What Rhymes With Witch

Tonight at the bar we were discussing Barbara Bush (the elder).

I don't think she's stupid, as one might gather from observing that she routinely says tone-deaf things in public. But I also don't think she's a canny lady who's deliberately playing politics in a way that will work for her son.

What she is is a sociopath. She is incapable of grasping that her words and actions have consequences for others akin to what she might herself feel.

So when she's confronted with mass death abroad, she's dismissive of the idea that she should "waste (her) beautiful mind" on the matter.

When she sees thousands of people newly homeless, she happily observes that their circumstances have only been improved, as they were poor before.

And when (as George pointed out some time ago) she meets a gay couple, she's delighted to socialize with them. It's not as though she had to deal with the fact that their citizenship is effectively worth less than hers.

The word is "sociopath." She cares for nothing but her own pleasures. And somehow she's picked up this image as America's beloved granny.

I'd gladly kick her teeth in if I weren't so sure she had dentists at the ready to make her smile more painfully white than ever.