George W. Bush has become synonymous with intelligence failures. He was wrong about WMD and Al Queata in Iraq and a host of other vital topics but nothing sums up his failure of intelligence quite so well as his taste in art.
After crawling out of the liquor bottle he had all but lived in for the better part of twenty years Bush did two things. He got religion and he got a painting. The religion was an evangelical form of Methodism and the painting was western illustration by the well known artist W.H.D. Koerner that the President thinks is named "A Charge to Keep."
Bush is so fond of this painting that it proudly hangs in the oval office and he even used its supposed name as the title of his official,
ghost written, biography.
While still Governor of Texas
Bush sent a memo to his staff in which he gushed:
I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission.
My very close personal friend from Midland, Joe. J. O'Neill, III, recently loaned me a portrait entitled "A Charge to Keep" by W.H.D. Koerner. This beautiful painting will hang on my wall for the next four years.
The reason I bring this up is that the painting is based upon the Charles Wesley hymn "A Charge to Keep I Have". I am particularly impressed by the second verse of this hymn. The second verse goes like this:
"To serve the present age, my calling to fulfill;
O may it all my powers engage to do my Master's will"
This is our mission. This verse captures our spirit.
"Slipper tongue" or "A Charge to Keep?"
Nice story. Too bad that, like so much of what Bush believes, it is simply is not true. In Bush's imagination the lead rider, who he sees as himself, symbolizes the Methodist circuit riders of the 19th century, who helped spread religion to the largely secular America of the day.
Methodist circuit rider.
In reality the painting was originally commissioned by the
Saturday Evening Post to illustrate a short story called "Slipper tongue." Jacob Weisberg, tracked down the full story, which he tells in his new book
"Bush, The Bush Tragedy"
The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”
So what Bush sees as the inspirational figure of a hard riding preacher is in reality a silver tongued horse thief fleeing a lynch mob. A more fitting monument to this delusional administration can hardly be imagined!
Bush's confusion stems from the fact that the illustration, which was painted by German immigrant Wilhelm Heinrich Dethlef Körner, was used by three different magazines to illustrate three very different stories.
After the Saturday Evening Post finished with the painting the artist, who changed his name to William Henry Dethlef Koerner, sold the right to reproduce it to another magazine who used it to illustrate a non fiction story about the Mexican Revolution. In this incarnation the picture was captioned:
Bandits move from town to town pillaging whatever they can find
Finally the painting was used by a magazine called "The Country Gentleman" to illustrate another fiction story called "A Charge to Keep" which was an early environmentalist story about a young man who inherits a piece of land and his struggles against the timber barons who try to kill him in order to get his land.
Not one of these stories has anything to do with religion or with the early Methodist minister Charles Wesley. The story is entirely made up. What is really frightening however is that Bush apparently actually believes this fable and it is this unshakable belief in the face of facts that psychologist call the "Tolstoy syndrome" in which the sufferer is totally convinced that they know the "truth" and therefore refuses to accept any contrary evidence that is presented to them or to make any further inquiries that may undermine their faith.
This sort of behavior is a distinguishing characteristic of extremely bad leaders. America's tragedy is that it is currently being led by a delusional man who sees the world not as it is but as he wants it to be. In his mind he, and the rider in the painting, are "Christian cowboys," but in reality they are both desperate criminals one step ahead of the law.
----------------------------------
See also:
Horseshit! Bush and the Christian Cowboy
Email
Print
Share
