How Bad Is He Really?
A friend of mine asked me to write a piece arguing whether or not I believed George W. Bush is the worst president of our lifetime.
As I've written earlier, I am a member of Generation X. Our generation began in the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency, though I wasn't born until Richard Nixon. No matter. Let's take a look at the presidents we've had in the GenX years:
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
No wonder GenX is so disillusioned with politics. This is a pretty sorry bunch. Even Reagan, who is by far the best president in the list, falls far short of what I'd consider a great president. And the drop off between Reagan and Clinton, the second best on the list, is considerable. Let's see if we can look briefly at each one.
Johnson: He is responsible for enormous good and enormous bad. One word: Vietnam. His presidency came at a time when America was ripping itself apart over a bad war, civil rights and angry youth. Despite the horrors of the Sixties, however, Johnson did more for civil rights than any president not named Abraham Lincoln.
Nixon: I get a big kick out of Republicans who try to defend him. Richard Nixon was a terrible man before his presidency and he wasn't any better during it. He was a McCarthyist Republican whose paranoia did him in. He's the only president to fail to complete his term without being assassinated.
Ford: In the two short years of his presidency, there were two attempts on his life. He also pardoned Nixon. That said, I believe Ford's worst offense was giving political power and experience to Cheney and Rumsfeld. Still, the last soldiers left Vietnam under his watch.
Carter: This man gets hammered for ineffectiveness on many levels. He was elected because he was a non-political man. He was a man of ideals and beliefs. Of all the men on this list, he is by far the most admirable and decent. Unfortunately, these are not qualities that succeed in Washington (unless you are a force of nature, like Theodore Roosevelt).
Reagan: He changed interest rates forever, thank goodness. Also, he gave Americans a reason to be proud again. We'd had a long run of bad times and it was hard to find a reason to feel good about being a citizen. He changed that. However, he gets far too much credit for the fall of the Soviet Union and far too little blame for the problems of the late eighties and early nineties. Let me remind you, his presidency led to a terrible recession and the worst period of crime the country had seen since the days of the old west. Homelessness, drugs, AIDS, these are Reagan's children. And, yes, he was still the best of this lot.
Bush: Bush might have been the best of this bunch if he was able to put a stop to even one of the post-Reagan problems. Instead, he was ineffective. He also proved out-of-touch.
Clinton: Talk about a disappointment. When Clinton became president, there was this massive "Hallelujah!!" throughout the country. He got hammered right away by his enemies for things beyond his presidency (like infidelity) which was his ultimate ruin. He also got hammered by many of his own supporters for not doing enough. Looking back, though, the horrible internal strife caused by the Reagan administration seemed to all but disappear in Clinton's eight years. Drug use became less prevalent, as did teenage pregnancy. Crime hit lows unseen since the 1950's. The economy boomed. If we credit Reagan with the Soviet downfall (even partial credit), we need to do the same for Clinton.
That leaves us with George W. Bush.
He inherited a solid, if not ideal, economy. He inherited few real problems, when you think about it. We felt pretty secure. In fact, after the election and we realized he was our president, life just seemed to go on. He would have been a one term president who accomplished little or nothing in his four years, good or bad.
Everything changed on 9/11.
There are moments in history that define leaders. The Civil War defined Lincoln's presidency. The Depression defined Hoover's. World War II defined FDR's. 9/11 defined George W. Bush.
And how did he respond? At first, wonderfully. He rallied the country behind him. In fact, he rallied most of the world. Even pacifists were behind him. It seemed he was destined for an unlikely greatness.
It wasn't long, though, that he began to stray. Iraq, that country his father had defeated a decade earlier and was basically a shell of a threat, was his next target. We can only assume why, but the facts have proven that Iraq was never a threat. And in conquering Iraq, he managed to create for himself and American troops a new Vietnam.
Meanwhile, al Quaida is free to wreak havoc. And Iran's power grows.
When tragedy hit home, as it did to New Orleans, he did nothing. Thousands died unnecessarily. Thousands more were displaced. Bush blamed others.
Since the fall of Joe McCarthy, Americans have been enjoying a growing sense of freedoms. Little by little, the words of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were being applied to more people and in more areas. Until Bush.
Americans pride themselves in being above terrorists. Yet torture has played a role in theis administration. Torture is a form of terrorism.
The ties that previous presidents, most notably Carter, Reagan and Clinton, had worked so hard to achieve throughout the world, have been weakened. We are no longer trusted.
Deals have been made where his friends have profited from the costs of this war. Meanwhile America's deficit has never been higher.
I could go on. I won't.
I was too young to really grasp Watergate, and I certainly wasn't around in the 1960's. Still, I'd be hard pressed to think anyone was worse a president than George W. Bush.
