Our Fearless Despot

Tonight Bush will announce his plan to send the National Guard to the border to protect us from hard-working folks who long for nothing more than to be locked in a Wal-Mart overnight to work for less than minimum wage. And the entire reason for it? To shore up political support from the whack-jobs who represent the very tip of the right wing.

Here's what gets me. Dubya likely went AWOL during his service in the easiest of the National Guard units, but he seems to have absolutely no shame in sending the overburdened military into action again and again for purely political reasons. Every time I see a local human interest story about a family that is barely making it due to the breadwinner's deployment, I think, "Wow, what a sacrifice for such stupid idea."

You've got to give it to Bush. He's perfectly comfortable as an emporor with arbitrary power. He feels no shame about making others do what he never would. He feels different than the average American serf--more deserving, more special, and even divinely elevated. He feels we're here to serve his every whim, and he doesn't have any problem demanding that we do so. In other words, he's a completely shameless ruler.