In the end, the score was Democracy 22, Freedom 21. It was a close match, but democracy won. Democracy always wins.

At least, that’s what George Bush hopes.

Last night I went to hear George W. Bush speak in Edmonton. Normally I wouldn’t have the kind of funds to attend an event like this, but one of the perks of working in media is sometimes you get free stuff.

This detail wasn’t clear to the small throng of protestors curled around the entrance to the Shaw Conference Centre. Interspersed between choral cries charging Bush Jr. with war crimes, some creative, and maybe vindictive, protesters would point at individual attendees and cast shame upon them for spending money to support such a monster.

I don’t know if I’d feel anything if I had purchased the tickets, but it felt more like I was watching the protestors on television. They were stock characters. Clichés. There were the aging hippies, holding signs that read slogans like: More Bud, Less Bush. And there were the young hippies, wearing the uniform of matted hair, bandanas, and vintage military jackets.

Not that the attendees were somehow more original or three dimensional. It was a crowd of backslappers in suits, and boomers mostly, sprinkled with the odd teenager tagging along with his parents. Every seemed to be playing a part.

And Bush played his part, too. Otherwise the game  my friend and I devised wouldn’t have worked.

My friend and I each picked three words–words we predicted the 43^rd president of the United States would use. I went with Freedom, Liberty, and Iraq. My friend chose 9/11, the Future, and Democracy. We kept track to see how often they popped up in the speech.

Freedom took an early and dominant lead. It was a good choice, since it played an essential role in discussing both foreign and economic policy. But the trouble is that Freedom inevitably leads to Democracy.

Bush was met with a standing ovation and his speech was punctuated with enthusiastic applause. That surprised me. Not that I was exactly expecting cat calls (though three protestors did manage to sneak in, each taking a turn to yell something unintelligible before being escorted out—except the fellow shouting about Israel. Everyone could hear him. The secret: timing and enunciation. Also, project.) But it took me off guard how readily the crowd supported his message, even though it was the same message he had pushed for the last eight years. I wonder if it was like hearing your favourite band play the song that made them famous. Sure, everyone’s heard “Don’t Stop Believing,” but when Journey starts playing it live, you know you’re going to go wild.

The speech seemed like a marketing a push; like Bush was defining his brand. He told a story about how, before 9/11, he planned on being known as the Education President. Today he is fighting to be known as a strong, war time president, and he trusted history to prove it. Still, it seemed striking that he thought about his legacy even before his presidency began. The way a business might.

Best line: “It’s good to be here in Alberta. You have oil here. Farming. Ranching. It’s almost like Texas. Only you speak better English.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 6:45 am and is filed under Current Events/Social Studies, Daily Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.