Lincoln's melancholy, Bush's LDs, my sympathy

Res of Republic of Dogs admits to feeling sorry for President Bush.  In a way.

...regardless of how arrogant he is, it must hurt, deep down inside, to have so many people think (and say, and yell, and laugh about it) that he's not just wrong but stupid, and a tool.

I would think so.  If he knows.  Who would tell him?  And it's not as though he goes out of his way to find out what people think.

But I admit that I feel sorry for the guy, too.  Sometimes.

These are the times when I stop disliking him long enough to start thinking about the implications of what I've always suspected about him---that he is damaged in some way.  Thirty years of being a drunk will do that to you.  But suppose the drinking is a symptom, not a cause.

In my post Lincoln's melancholy, Bush's anger, I considered the possibility that Bush is clinically depressed.

George W. Bush is and has been since he started appearing in the public eye, since his father's first steps on the national stage almost 40 years ago, an angry, volatile, mean-spirited, unhappy man.

And it's not much of stretch to conclude that a man who spent close to thirty years as a public drunk is most angry and unhappy with himself...

You look at the unhappiness, the life punctuated by periods of profound passivity in the face of calamity and crisis and periods of self-destructiveness and great anger, and you wonder.

When I wrote that, though, I was really writing about Lincoln and the portrait of him painted in Joshua Wolf Shenk's new book, Lincoln's Melancholy, which I'm not as far into yet as I would like to be but which I'm enjoying, and based on what I've read so far, I recommend it.  When I think that Bush might be damaged, I don't really think that he's depressed, or at least not just depressed.  I won't be surprised if we learn someday that he was bi-polar, but if that turns out to be the case, I think it will be one more problem he had to wrestle with all his life.

Sometimes I've wondered if the other problem, the first problem, is borderline autism.  Other times I've half-convinced myself that he has Asperger's.  He does seem to be locked within himself sometimes and even in the midst of a crowd when he should be acting most Presidential he will seem to be in his own, rather childish world.  He will even seem to be completely unaware that other people can see him.

There are other times when I think that he is emotionally and even intellectually retarded.  Think about it.  Doesn't he often come across like Tom Hanks in Big, a 12 year old boy trying to pretend to be a grown-up?

During the debates with Kerry I sometimes thought he was going to start crying out of frustration and fear.

But what I actually think is the most likely case is that he has at least one, and maybe several, serious learning disabilities.

Without getting into it, over the last seven years or so, I've had many conversations with teachers and other parents on the subject of learning disabilities and one of the things everybody keeps bringing up is their surprise at just how many kids suffer from LDs.  Thinking that something must have happened since we were kids ourselves, we parents will ask each other and ask the teachers, Where were all these kids when we were growing up?  And if the teachers are old enough to have been teaching back then they will usually say, They were there.  We just didn't know that's what was going on.  We treated them as behavior problems.

Bush grew up when learning disabilities were behavior problems.  The kids who had them were treated as lazy or stubborn; they were thought "dreamy;"  they were dismissed as stupid and quietly pushed onto the vocational track; they were yelled at, punished, spanked, threatened, bribed, coddled, forced to stay after class, sent to summer school, given tutors, given up on.  No matter how much help patient parents and dedicated teachers gave them, they didn't improve, because the help didn't actually address their problem.  Problems.  Turns out that if you have one, you usually have another.  Plus whatever coping mechanisms you develop on your own become problems themselves down the line.

George Bush did not have patient parents.  It's pretty clear that his father dismissed him early as not up to snuff.  George Bush really is not a stupid man.  He's not smart enough to be President, but very few people are.  I'm sure not.  The gap between how smart the job requires a President to be and how smart he is is wide enough that he looks dumber by comparison, the way that a tall man will look puny next to an elephant.  But among ordinary people, under ordinary circumstances, he doesn't come across as a blockhead.  In fact, lots of people who know him best under those circumstances insist that he's a sharp guy.  But this would have made things worse for him when he was growing up.  Nobody would have understood how a sharp kid like him could be having so much trouble doing his homework or paying attention in school.  I can see his father deciding the kid's just lazy or an idiot and giving up on him.

