Though they hate him, he’s still my president

Man, the Germans don’t like Bush. I actually read a newspaper article the other day that referred to the Georges Senior and Junior as Papa Bush and Baby Bush. I thought that kind of making-fun was reserved for discontented Democrats. But here in Dresden, where I am spending the first semester of my junior year, all I hear are snickering and sarcasm at the very mention of the name Bush.

I shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose. Germany as a nation is steadfastly against our proposed actions against Iraq and plans to stay as far away from the conflict as possible, though it does not hesitate for a moment to throw its two cents in the ring. The media here, as in the United States, mostly portrays Commander-In-Chief Dubya as a young prince who fell into his position of leadership through untimely inheritance and suddenly has no clue what to do, except pretend to be his father.

But perhaps so harsh a comparison is made to disguise the similarities between the recent election here in Germany and the last presidential election in our fair homeland. Gerhard Schroeder and Edmund Stoiber were neck and neck. The former, the incumbent chancellor, strolled straight down the middle of the political road, forsaking outstanding politics for familiarity. The latter, Bavarian Ministerpresident and head of the Christian Social Union, hailed from the proud, fiercely independent and some would say backwards German state of Bavaria.

Stoiber stuttered through his speeches and stumbled over simple phrases. His politics struck me as quite a bit more sinister than our little Baby Bush’s. For instance, good Stoiber hoped to alleviate German unemployment and open up jobs by slyly enticing women out of the workforce and back into the kitchen. His platform on foreign workers, a new problem and delicate topic in Germany, was steadfastly against their presence. He hoped to implement a one-strike-and-you’re-out-forever rule.

Meanwhile, most, if not all, of the third-, fourth-, and 82nd-party candidates campaigned with loud anti-Bush and anti-war criticisms, though anti-American-in-general sentiment is considered less than prudent.

Much to the relief of this American bystander, this time the square won. German Gore, (a.k.a. Schroeder), perhaps still quivering from his close call with Bizarro Bush, (a.k.a. Stoiber), berates Dubya with an intensity that even I don’t think he deserves.

Lay-Germans, sensing how narrowly they avoided having a national leader who is the brunt of all international jokes, now find especial glee in Bush humor. I find myself accosted with comments that start out with, ‘your president…,’ or ‘man that Bush is dumb,’ or ‘so Bush is like Hitler because…’ Now, I am a Democrat, but really!

For now Germany avoids problematic home politics by preoccupying itself with protests and profanities against my country and president. But I wonder, when Saddam points his missiles, will Chancellor Schroeder and his people be able to deal with the terror, which is just as likely to strike their home as anyone else’s, as well as our unlikely president has dealt in these past two years? I wonder now what politics really say about a people what the internal kampf and external appearance really tells the outsider about the individual countryman. And now more than ever before I am determined to convince these crazy Germans that just because I am an American does not mean that I voted for Bush. Just because I did not vote for Bush does not mean he is not my president.