Many Americans are counting the days until George W. Bush leaves office. I have to admit, in some ways it will be a relief. History will ultimately decide where he falls in the pantheon of American Presidents. I suspect the top couple of tiers are out, but I do not buy into the "worst ever" argument.
I voted for George W. Bush twice. I do not regret either vote. I felt George W. Bush was the right man for the time in 2000 and 2004.
Am I disappointed? Sure. I am disappointed at the explosion of government spending in the Bush years. I am shocked that a Republican President with a Republican Congress did not shrink the size of the federal government. I watched in dismay as new entitlement programs were created. All in all, it was not the type of Republican governance I expected. Yes, Congress was out of control, but the President had a veto pen, he just refused to use it. He should have, many times.
The real legacy of George W. Bush however is 9/11 and the aftermath. One thing leaps out to me: America has not been attacked on our shores since 9/11. I do not believe for a moment that there have not been plots, but we have stayed safe. George W. Bush did something right.
Iraq? I believe going in to Iraq was the right thing to do. When the world changed on 9/11, we no longer had the luxury of simply engaging in proportional responses to attacks after the fact. It simply became unacceptable to risk losing thousands of civilian lives, or even an American city.
Much has been said about our "standing in the world" and the need to restore it. I think George W. Bush viewed himself as the American President and was not concerned with whether he was popular in the streets of Paris. In 2004 John Kerry spoke of the "global test" before we protected our interests. George W. Bush looked to protect American interests first and world popularity second. To me, there is nothing wrong with that.
Many on the left also look for sinister motives in things such as the Patriot Act. The blogosphere dreams of some sort of criminal trial of George W. Bush. There have even been books written on that very idea. To those I ask: what would have been the motive? George W. Bush did not enrich himself with the Patriot Act. As his term winds down, he is not trying to take extraordinary powers and stay in office. In his judgment the government needed certain tools to protect the American people. We can debate the value of those tools and the balancing of the freedoms lost, but please spare me the criminal theories or the "spying on innocent" Americans drivel.
Many never viewed George W. Bush as a "legitmate" President. Dad's famous name, Florida 2000 and some even argue Ohio 2004. In the minds of almost half the country, he was not a legitmate President. That is sad. In January a President will be sworn in. I did not vote for him, and in all likelihood will not vote for him in 2012. Still, he is a legitimate President. He is my President just as George W. Bush was my President.
As the end nears, I view George W. Bush as a decent man, who loves his country and tried to do what he thought was best to protect it. Was he always right? No. Still, I think history will be more fair than the passions of the moment.
1 comment:
Ugh. Even a half-hearted defense of Bush as "not the worst president" is mildly nauseating. I believe there will be a Nixon effect, with more attacks on Bush to come when he is immediately out of office, then a return to historical perspective. But still, with Dick Cheney, one of the worst President/Vice-President teams in a Century. Not since the run of corrupt Ohio Republicans has it been so bad. Perhaps Bush did not directly enrich himself, but his Vice-President did, not with the Patriot Act, but with the made-up war against Iraq. To quote the great political philosopher Don Henley:
"Armchair warriors often fail
And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales The lawyers clean up all details Since daddy had to lie"
Armchair Warriors Bush, Cheney and Wolfowitz failed. They didn't listen to their retired warrior/chief diplomat who told them not to go to War in Iraq. Instead, they made him lie to the U.N. to justify their made up war. What a crock! Bush listened to Cheney, Rove and Karen Hughes. Even Karen Hughes couldn't take it and had to leave. Cheney and Rove are the biggest challenge to the legitimacy of Bush's presidency, beside the popular vote of the country and Bush's genetic predisposition to make bad economic decisions.
Ever since this Country was formed, it our standing with the World, especially Paris, has mattered. Without Lafayette and the support of the French government, there would not be as successful an American Revolution. George H.W. Bush recognized the need to build a wide-based coalition to succeed. W couldn't build one, but still decided to set us on a course to give billions of dollars to Halliburton so we could destabilize the least stable region of the world, instead of focusing on trying to capture the person we know is responsible for 9/11. Further we have only become more intertwined with Saudi Arabia, wheras all of the hijackers came for this country. Bankrupted by a 2 front War with no chance to win, we now will borrow money from China and throw it at our economic problem, with the same chance for a successful result as if, after you were laid off from work, due to a slowdown in business, you advanced money on your credit card and, while driving by your former employer, tossed money out the window in the hopes that your former employer would become more solvent and hire you back.
Well, we can agree that W is the worst President of the 21st Century, right? Yes, let's let history decide how low he ranks.
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