BEHIND THE BUSHES

ASIDE FROM BEING A PROTO-FASCIST SOME OTHER WAYS GEORGE BUSH IS
DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS

GARRY WILLS, NY REVIEW OF BOOKS - The right wing in America likes to
think that the United States government was, at its inception, highly
religious, specifically highly Christian, and even more specifically
highly biblical. That was not true of that government or any later
government - until 2000, when the fiction of the past became the reality
of the present. George W. Bush was not only born-again, like Jimmy
Carter. His religious conversion came late, and took place in the
political setting of Billy Graham's ministry to the powerful. He was
converted during a stroll with Graham on his father's Kennebunkport
compound. It is true that Dwight Eisenhower was guided to baptism by
Graham. But Eisenhower was a famous and formed man, the principal
military figure of World War II, the leader of NATO, the president of
Columbia University-his change in religious orientation was just an
addition to many prior achievements. Bush's conversion at a
comparatively young stage in his life was a wrenching away from mainly
wasted years. . . .

Bush was a saved alcoholic - and here, too, he had no predecessor in the
White House. Ulysses Grant conquered the bottle, but not with the help
of Jesus. Other presidents were evangelicals. Three of them belonged to
the Disciples of Christ - James Garfield, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald
Reagan. But none of the three - nor any of the other forty-two
presidents preceding Bush (including his father)-would have answered a
campaign debate question as he did. Asked who was his favorite
philosopher, he said "Jesus Christ." And why? "Because he changed my
heart." . . .

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19590