Warning: I am holding back my real feelings in this essay. You may wish to read between the lines to imagine what I really think.
Various Republicans have taken the opportunity of the new Bush Library to claim that George W. Bush is being judged harshly, and that we
should not "rush to judgment" about his presidency, the
implication being that he will be vindicated with time. Well, it is true that time does change
some judgments. For example, Richard Nixon seems like a fucking
genius relative to Bush, do you suppose that is the kind of
vindication that these people mean?
Two such editorials can be found here and here.
I have reread these things and I have gone from merely annoyed to actually quite annoyed, even outraged at their no doubt sincere, corrupt beliefs. Their views lower my opinion of this country which was already low enough, believe me, and makes me wonder if one should even care. The Republicans through their insanity either have or will destroy the country. Depends, I suppose, on your point of view.
Two such editorials can be found here and here.
I have reread these things and I have gone from merely annoyed to actually quite annoyed, even outraged at their no doubt sincere, corrupt beliefs. Their views lower my opinion of this country which was already low enough, believe me, and makes me wonder if one should even care. The Republicans through their insanity either have or will destroy the country. Depends, I suppose, on your point of view.
Lets go over the facts of the so-called
Bush Presidency, shall we?
1. George Bush was not legally elected.
Everyone in the world knows that Bush
was not elected. If the votes had been counted in Florida, Gore would
have won the state and the election. Everyone in the world knows
this ... except the Republicans. They don't know it. I personally
believe that the USA lives in a world of denial about the dark side
of their own history in many ways. I think that they/we fail to
realize their involvement in the genocide of Native Americans, in
their responsiblity to the policy of slavery in this country, and the
absence of due process when the South was forcibly rejoined to the
so-called republic. You may not agree with all this, I understand.
But even though the election process has been notably flawed
throughout American history, we had not, to the best of my knowledge
elected the chief executive in a way that was obviously fraudulent.
Now I realize as I type this, that I might be wrong about this
because I am also woefully ignorant of certain periods of early
American history. Certainly there has been fraud in important
presidential elections, but in my lifetime as an adult I watched Bush
being put into office illegally and I know, from personal experience,
and most Americans know from personal experience, that elections dont
matter and voting doesn't matter because the rich are going to put
their friends in power whatever the vote says. And they proved
this by refusing, flat out refusing, to count
the votes in Florida. Good job guys.
2. The Supreme Court dishonored
themselves permanently.
When the Supreme Court unilaterally
decided that Bush was president using an argument that no one
believes, they ceased to be the Supreme Court. To be the Supreme
Court you have to have moral integrity. The court has none. You can
pretend there is a supreme court if you want to, but I don't. And
quite a few Americans do not either. Every decision made since the
one that put the Bush Administration into power needs to be examined
by a real supreme court if one ever exists. Sorry to have to tell
you this. I dont think it will ever happen. The Supreme Court
proved in my lifetime by this event that they are just a tool of the
right wing and will compromise any principle at the call of their
masters. Thus Bush destroyed the justice system in this country.
3. The USA is now permanently
associated with a policy of torture.
In all the wars and conflicts of this
nation's history, we never resorted to torture as an official
policy. Now, I can tell you that I am quite sure that there
were individual exceptions to this rule. I am sure that there were
prisoner interrogations during WWII that used excessive force, but
these were not policy, in fact, they were against policy. I am also
quite sure that during various periods of the Cold War that we would
regularly turn prisoners over to countries that did use torture.
But we did not use those kind of methods ourselves, directly, as a
matter of policy. Perhaps this is a subtle distinction, we were
certainly compromised by the use of torture of our allies. But I
think that there was some value to be had in the principle that we
did not use torture ourselves.
But now and for all time, the American
moral position has been stained and demeaned by the policy of torture
of the Bush Administration.
4. The war in Iraq
Whether or not the war in Afghanistan
was justified by the events of 911 (1), there is no
justification for the war in Iraq that I can see. The Bush
administration deliberately lied about why we should be there but even more important, they were wrong that we should be there. In other words, Iraq was not strategic for us.
Saddam Hussein may have been an asshole who killed people, but what
else is new? This war did nothing to protect America, it cost a
fortune in all the ways that one can measure costs of a war, and it
diverted attention and resources from other problems that needed that attention and money.
And now we are associated historically with the sewer that is Iraq. Before our intervention we had plausible deniability for that train wreck. Now we don't. And I am not even going to the issue of the Sunni/Shiite power struggle with Shiite Iran right next door. Jesus, didn't these people read even one book about the history of the region before they started this little intervention?
And now we are associated historically with the sewer that is Iraq. Before our intervention we had plausible deniability for that train wreck. Now we don't. And I am not even going to the issue of the Sunni/Shiite power struggle with Shiite Iran right next door. Jesus, didn't these people read even one book about the history of the region before they started this little intervention?
5. The Deficit
When Clinton left office we had a
surplus. When Bush left office we were in a major depression with a
huge deficit.
6. Tax Breaks for the Rich
Increase taxes on the middle class to
destroy them, give tax breaks to the rich to increase inequality in
this country.
7. The Economic Breakdown and the
Bailout
The financial system committed gross
financial malfeasance. The Bush administration failed to regulate
them properly and then bailed them out when they failed to the tune
of ... how much money did we spend? Does anyone really know? Not
less than a trillion dollars. Some people think that is a lot of money. Where is my bailout? I am waiting.
8. Denial of Global Warming and Science
in General
By denying Global Warming and failing
to act, millions and probably hundreds of millions of people will be
impoverished or killed. Probably. Global Warming is real, it is
not clear where it will all go, nor is it clear what we should do
about it, but denying it for 8 years did not help. The Republicans
in general and Bush in particular should be held accountable for this
as time goes on. We were the most powerful country in the world at
the time when the world needed to act, and we denied its existence.
9. Criminal Judges, Environmental
Disasters, the List Goes On
From right wing judges who perjured
themselves to get approved, to animals taken off the endangered
species list by right wing scum appointed by Bush to the EPA, the
list of crimes of the Bush Administration goes on and on.
A rush to judgement?
There are very serious issues with the Republican failure to see what a disaster Bush was. It may mean the destruction of the Republican party (which would be a good thing) or it may mean that we are so polarized as a nation that we can not govern ourselves, which is the current state of affairs.
There are very serious issues with the Republican failure to see what a disaster Bush was. It may mean the destruction of the Republican party (which would be a good thing) or it may mean that we are so polarized as a nation that we can not govern ourselves, which is the current state of affairs.
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1. Afghanistan was and is a nightmare, and one that, contrary to popular belief, we did not have that much to do with creating. After 911, and the Taliban's refusal to act on Bin Laden and his organization, no administration could have survived that did not act. On that point at least the Bush administration did not fuck up. Thereafter, in their management of the conflict, things are less clear.
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