On e-mail discussion groups, the web, radio, and television, I often come upon Big Government Republicans accusing their opponents of harboring an "irrational hatred of Bush." Bush's defenders claim they are driven by facts and reason, and that Bush's critics are driven by emotions.

Now, let's get this straight: it is indeed possible to have an "irrational" hatred of Bush. To hate Bush for his refusal to sign the Kyoto Accords, when this refusal only reflects the unanimous will of the Senate, is irrational. It's irrational to blame this or any President just because one is out of work. Big Government Democrats can fall into this trap. It isn't what the President does, it is what he fails to do, that makes many people angry. For them, no matter how much Bush spends on social programs, it's never enough. Democrats also resent that Bush steals their issues: campaign finance reform, Medicare drug benefits, tariffs, agriculture spending, massive increases in federal education spending, politically correct immigration enforcement, going to war against nations that don't attack us. They also hate him for cutting income tax rates a little. There is indeed some merit to the charge that Democrats hate Bush primarily because he is a Republican politician.

And there is another form of irrational hatred. Which is, singling out Bush for the behavior that all politicians are guilty of. In our current electoral system, no matter who was President, we'd still have this insane War on Drugs. We'd still remain part of the United Nations. In many ways, Bush shouldn't be held to greater scorn than other politicians. He may be a liar, a murderer, and a thief, but so are the rest of them.

That said, there are reasons to single out President Bush as easily the worst President in at least a generation and potentially of all time. There are reasons to cringe whenever his face is shown, whenever he speaks. There are rational reasons to hold Bush personally accountable for laws signed, wars started, budgets proposed, cabinet departments created, startling inaction in our greatest crises, about-faces in policy and rhetoric, and all the damage that followed.

Do I hate Bush? On some metaphysical or spiritual level, I would say that "hate" is a strong word. On the practical level, however, I do. I want to see his Presidency utterly destroyed - at the least possible cost to the American people and the world, of course. It wasn't always like this. While I voted for Harry Browne in 2000, I was one of those who believed Bush "wasn't as bad as Gore." In the first few months of his Presidency, I did hope that he'd do some things well. I didn't hold it personally against him that he was a Republican or that he didn't believe in small government. The case for hating Bush started small, but has turned into an avalanche.

So, here are some of my reasons why I hate Bush. Take note, this is not a ranking, nor does the list follow any order other than what popped into my head:

1. Hey Big Spender (.pdf)
2. McCain-Feingold: (The link proves that Bush signed into law a bill he admitted was unconstitutional.)
3. Steel tariffs
4. Lumber tariffs
5. Homeland Security
6. PATRIOT Act
7. No Child Left Behind
8. Medicare Drug Benefit
9. Harriet Miers
10. Promoting Condoleeza Rice to Secretary of State
11. Promoting Alberto Gonzales to Attorney General
12. Abu Ghraib
13. "Brownie"
14. Donald Rumsfeld
15. "Humble foreign policy"
16. "The Pet Goat"
17. "Total Information Awareness"
18. Staged Hurricane Katrina appearances
19. Federal funding for stem cell research (Tenth Amendment, anybody?)
20. The power to torture children
21. Afraid to face 9-11 Commission alone
22. Won't veto anything
23. Threatened veto of torture ban, of all things
24. Signing torture ban, then setting it aside
25. Pre-planned attack on Afghanistan
26. Valerie Plame
27. Jose Padilla
28. Gonzales v. Raich
29. John Ashcroft
30. "Mission Accomplished"
31. Jessica Lynch
32. REAL [national] ID
33. Awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Tenet
34. and Paul Bremer
35. Bush v. Gore
36. New Orleans "New Deal"
37. ending his vacation "early" -- at least three days too late
38. Ignoring the UN/enforcing the UN's resolutions
39. scare tactics
40. "take off your shoes"
41. welfare for agribusiness
42. Cheney's secret energy policy meetings
43. the "stop-loss" draft
44. the NSA spy scandal
45. the real cost of the war
46. depleted uranium
47. the dumbed-down military
48. "Faith-Based Initiative"
49. Al-Jazeera
50. "Bring them on!"
51. "free nations are peaceful nations"
52. "free speech zones"
53. silly NASA missions
54. "stop throwing the Constitution in my face!"
55. "annoying e-mail" ban
56. "the War on Terror"
57. beating war drums against Iran
58. Killing everyone except Saddam
59. and Ayman al-Zawahri
60. No pardon for Martha Stewart
61. or for Jamal Lewis
62. "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" (.pdf)
63. The U.S.-funded "Orange Revolution" fraud
64. Guantanamo
65. He keeps giving Arabs good reasons to hate us
66. Ignoring Daddy's Common Sense
67. Refused the Taliban's reasonable request for evidence against Osama
68. Operation Iraqi Theocracy
69. Enabling both sides in the Drug War

I'm sure that between the time I submit this article and when it appears, I will think of another dozen reasons. Or I will be reminded of some person or event, slap my hand on my forehead and go, "why didn't I remember that?" But you get the picture. This isn't about Bush being a spoiled aristocrat who mispronounces words. I don't care about that. I just want to repeal the last five years.