There are those who don't want you to discuss the Bush 43 years.

[Lasher]

If you debate Republicans (or whatever else they call themselves these days) at blogs, in email groups, or in some other forum, any reflection on the consequences of the Bush 43 years have probably been met with smokescreens designed to suppress the discussion:

'That's in the past, I just want to talk about the future.'
'He wasn't a real Republican. There's nothing wrong with GOP ideologies.'
'Presidents can't make any difference.'
'Clinton's fault. Carter's fault. FDR's fault. Pelosi's fault. Reid's fault.'
'You just want to blame GWB for everything when others contributed to our plight.'
'It's too early to tell. Let history be the judge about 20 years from now.

Don't let them get by with this.

Junior may be gone but the discredited ideas that he put into practice with disastrous results are still very much with us. They are standard Republican dogma of the past 28 years: Tax cuts for the rich, attacks against labor unions, deregulation of corporations, dismantling of the social safety net, lip service for fiscal restraint while running massive deficits, adversarial foreign policies and continuous war. Much as Republicans are now trying to disown Bush and pretend that the calamitous Bush presidency was an isolated aberration, Bush was their fair-haired boy up until the 2006 Congressional elections and even beyond. His calamitous presidency represented the full, noxious flowering of longstanding Republican ideology. In 2004, for the first time since the New Deal, the Republicans got their hands on the whole apparatus of the federal government - executive, legislative and judicial - and proceeded to drive the country over a cliff.

That's why we can't let right wingers pretend the last eight years never happened, no matter how hard they try.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. You kidding? One day the History Channel will be known as The Bush Channel

b/c almost every program will be devoted to analyzing WTF really happened during those eight years.

[Wickerman]

2. Much in the same way they don't like to discuss GHWB's tenure, either

go figure.

[Lasher]

5. They still like to talk about Saint Ronnie though.

But that's all myths and none of the truth. And as time goes by we are hearing less of that too.

[tblue37]

18. I still hear a lot of it, and I think the Republican Party will, in the long term,

work overtime to try to rehabilitate Bush's public image as well. For heaven's sake, Ann Coulter has even tried to get people to see Joe McCarthy as an American hero persecuted by godless commies--and in wingnut circles, she has been fairly successful at it.

We have to be vigilant, because they will sanctify him as they have done with Reagan. WE didn't manage to stop them from rewriting Reagan's history, so I fear that we won't be able to stop them on Bush. But I think we should certainly try.

Think about it: these are the *sshats who are now claiming "everyone knows" that FDR prolonged the Great Depression!

Americans don't know squat about history, so they believe whoever shouts longest and loudest.

[chalky]

22. I still can't get over the articles that tried to play Bush off as some big reader

because freakin' KARL "never met a truth I couldn't turn into a lie" ROVE said it was so. One jackass went so far as to suggest that comedians everywhere should apologize to Bush for suggesting that he was an idiot. I mean, come the fuck on....how much of a sucker do you have to be to quote KARL ROVE as gospel with wide-eyed earnestness?

[Wapsie B]

3. That is a standard tactic of repugs, to attempt to deflect responsibility

for anything bad happening. They'll say now is not the time to find blame but to move on.

[eleny]

4. Yes, it's the very mess Obama's administration is all about fixing

[Loge23]

6. Well said.

I believe we should also keep in mind that a good percentage of people who still support this failure are really not worth any debate.
Some will quickly erect a barrier of religious beliefs. No matter how hard you argue that Obama best represents true Christian principles, they will not hear you - it's all about the single issue to them (you all know what single issue I'm talking about).
Others will hang their hats on bogus conspiratorial issues - good time to smile, wave, and leave.

Some can be debated over the basic DEM vs. REP philosophy. It's those that I enjoy and poster Lasher just provided us with great jumping off points.

I have to say, if it's indeed only 25% or so that still are "the base", then possibly about 10% of them are in the religious/conspiracy extremes mentioned above.
Now that's change that I can believe in!

[Lasher]

14. Thank you.

I was inspired by some good discussion at this blog that I just happened across.

While it is true that some will never listen to reason, there others watching from the sidelines who will. It is for they that we can't let these obfuscations go unchallenged.

[4lbs]

7. Bob Woodward and Seymour Hersh will be bringing out the real truth soon.

Both have commented in various interviews since Obama's election that quite a few Bush insiders told them to wait until Jan 21, and the information would be free-flowing to them about all the insidious nooks-and-crannies of the Bush administration.

Thus, expect some explosive, embarrassing stuff published by year's end.

[Enthusiast]

20. I pray you are right!

Bush must be shamed, at the very least. Otherwise their efforts will be rewarded again as in 2,000.

[karynnj]

8. Actually - he had all three branches of government in 2000

until Jeffers switched and he regained it in the 2002 election. It is obvious he had the judiciary - they selected him! In 2005, that was strengthened with Alito and Roberts.

So, even from the time he came to office - he controlled everything. Even after 2006, all the Democrats had was a very narrow majority in the Senate. He pretty much got everything he wanted - so he has to live with the fact that what he wanted was not good.

[Lasher]

15. Good point, karynnj.

Republicans did control all 3 branches for most of Junior's first 6 years just as you say. And technically Democrats did not have a Senate majority during the past 2 years. It was actually a tie, with two independents who caucused with us giving us majority control. OK maybe that's slicing a point a little too thin but it underlines your point about our narrow majority after 2006.

Thanks for weighing in.

[hay rick]

9. Agreed.

Time to press the attack, not let them off the hook. Obama's honeymoon with the media will be brief. They reflexively represent moneyed interests and will surely resume their normal ways. They will try to shift the blame for the deteriorating economy to Obama sooner rather than later. They are already tossing out "the New Deal was a failure" as a talking point.

[Cha]

10. You know they didn't like hearing Obama's

Inaugural..especially the bush, himself.

[Lasher]

16. I know just what you mean.

But I was highly pleased to have heard him make the very same points.

[nichomachus]

11. I don't consider Bush #43.

Clinton was 42 and Obama is 44. The 43 is missing, like the 13 on elevators in many buildings.

[glitch]

21. I like that way of thinking. 43 was hijacked, there was no 43, only the stain of fraud and theft.

a great big * on the chart of presidents posted on all future school cafeteria walls.

[agentS]

12. Translation- Pay no attention to the mass grave I'm standing next to!

Shorter GOP- Ignore the giant hole in the ground stuffed with bodies and tax dollars and our dignity! Let's talk about the future! Sarah Palin would be wonderful as president!

[bottomtheweaver]

13. Both Bush presidencies were creations of the CIA

and both those evil scamsters are creatures of it. It's really astonishing how thoroughly the monstrous US intel apparatus -- 16 agencies in all, basically a black bag and PR operation set up to promote Big Oil, War Inc, and Wall Street -- has infiltrated every layer of the US media, education, and political establishments. That's where crap "conventional wisdom" like Ronnie's legacy comes from. Also all those bullshit lies about the Kennedys which get parroted everywhere.

[Enthusiast]

19. I fear you may be right.

They will have a million and one schemes to derail Obama's efforts to right the ship of state. It starts with the media. I remember on Clinton's first inauguration. TV talking heads started in saying how serious the "Whitewater" scandal was and how we must have an investigation. Vast right wing conspiracy? Bet your last Dollar on it.

[Hugabear]

17. Funny how they had no problem whatsoever throwing Clinton under the bus after Dubya took over

Shit, they still keep dragging up stuff like Whitewater.