching a madman in office is a lot more diificult then impeaching a person that is sane. Bush can still create world war 3 but an impeachment would speed up the process greatly. retroactive impeachment is an option. Angering a madman can have horriblle consequences.

  13. OK, we pretty much know all this, but it is nice to see it in print. However, what about Darth Cheney? Is he psychopathic or just pure evil incarnate? After all, he is the mastermind behind Bush’s actions. Without Cheney, Bush would just be bumbling along like a buzzard bringing home a baby bumblebee in that Looney Tunes cartoon.

Comments are closed.