Bush Speak: An Interview with Mark Crispin Miller

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted June 5, 2001.

George W. Bush is renowned for saying things like "It's not the way American is all about." His gaffes include "Desert Storm. We sold a lot of tickets" and "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm dictator." So if Bush has a way with words it's for twit-like wit and malapropian fluency. Last year he told the Los Angeles Times, "One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected." And on the campaign trail he shared with the New York Times: "I don't care what the polls say. I don't. I'm doing what I think what's wrong."

	Some Fine Bush Phrases from The Dyslexicon Q: When you're talking about politics, what do you and [your father] talk about? Bush: Pussy. - To David Fink of the Hartford Courant, at the 1988 Republican Convention "I know how hard it is to put food on your family." - Greater Nashua, New Hampshire, 1/27/2000 "What's not fine is, rarely is the question asked, are, is our children learning?" - Los Angeles Times, 1/14/2000 King: Can a president do something about [racial profiling]? There was a movement that Bill Clinton can sign an executive order dealing with it. To your knowledge, can you? Bush: I don't know about that, but yes, I think the President can call upon racial reconciliation in America. - Larry King Live, 9/26/2000 Thomas: Well, you're a secular official -- Bush: I agree. I am a secular official. Thomas: -- and not a missionary. Bush: Sir, on the air strikes in Iraq, the Pentagon is now saying that most of the bombs used in those strikes missed their targets. - New York Times, 2/23/2001 "Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" - Concord, New Hampshire, 2/29/2000 "This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." - Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York, 10/19/2000 "Well, we all make mistakes. I've been known to mangle a sy-lab-ble or two, you know. But you know what I mean. I think credibility is important." - Presidential debate, 10/12/2000

Mark Crispin Miller, the author of The Bush Dyslexicon: The Sayings of President Dubya, sees more in these verbal tics and grammatical bungles than just plain idiocy. In fact, the professor of media ecology at New York University credits Bush for speaking a language television producers and talk show hosts can understand: one of superfice and shallowness, of one-liners and aw-shucks answers. As Miller argues in his introduction:

"[T]his book is meant to shed some light on the propaganda of our time. The Dyslexicon attempts to give the lie to that enormous wave of propaganda -- a joint production of the GOP and the major media -- whereby George W. Bush was forced on us as President, then, after his inauguration, hailed nearly universally for his amazing charm, his democratic ease, his rare ability to be all things to all Americans, and so on. Our experience of this transparent coup has been disorienting from the start."

AlterNet spoke with Miller about his book and why, and how, the disorientation continues...

Don Hazen: Why do this book?

Mark Crispin Miller: It may sound grandiose, but my purpose was to help inspire the scattered and demoralized opposition to the Bush cabal, which was un-democratically installed and whose aims are wholly, dangerously anti-democratic. I try to do this mainly by reminding readers of George W. Bush's absolute unfitness for the presidency -- a fact that television always made quite clear to most of us (including many Bush supporters), even as "the liberal media" worked hard to play it down.

I'd like to add that, while I see Gore's "defeat" as a grotesque miscarriage of democratic procedure, the book is not intended as especially pro-Gore. While it takes a very dim view of the House of Bush and the far right, The Dyslexicon is also critical of both Gore and his party. The book suggests that both parties, and the corporate media, have much to answer for.

Nevertheless, Gore won. His fate, effected jointly by the GOP and the major media, was an appalling setback for American democracy.

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