General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo some on this site
are now speaking of GW Bush in nostalgic and, sometimes, even glowing terms...Um...
HE'S A FUCKING WAR CRIMINAL!!
Shame on them.
dhol82
(9,353 posts)Guess painting vets gets him a blue ribbon at the state fair.
Warpy
(111,480 posts)until a bunch of rage-o-holic men in the rust belt gave us Dolt45.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)I hate him only slightly less than trump. I remember katrina and iraq. Mission sccomplished banners. The only difference I see it trump would use nukes, and dubya would not. Trump cannot wait to start a war just like dubya couldnt wait to get into iraq to avenge his father or whatthefuckever.
LisaM
(27,864 posts)His presidency was awful. It changed me as a person, and not in a good way.
bravenak
(34,648 posts)And he started that wa to get more power
He stole an election. This site came into being because of that theft.
NWCorona
(8,541 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)MineralMan
(146,358 posts)I promise.
Crunchy Frog
(26,724 posts)TexasProgresive
(12,165 posts)AKA 'rump he's a choir boy. It doesn't make George any better.
choie
(4,112 posts)He's a war criminal - in no way, shape or form is he a choir boy next to, on top of, or under, Trump.
Cobalt Violet
(9,905 posts)Lucky Luciano
(11,268 posts)butdiduvote
(284 posts)So I don't speak nostalgically about him. I do think I'd choose him if forced to choose between tRump and him.
choie
(4,112 posts)Iraqis whose country was decimated, or a Muslim who was illegally held and tortured in Guantanamo Bay.
LisaM
(27,864 posts)and to the people of New Orleans who lost their city.
Norbert9
(494 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 3, 2017, 07:01 PM - Edit history (1)
It had an enormous impact on my life. I thought we would never see another President as idiotic and incapable as he was. I thought I hated him. I was wrong on both accounts.
Because I HATE this current #$%&er with an everlasting passion of which I didn't think I was capable. There is really no comparison for me.
LisaM
(27,864 posts)At least the Shrubs liked, and had, pets.
coco22
(1,258 posts)StevieM
(10,500 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 3, 2017, 08:48 PM - Edit history (1)
I have seen posters here who cannot remember the Reagan years, but I think you are the first to say that you are too young to remember George W. Bush.
butdiduvote
(284 posts)I'm too young to have much of an opinion on what life was like under him.
StevieM
(10,500 posts)Let me see if I can describe the difference, from my point of view, between living under Trump and living under Bush.
Life under Bush felt like we were living in the middle of a really bad time in our country's history. Life under Trump feels like we are living in the middle of a really bad Hollywood movie.
eleny
(46,166 posts)I don't know how many thousands because not all the dead have been counted yet.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)But at the end of the day, I only wanted W in prison, not torn into fifty million tiny pieces and flushed down the toilet.
Maru Kitteh
(28,350 posts)I don't give a flying eff how he checks out either. That will be a day of celebration in the Maru home.
dalton99a
(81,709 posts)MedusaX
(1,129 posts)GW, at the time, was an embarrassment and clearly f'*cked up royally.. more than once...
He remains responsible for all decisions he made and I doubt that anyone truly has now exonerated him (in their mind) .....
Rather, it is likely that what appears to be nostalgic reminiscing of GW is actually
expressions of sheer disbelief that in such a short period of time after experiencing GWs royal f*ck ups....
we have somehow found ourselves in a situation that has managed to f*ck up so much in just 6 weeks
and is on schedule to end up so far beyond anything which we experienced with GW...
choie
(4,112 posts)not "fuck-ups" - they were war crimes. I doubt Iraqis think they were "fuck-ups"
LisaM
(27,864 posts)How people are so effed up to think Republicans make us more secure is beyond me.
hlthe2b
(102,581 posts)to the Trump cabal, does GWB look even slightly less horrific--that is Hardly what anyone could defensibly claim to be an endorsement or anything approaching a rehabilitation
choie
(4,112 posts)is better in comparison to Trump? I take a backseat to no one in my utter disgust and contempt for him, but he's not a war criminal...at least not yet.
