POST-PRESIDENTIAL DELAYED STRESS SYNDROME

At first, I thought I was the only one who reacted this way. I thought I was being melodramatic or just plain silly. But then I heard someone on a radio show say he reacted the same way and I realized it isn’t just me. What am I talking about? Simple: Whenever I hear someone say the phrase, “The president said” or “The president will” or any derivative of same, I cringe inwardly, expecting to hear the name George W Bush right after it.

Despite the fact that President Obama has already left an indelible mark on the White House and the country, I have not yet overcome the traumatic experience of the previous Executive-in-Thief.

It’s easy to say America’s long nightmare is over, although there are some out there who stupidly believe it has only now begun. But those people have proven themselves and their politicians irrelevant and useless, relics of a harmful and disconnected way of life. We now have the chance to repair some of the heedless damage they and their debatably elected officials created.

Yet I still cringe when I hear “The President.” I still, for a moment and before the relief kicks in, picture W’s smirking, dead-eyed face preparing to again embarrass the nation and mispronounce words eleven year olds can say with stunning proficiency. Then I realize the man I voted for is the subject of conversation and I breathe a little easier.

What causes this reaction, I wonder? Despite the fact that it’s only been a couple months, the difference between the two is so vast it should be no problem to adjust to the change. And I have on a conscious level. That doesn’t change my internal response, however.

I consider the eight-year reign of George W Bush to be a period of shameful, disgusting arrogance and short-sightedness that infected an entire nation, whether we agreed with him or not. No one else could have so effectively eroded world opinion in such a short time while obsessively seeking out ways to place the nation in debt through wars and contractor kickbacks. It was like watching a bunch of ex-cons grabbing an escaped mental patient and placing him in front of the cameras so they could continue their criminal activities. And we all suffered greatly for it, including those who sing his praises…

Some of us reacted to the trauma by closing up, surrendering all hope and expecting the United States to further descend into theocratic madness. Some of us, myself included, forgot that most things in life are cyclical and that eventually insanity can become sanity again. It was easy to do. After the Supreme Court handed over the presidency to the man that lost the popular vote and the knee jerk reaction to reelecting a wartime president four years later, it didn’t look like the America I’d briefly gotten to know in the Nineties would ever return.

I liken it to the way I was for a few years after high school. During my awkward year, age fifteen, I faced almost constant ridicule from girls in my class. A year later some of them had crushes on me and that period ended. But I still spent a couple years expecting that type of response wherever I went, even modifying my habits at home because some part of my brain refused to accept that I was safe there.

Bush’s legacy caused a similar response. Despite the ever-increasing voices of dissent, the monumental lack of concern on the part of his administration for anything not related to their greedy blood-soaked agenda seemed to eradicate all opposition. We found out that wasn’t true, but part of me still can’t get past when I thought it was.

I feel like an abused spouse who has remarried but keeps telling him or herself this is too good to be true. Yes, the new spouse seems nice and has a few faults, but any minute now they’re going to haul off and backhand me across the room. In fact, the new spouse will probably leave me because I have too many problems and I’ll wind up back with the old one. I probably don’t deserve anything better anyway.

Much like the formerly battered spouse who is now making healthy decisions, the new one is nothing like the abusive one. This one is caring, understands empathy and is intelligent enough to not have an enormous shoulder chip. In fact, the only similarity between Bush and Obama is that they both amazingly resemble Alfred E Neumann, despite looking nothing alike.

I know it’s going to take time to accept that “the president” no longer equates to the abusive spouse. I had a similar period of adjustment in the early Nineties when Clinton was elected, but nowhere near as severe.

Maybe that’s the reason Obama supporters have been accused of seeing the man as a savior. He is one! Anyone who could overcome the sheer hell of the previous eight years has to be someone with more going on than simple charisma and likeability.

Even if he fails in his mission to make America a responsive, responsible nation of equal and fair treatment for all, his arrival at this time in history ensures that his legacy will be far superior to that of the abusive husband he replaced.

I look forward to the day I don’t cringe anymore, but it might take a while~

An excellent & sadly relevant post from a colleague of mine:

http://noracooksmith.blogspot.com/2009/03/cowards-and-racism.html