His mother strikes me as the type who would inadverntenly tear him down while she thought she was building him up, telling him over and over again that he was born to be President of the United States, that he was a Bush and could do and be whatever he set his mind to, and then switching in an instant to scolding, nagging, and outright insulting him as she lost her patience and her temper.

The moments when I feel truly sorry for the man are when I see him as a kid growing up with simultaneous images of himself as a future great leader and a present day idiot, with grandiose dreams and the knowledge that he didn't have the wherewithall to make them come true.  That, to me, would explain the anger, and the self-loathing.

Before you start protesting, a few things.  None of this is meant to excuse what the Bush Leaguers have done over the last five years.  None of it precludes the possibility that he is a mean, selfish, nasty son of a bitch; lots of people who grow up with learning disabilities turn out to be very nice people who don't smear their political opponents, start wars, and approve torture.  And none of this may be true.  I'm not really interested in Bush here.  I'm thinking out loud about learning disabilities.

At any rate, regular commenter Anne Laurie, who along with Exiled in NJ, mac magillicuddy, and grishaxxx, is doing her best to turn this into a group blog---I'm thinking of putting them all on the masthead---has had a lot of experience with one learning disability, ADD, and she thinks she sees signs that it might run in the Bush family, along with, and not so coincidentally, alcoholism.

She wrote a lengthy and very interesting comment that I've turned into a post of its own.  It follows right below this one.

Comments

[Kit Stolz]

Personally, I'm reluctant to play airchair psychologist, because I think it actually lets the current placeholder in the office off the hook. It implies that because he has some sort of problem, he cannot be expected to make good decisions or lead the nation competently. As Lincoln and FDR and JFK and others have shown, physical or psychological issues don't stop good presidents from leading well.

I think more interesting is the question of why the chip on his shoulder appeals to a large segment of the voting population, in somewhat the same way that back in the Vietnam War, an ugly man known to be a paranoid liar ("Tricky Dick") was elected twice to the presidency.

Still, there's no doubt that Bush II's manner invites such speculation. Here's a perfect example of why he seems to be on the verge of cracking up in today's Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101577_pf.html

[Rasselas]

"[E]ven in the midst of a crowd when he should be acting most Presidential he will seem to be in his own, rather childish world."

Wasn't Edmund Morris pilloried for saying something similar about the Great Communicator? In any event, this does not seem very different from the affects of other famous people, except that, in most cases, their private worlds are less obviously childish than coldly sealed. I have often wondered whether, after a certain number of years of being famous, ordinary people cease to be visible.

[lmeade]

Just think of the fun you could have tearing into a straw man who repeatedly misspells "alcoholism."

[blue girl]

Just have to rant here for a minute. lmeade: why pick on misspelligs (oops! I just misspelled misspellings! -- and I'm not even going to fix it!! Ha!) instead of the meaning of the post? It's the easiest way to slam someone. And slamming people because of their grammar or spelling -- or simply -- typos -- is like a fever running through the blogosphere lately.

It's boring and it's getting on my nerves.

Feel free to come on over to my blog anytime you want to judge all my faults. I promise you -- I am a source of neverending punctuation entertainment! It'll be an easy way to feel superior.

[Lance]

Imeade,

Yeah, what an idiot! What a dope! Guy like that shouldn't be allowed near a blog. They should...

Oh.

Whoops.

Thanks.

I'll go fix it.

BG,

Thanks for the defense, but Imeade was trying to help me out here. That was a pretty big goof, especially since I misspelled alcoholism in a post title.

[Karen]

I am no clinical psycologist, but I DO live with some ADD folks in my family...and Ole Child-In-Chief GW does NOT seem like any of them, nor exhibit the traditional "characteristics" as hallmarks of the condition. Tho' the medications work WONDERS...if he'd only been diagnosed correctly. And it's clear if it doesn't work too!!

I would tend to the idea that he has multiple learning problems and his alcoholism (and resultant permanent brain damage from years of drinking), but has never been properly treated for any of them!!

[blue girl]

Yeah! You're a knucklehead -- I should've added that to my comment. Just kidding -- like I said I was just ranting.

For all I know lmeade is your best buddy just razzin' ya.

I'll keep my emotional outbursts to myself from now on!