hlthe2b
(102,581 posts)As one who spent the first weekend desperately trying to help a long term permanent resident Muslim colleague panicking after her returning green card holding husband was detained for more than 18 hours with no word at Chicago O'hare and subsequently dealt with multiple frantic student Latino "dreamers", who now realize our constitution is no deterrent to Trump, I find little "solace" in YOUR defense of him.. Not a war criminal (yet?)--how the hell do you know?
choie
(4,112 posts)before you claim I have a strange sense of relativism - you clearly don't understand what the hell a war criminal is. YOU are defending a war criminal.
hlthe2b
(102,581 posts)Many of us have been around here since that bastard's illegal inauguration in 2001, as have I. So take your undeserved sense of superiority and condescension elsewhere.
choie
(4,112 posts)so calling me a "newbie" means shit, as do your insults...
Occulus
(20,599 posts)is both defense and rehabilitation.
hlthe2b
(102,581 posts)You SHOULD be ashamed
Most DUers are able to detest GWB for his illegal war and believe he should have faced consequences of his use of torture. That is not at issue.
Occulus
(20,599 posts)and all I did was state an opinion. You put that opinion in your own mouth all by yourself.
hlthe2b
(102,581 posts)Save that for the other side, Occulus.. We OUGHT to be on the same side--can't you see that?
Pointing out that there are differences in Trump and Bush is hardly defending either one.
Occulus
(20,599 posts)Both are contemptible. So is the relativism that paints either in a favorable light vs. the other.
hlthe2b
(102,581 posts)To fail to recognize that, is to be very ill prepared to react to what is coming.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Maybe regard DU as a way to get in a little exercise to loosen up the brain?
I don't think many here actually admire W. But the train that would have carried him off to prison left the station without him a very long time ago now, and we have new and worse demons to worry about.
Crunchy Frog
(26,724 posts)W also didn't sell out his country to a hostile foreign power before even becoming president.
If Dump survives long enough in office, I expect him to achieve a high body count too.
And please do not construe this as any sort of defense of W.
alarimer
(16,245 posts)Also, given his budget proposal, he has the potential to ruin everything for a very long time for everyone here in the US. He also us destabilizing on the world stage in a way Bush never was. Bush never proposed to end the EPA, no matter how much certain fringe people in the Republican party wanted him to.
Plus the whole Russia thing seems unprecedented.
fun n serious
(4,451 posts)GWB's white house was actually very similar to Trump's. Massive corruption!
BainsBane
(53,137 posts)Trump is infinitely worse.
Solly Mack
(90,803 posts)that I have always felt.
War criminals that got away with torture, murder & other crimes against humanity.
Time doesn't change that.
Sure, I think things have the potential to be a lot worse under Trump/Pence but that changes not a damn thing about Bush/Cheney.
May as well ask me who do I prefer, Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy?
Solly, would you rather be shot to death or stabbed to death?
Which would be worse, Ebola or Marburg?
Fuck Bush. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. Forever. (same with the rest of them)
choie
(4,112 posts)Solly Mack
(90,803 posts)For the thread and your repines.
Each time we allow government to get away with crimes, government becomes that much more emboldened. That much more likely to commit future crimes of the same nature since they know exactly what they can get away with.
If Trump gets away with his actions, a future president will try the same thing (conflicts of interest, foreign influence on elections and policy), actually trying to govern through executive fiat, by-passing both Congress and the courts. Attacking and neutering government offices designed to help the country and the people.
In my opinion, each time a president gets away with their crimes, America becomes weaker. Our checks and balances become meaningless, making us weaker. Congress bears most of the responsibility for that - for not holding presidents accountable when they should.
Phentex
(16,334 posts)I still despise him and everything he did to this country.
Solly Mack
(90,803 posts)Nothing that happens under Trump will change that,
Allowing Bush/Cheney to get away with their crimes showed future presidents just how much they could also get away with.