As I've written earlier, I am a member of Generation X. Our generation began in the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency, though I wasn't born until Richard Nixon. No matter. Let's take a look at the presidents we've had in the GenX years:
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
No wonder GenX is so disillusioned with politics. This is a pretty sorry bunch. Even Reagan, who is by far the best president in the list, falls far short of what I'd consider a great president. And the drop off between Reagan and Clinton, the second best on the list, is considerable. Let's see if we can look briefly at each one.
Johnson: He is responsible for enormous good and enormous bad. One word: Vietnam. His presidency came at a time when America was ripping itself apart over a bad war, civil rights and angry youth. Despite the horrors of the Sixties, however, Johnson did more for civil rights than any president not named Abraham Lincoln.
Nixon: I get a big kick out of Republicans who try to defend him. Richard Nixon was a terrible man before his presidency and he wasn't any better during it. He was a McCarthyist Republican whose paranoia did him in. He's the only president to fail to complete his term without being assassinated.
Ford: In the two short years of his presidency, there were two attempts on his life. He also pardoned Nixon. That said, I believe Ford's worst offense was giving political power and experience to Cheney and Rumsfeld. Still, the last soldiers left Vietnam under his watch.
Carter: This man gets hammered for ineffectiveness on many levels. He was elected because he was a non-political man. He was a man of ideals and beliefs. Of all the men on this list, he is by far the most admirable and decent. Unfortunately, these are not qualities that succeed in Washington (unless you are a force of nature, like Theodore Roosevelt).
Reagan: He changed interest rates forever, thank goodness. Also, he gave Americans a reason to be proud again. We'd had a long run of bad times and it was hard to find a reason to feel good about being a citizen. He changed that. However, he gets far too much credit for the fall of the Soviet Union and far too little blame for the problems of the late eighties and early nineties. Let me remind you, his presidency led to a terrible recession and the worst period of crime the country had seen since the days of the old west. Homelessness, drugs, AIDS, these are Reagan's children. And, yes, he was still the best of this lot.
Bush: Bush might have been the best of this bunch if he was able to put a stop to even one of the post-Reagan problems. Instead, he was ineffective. He also proved out-of-touch.
Clinton: Talk about a disappointment. When Clinton became president, there was this massive "Hallelujah!!" throughout the country. He got hammered right away by his enemies for things beyond his presidency (like infidelity) which was his ultimate ruin. He also got hammered by many of his own supporters for not doing enough. Looking back, though, the horrible internal strife caused by the Reagan administration seemed to all but disappear in Clinton's eight years. Drug use became less prevalent, as did teenage pregnancy. Crime hit lows unseen since the 1950's. The economy boomed. If we credit Reagan with the Soviet downfall (even partial credit), we need to do the same for Clinton.
That leaves us with George W. Bush.
He inherited a solid, if not ideal, economy. He inherited few real problems, when you think about it. We felt pretty secure. In fact, after the election and we realized he was our president, life just seemed to go on. He would have been a one term president who accomplished little or nothing in his four years, good or bad.
Everything changed on 9/11.
There are moments in history that define leaders. The Civil War defined Lincoln's presidency. The Depression defined Hoover's. World War II defined FDR's. 9/11 defined George W. Bush.
And how did he respond? At first, wonderfully. He rallied the country behind him. In fact, he rallied most of the world. Even pacifists were behind him. It seemed he was destined for an unlikely greatness.
It wasn't long, though, that he began to stray. Iraq, that country his father had defeated a decade earlier and was basically a shell of a threat, was his next target. We can only assume why, but the facts have proven that Iraq was never a threat. And in conquering Iraq, he managed to create for himself and American troops a new Vietnam.
Meanwhile, al Quaida is free to wreak havoc. And Iran's power grows.
When tragedy hit home, as it did to New Orleans, he did nothing. Thousands died unnecessarily. Thousands more were displaced. Bush blamed others.
Since the fall of Joe McCarthy, Americans have been enjoying a growing sense of freedoms. Little by little, the words of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were being applied to more people and in more areas. Until Bush.
Americans pride themselves in being above terrorists. Yet torture has played a role in theis administration. Torture is a form of terrorism.
The ties that previous presidents, most notably Carter, Reagan and Clinton, had worked so hard to achieve throughout the world, have been weakened. We are no longer trusted.
Deals have been made where his friends have profited from the costs of this war. Meanwhile America's deficit has never been higher.
I could go on. I won't.
I was too young to really grasp Watergate, and I certainly wasn't around in the 1960's. Still, I'd be hard pressed to think anyone was worse a president than George W. Bush.
posted by E-Luv at 8:37 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home