Or maybe I won't. It'll depend on my mood at that time.

:)

[lmeade]

blue girl - Thanks, but I think I'll pass. Feeling superior doesn't interest me. Perhaps I missed Lance's essential point, but this is what he said that struck me:

"And none of this may be true. I'm not really interested in Bush here. I'm thinking out loud about learning disabilities."

He said that after a lengthy speculative unlicensed analysis of George Bush's psychological profile, concluding that GWB suffers learning disabilities - a speculative analysis with few, I might add, known facts. His blog; his right. My snarky comment was nothing more than a reminder of the Confucian admonition about glass houses and stone-throwing. I see the misspellings have been graciously corrected. It's my humble opinion that more Bush opponents would serve themselves (and others) well by practicing the same sense of grace. But I could most certainly be wrong.

[lmeade]

Oops. It appears that I'm the slow one around here. As my friend Gordon, father of a Downs Syndrome son likes to say, "Hey, we're all a little retarded."

BTW, didn't George W. have a sister with a mental disability who died in childhood?

[XTCfan]

Lance, I think the whole issue is pretty well summed up here.

[blue girl]

lmeade: We're definitely all hyprocrites on a certain level -- and yes, as your friend would say -- all just a little retarded, too.

My beef was with you going after the typos. It's so easy and all of a sudden, everyone's doing it.

We've got a guy here who works thoughts out -- I would say *on paper* -- but, more accurately, on screen. I haven't known him very long -- but I would say that he knows when he's hurling those stones for sure. I don't believe it has to be pointed out to him.

But still feel free to drop by my blog -- no special feelings of superiority needed -- ever.

Lance -- I'm not so much defending you -- as I'm sure you can take care of yourself -- um. um. Ok -- I was defending you -- so sue me.

[Lance]

XTC, sometimes you just have to say it with music. But, folks, don't click on XTC's link if your kid or minister is standing within earshot, as I did.

BG,

My lawyers will be in touch.

[grishaxxx]

Wish I had checked in earlier today, because the subject of how Dubya got into this fix (and the rest of us along with him) has long bugged me. other people's brainstorms have preoccupied me locally, however, so here is my fast and loose.

Along with res, I have some (intermittent) sympathy for the guy for being thought a dolt; I don't think he is one, but that feeling is based on very scattered reports of private behavior when he was comfortable, e.g., a Yale reunion where he made a gracious remark to a transgendered classmate. Thing is, I don't think he gets much of a chance to be comfortable, and that he knows he's a tool - an instrument, really - of people more ambitious and ruthless, smarter and focused than he is himself. Maybe this started with his family, maybe it got rolling with his cronies (and maybe that's why he depends on them so much), but it's got to gnaw at him.

Whatever the cause, I find Jane's clocking him as a "dry drunk" rather persuasive. She seems to know what she's talking about, and the volatility and petulance and anger Bush displays when he's out of his depth (and he knows it) backs her up. Devil's bargain he made, and he's paying, Big Time.

Speaking of whom, I'm looking forward to Big Dick's Belly of the Beast memoir (he should live so long...) about how - among other things - he chose himself to be Toolmeister.

I am giddy from fasting and a waxing moon - have at me!

[Note to Lance - I'm astounded at the suggestion. Can't generate enough content at my own place, though that doesn't keep me from mouthing off here and elsewhere (Hi, bg! Hi, res!) - what will I do with a formal opportunity to open my yap even more? Oy!]

[mac macgillicuddy]

"who along with Exiled in NJ, mac magillicuddy"

Hey, don't drag ME into this!

[XTCfan]

Sorry, Lance! Should have said NSFW, or turn the speakers down ... but it's a catchy tune, ain't it? An anthem for our times...

[The Heretik]

wut a nukkilhed, Manyun. Mice Elf, I buleeve onny licensed peepuls shud have pinyuns. An ony kwallified peepul whoo no wut they are doing shude be abul to tayke us to warre. I will hed bak to my glass house nowe. U shude try spelchek. That thing duz trik fer me. Yer spel fren who thinks peepuls who point out spel probs try to get round larger issues. U may reecall Shakespeer spelt his name lease fiv difrun waze. Mayde up words two. Can yoo mispel word yew made upp?