And look who is in office.
dembotoz
(16,866 posts)leftstreet
(36,119 posts)We haven't (thankfully) heard much about or from him for 8 years
Now he's being compared favorably to Trump, showing up in the media, etc
Makes my teeth itch
He and Cheney should be in jail
Cosmocat
(14,597 posts)He can crawl out of his hole now, and given 45 will now as he always gloat Ed, history will see him better, I mean, 45 will be so God awful...
malaise
(269,365 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)First off, if I had the power, he'd be in prison today, but Trump would have it worse. Much, much worse.
unblock
(52,516 posts)amazing how one month of donnie can make us question that.
StevieM
(10,500 posts)is that Trump is uniquely awful. We have never had anything like this before, at least not since the Civil War.
Trump may give James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson a run for their money as the worst president in American history.
HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)liberal N proud
(60,352 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,724 posts)caroldansen
(725 posts)Keep reminding them so they never forget.
choie
(4,112 posts)n/t
Skittles
(153,321 posts)PEOPLE ARE *STILL* DYING BECAUSE DUBYA STARTED A WAR *BASED ON LIES*
50 Shades Of Blue
(10,112 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)"commander guy" just makes my skin crawl.
Skittles
(153,321 posts)I don't give a DAMN if Trump is so fucking bad he is making Dubya look better, but it's like PICKING THE BETTER MENENDEZ BROTHER......ENOUGH ALREADY
I disliked everything Bush stood for. I was unhappy
for those entire 8 years.
But compared to 45, he looks good in some ways.
I guess it's understandable to have a tendency
to see degrees of badness.
nocalflea
(1,387 posts)values-whether we agree with him or not.
That picture of him with Michelle Obama really humanized him for me in a way nothing else could have.
I in no way endorse what he did in the middle east nor the torture and the other abuses of his administration. But I do recoginise he is a human being. I haven't seen any humanity in Trump nor do I believe it exists in him.He is nothing.Empty.Null and void.
Tikki
(14,565 posts)NO forgiveness.
Tikki
11 Bravo
(23,928 posts)I want Trump humiliated, scorned, and despised ... unable to show his face in public ever again.
I want him bankrupt, his properties demolished, and the ground beneath them deeded to the National Park Service.
I want his name to become synonymous with failure and ridicule (Damn, the Browns Trumped another season!).
I want his children to change their surname, and his wife to publicly announce that the reason she has no desire to share a home with him is that he's hung like a hummingbird.
I want "One no trump" to morph from a bridge bid into our National Motto.
Have I mentioned that I don't care for him?
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)FarPoint
(12,487 posts)No one forgot....We are using all aspects to eliminate tRump...GW is fine as a tool ...New day, new fight.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,032 posts)It's just that Trump is even worse, which - if you compare them - makes Bush look relatively good. But if you look at him in absolute terms, he still deserves to have his grave danced or pissed on when he's dead (and I hope I live long enough to be able to do that). When Trump is dead (and I especially hope I live long enough to see that day), his grave should not only be danced and pissed on, it should be buried under tons of concrete, like Chernobyl. Trump's industrial-strength badness doesn't make Bush better than he ever was or deserving of sympathetic thoughts, but comparing the two reminds us that no matter how bad things, or people, can be, they can always get worse.
world wide wally
(21,762 posts)Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis.
Thousands of dead American soldiers.
And they all died for nothing.
Fuck GWB.
WheelWalker
(8,960 posts)Even Richard Nixon has got soul. Even Richard Nixon's got it.
byronius
(7,414 posts)I don't seriously imagine anyone speaking that way would accept his return to public life.
It's just that there's a long list of awfulness that all of us would rather have in the White House than Dolt45.
For instance, a rotting potato. Or Charles Manson. Or GW Bush.
Like the poster upthread said, it's relative. GW Bush was not, theoretically, a Russian Nazi dedicated to destroying the human species. He displayed elements of that behavior, but I don't think he was fully committed.
Dolt45 is.
Silver Gaia
(4,552 posts)I agree. Good post.
keithbvadu2
(37,066 posts)Dubya's military leadership skills led America into 9-11 and his business skills left our economy in ruins.
