That clarity was the first hit. It felt good. It felt safe. But as any addict knows, the first hit is always free. As the Iraq War ground on and Katrina flooded New Orleans, the nature of the addiction mutated. We no longer needed the leader; we needed the character .
In the months following the attacks, the nation needed a certain kind of high: decisive, simplistic, and visceral. Bush provided "The Axis of Evil," "Mission Accomplished," and the thrill of hunting for WMDs. It was a raw, emotional power trip. For a moment, the fuzzy ambiguity of the 90s vanished. You were either with us or against the terrorists. addicted to bush 2
Suddenly, politics felt boring. We needed another hit. We needed the next villain. We needed the next "You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie." We had been trained to consume politics as a spectacle of personality, not a process of policy. Recovery is hard. Look at the political landscape today. The names have changed, but the addiction remains. We still chase the high of the 24-hour scandal. We still crave the villain. We still confuse volume for virtue. That clarity was the first hit