Worldview Item of the Day
One of my professors this quarter clearly does not like President Bush (the others are just less clear). I have had three classes with this professor so far this quarter, and in each class she has taken at least one opportunity to make the statement “They say that President Bush is the worst president the United States has ever had.”
I really have no desire to get into a political debate with this professor (I save that desire for my journalism class), but I cannot help but try to get her to clarify who “they” are. Her response has been, to date, to respond with a more emphatic “He is the worst president we have ever had.”
Apparently, she is part of they.
I have no problem with the fact that there are quite a few Americans, both within academia and without, who despise President Bush. While I disagree with most of these peoples’ reasons, I respect their right to their opinion and speech. What I do not respect is the mindset of “if some people I agree with say something is true, then it must be true.”
Interestingly, this mindset is exactly what people like the one I have described accuse me of doing when I agree with the President. More insidiously, they sometimes couch this accusation in the suggestion that my opinions are simply parroting a party line I neither understand nor comprehend, which is worse than simply suggesting that I agree with what others believe.
While I hold what I believe very close, I always allow for the possibility that fact may yet prove my belief wrong. It is for this reason alone that I am so careful to make the clear distinction in my own statements between what I think and what is true.
Whatever one’s political persuasion, the truth is an empirical concept that has nothing to do with what people say or believe. Certainly, some people believe that the President is evil incarnate. Some people believe that the President thinks of himself as king. Some people believe that the President has made a mess of the United States. To date, these are all opinions not supported by vast numbers of other people who say something completely different.
Unfortunately, there is no way to suggest to my professor that her statement is fallacious (which is ironic given that part of the class requires us to perform rhetorical analysis of speeches) or that she might better state her view as something like “some people believe…” or “I think …”
I think, however, we would all be better off in the ongoing national debate if we all backed off from the temptation to state our opinions as facts. Defining what we have concluded from what is true might go a long way toward clarifying the debate and allowing it to move beyond the rhetoric.
Given facts and opinions on a grand scale history might decide that Andrew Johnson, the President that followed Abraham Lincoln was usually considered the worst president, we ever had. Then the case of an ineffective President goes to William Henry Harrison of Indiana fame. His Presidency only lasted for 30 days until his death.
I shall reserve most of what I’ve found to be documented fact about the Bush family in the twentieth century. However there’s some intesting facts about both President George Herbert Walker Bush and his Father, Prescott Bush that should bear learning by all you learned.
Perhaps our present Commander is not the worst president according to your professor. Let it be known that this man thinks, he is a lousy orator. Of course you know that I was spoiled by the “great communicator”, President Ronald Reagan, himself. He was my first President, I voted for right out of high school.