JI7
(89,290 posts)gordianot
(15,261 posts)KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)nostalgic terms?
SecularMotion
(7,981 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Tatiana
(14,167 posts)And we would have had a President Gore if not for Dubya's brother Jeb stealing Florida for him.
He's a village idiot that caused many tens of thousands of deaths.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,158 posts)cred and legacy, he could come out and demand a special investigator.
As much harm as he did and it was overwhelming, as much death as he caused, he could gain some of my respect if he did that.
Short of that, hell no.
Because we are at the crossroad, either a patriot appears in the GOP power structure, or we are all done.
coco22
(1,258 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)who may compare Trump to Bush and find Trump even worse?
GoCubsGo
(32,103 posts)choie
(4,112 posts)I'm a member of DU, that's who I am - you're attempt to shame me is a failure...
heaven05
(18,124 posts)bannon, miller, duke, jones, kellyanneconjob. The jerks have made a right turn down the wrong street, they hope to get out alive they better start listening to the american people who are not going to put up with their ameriKKKan bullshit. Bush, cheney rice, woo, just like reagan and nixon, atwater are responsible for this mess called an administration today. Fuck a republiKKKan. They are traitors to america and a majority of its citizens.
mountain grammy
(26,677 posts)I think he was incompetent and an unsuccessful president. War crimes? No trial or conviction.
I think the Katrina disaster was all incompetence. I do not think Bush was or is a racist. Best I can say right now.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Bush was the worst president since Harding, took the US into a needless war of choice that resulted in the deaths of over a hundred thousand Iraqi civilians and led directly to ISIS, but next to Trump? Bush looks like Winston fucking Churchill. It's a measure of how bad Trump is that he makes Bush of all people look like a statesman in comparison.
dalton99a
(81,709 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)herding cats
(19,569 posts)This is what happens, historically speaking, when things move radically to the right.
Suddenly, the lesser evil seems more palatable to most average people. This is a reality we're up against now. Just like my parents were under Reagan.
Things are going to change again. Wait for it.
Lotusflower70
(3,077 posts)I am not a fan of Dubya. I never have been. But the Asshat-in-chief that is in charge now is on a whole other level.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)war criminal and more. He destroyed Iraq with fake news, got thousands killed and got American troops killed as well. Have no ide how Michelle Obama can like him but she probably is more forgiving than most of us. Bush had people killed, let NO sunk! He is a war criminal along with his buddy Cheney! And now we have a different cabal to deal with, worst than him, the putin lovers.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)Folks, let's face it. The fact that many on a democratic site like this one already wax nostalgic about the George Bush years reveals a very ugly fact about America; a mediocre white man will automatically get much more respect than a talented minority. So many people liked Mr. W because "he was someone you could have a beer with" even though they ignored the fact that he was a New England born blueblood whose actual achievements were a result of being born to the right family. I would not have wanted Jeb Bush to have been elected. I suffered through his tenure as governor of my state, and if he was the Republican candidate, I was prepared to pull out fact after fact that explained why he would be a terrible choice.
However, it says a lot where Jeb, who has the mannerisms of the rich man got smashed so bad in the election. The fact that I hated him as an opponent does not downplay the fact that people did not like him because he was not his brother; he could not play the dumb old hayseed act. The heart behind this is that as much is Mr. W was an incompetent, babbling fool, he had a better finger on the pulse of the nation. The reason he is in rehab now is because there are many of those people, some Trump voters, and some Democrat voters who really think things would bring better they just had a working class white guy in charge, just like the "good old days." The sad thing is, at the rate we're going, we might have to try out Bill the big dog again, where he could go ahead and offer is "I'm not a Republican, but I'm still a good old boy that enjoys punching hippies and making fun of liberals as much as you do."
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)An objective 'compare and contrast' between two negatives will, by the very existence of the comparison, place either one or the other in a more positive light.
I could compare and contrast Stalin and Pol Pot... lacking absolute equivalency, one will appear (relative to the other) less extreme and ghastly.