The City of San Francisco appears ready to memorialize George W. Bush:
In November, alongside casting their ballot for the next president, the
people of San Francisco will also vote on a measure to rename one of
the city's largest sewage works the George W Bush Sewage Plant, to
provide a "fitting monument" to the outgoing commander-in-chief's
achievements.
There's a performance art wing of the Democratic Party on the far left that is entirely about taking actions like this. They pull all kinds of stunts that are designed to offend and alienate those who adhere to more-or-less middle class values. Those stunts never, ever advance their political cause, but then that's not the point. The point is to make the participants feel good about their own moral purity.
Treating people -- even reviled Presidents -- with respect is one of those things we're supposed to do because it's right, but it's also something that pays real-world dividends. In politics, the collegiality that sometimes frustrates those of us on the outside -- the go along, get along culture of Washington back-slapping -- makes it possible for politicians to fight it out one day and work productively together the next.
On the other hand, the creation of a deliberate, permanent, tax-payer-financed, partisan insult only makes it harder for us to do anything but yell at each other. And while yelling has it's place -- read my comments section sometime -- we all ought to remember that winners of elections should never be too smug and losers should never be made to feel too helpless. It was only four years ago, after all, that Republicans had control of the White House, both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and were confident that they were on their way to a permanent majority. Their anger and overreach caused a political crash-and-burn that historians will marvel at for a hundred years.
Politics is a cyclic business, and if the last few years have proved anything it's that those cycles get shorter and shorter all the time. Kicking the other guys when they're down may feel good, but it's not an effective way to maintain public support. Respect seems like a wiser course to take.
