Bush's Legacy

[Plaid Adder]

The other day we had lunch with a friend of ours with whom I used to rant many a rant during the 2004 election season. Both of us reported feeling as if the sense of urgency that had once fueled these rants seems to have dissipated. I said that I think for me, it's different now because the majority of the country now realizes that Bush is a disaster. That doesn't necessarily mean that he and his gang will ever be out of power, but it does mean that I no longer feel like I have to get on the Internet every day and explain exhaustively and ad infinitum why, one more time, the Bush administration is a disaster already. I feel as if the crashing and the burning is already in progress, though it is taking them a long, long time to reach the bottom of their accelerating slide.

So, she said, if this really is the beginning of the end...what do you think Bush's legacy will be?

I thought about this for a minute, and since I hadn't seen the news for a bit, that 7.5 pound perch did not enter my mind.

Finally I said, "I think his legacy will be that he destroyed the American empire."

It sounds counterintuitive, because this administration's imperial ambitions were bigger and more naked than those of any other administration I've ever lived through. But all empires fall, and it's often because they are overextended. No empire ever says to itself, "Hey, 60% of the globe is enough, let's stop here." They expand until they reach the point where they are no longer sustainable. It should have been a tipoff to the guys at the top when they invaded Afghanistan. I've always thought of Afghanistan as the place where empires go to die. The British empire reached its limit there; so did the Soviet empire. Bush's team <i>maybe</i> could have beaten the Afghanistan Effect if they had made it their main focus; but instead they declared victory prematurely and started a brand new imperial adventure in Iraq--which, as everyone but the backwash knows, was unnecessary and certainly unwise, to say nothing of unjustified and unholy. It's draining our treasury, ballooning our debt, and engendering consequences that we cannot control. It's going to wind up being what ends our days as the reigning world superpower.

Liza said that she thinks his legacy will be that he destroyed the rule of law in this country. I sure hope they get him out before the damage becomes irreversible, but if they don't, then she may be right. The 750 signing statements, the NSA wiretapping, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, the Scalito Supreme Court, two highly questionable presidential elections, rampant corruption at the highest levels...sure. I can see the destruction of the rule of law in this country as his legacy.

I also suggested that history will forever associate his administration with the phrase "shot a man in the face." But that's not really a legacy, more of a sound bite.

We suggested other possibilities--the collapse of the American economy, the destruction of the enviornment, the death of New Orleans, and so on. I dunno. What do you think his legacy is going to be?

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. American Empire?

No.

His legacy is simple.

The worst President and Presidency in our history.

[Plaid Adder]

8. Well, we were all taking "worst president ever" as a given.

The question is: which of his many disasters will be remembered longest because it did the most damage?

The Plaid Adder

[OldLeftieLawyer]

9. All of them

You cannot break them down, not in any historical context that would be meaningful, since they're interwoven and of an aggregate.

They're all the worst.

[AzDar]

2. I think you've summed it up quite nicely, PA. n/t

[SoCalDem]

3. 9-11 is his legacy

September 11th, September 11th, September 11th..

Posted by SoCalDem in General Discussion

Sat May 06th 2006, 04:21 AM

George Bush's presidency BEGAN that day, and also ENDED that day. he will forever see that as his personal highlight. Sad isn't it, that the "leader of the free world" looks at a day of carnage and sorrow as his "crowning glory".. The myth of that day is smoke & mirrors when it's looked at literally..

Where WAS George ON that day? He bailed and let his handpicked flunkies "run the store"..

Who can forget the 'deer-in-headlights' look on the faces of his 'wimminfolk' who ran to microphones & cameras to reassure us all.? We had Karen Hughes making statements, and Condi-in-the blue-dress with flop-sweat oozing from every pore, stating her total ineptitude for all to see. It still amazes me that the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER apparently was blindsided and actually HAD no idea what her job even entailed.

The cock & bull story created to make us all think that Air Force One was a target, was just that...a story. The truth was that our president was SO inept, that it took several stops along the way home to get him up to speed.

FIVE FULL YEARS LATER, September 11th is still the raison d'être for EVERYTHING they do. Every congressional hearing, every senate hearing, every news conference, every speech has to have some reference to September 11th.

It always reminds me of a child being scolded. Mom is reading the kid the riot act for some infraction, and he/she has to interrupt to remind Mom about the time they cleaned up their room without being asked, or the time they were desperately ill in the hospital. It's a distraction ploy to remind everyone how "brave" he was, and what a "good little president" he has been.

It boggles the mind to even think of all the horrific things that have occurred during the reign of King George II, and yet he still must focus on September 11th, because he and his cadre of sycophants have convinced themselves that they are blameless in that event and they behaved bravely. It was their finest moment.

It will forever remain an iconic moment in our history, but no more so than many others we have endured. A hundred years from now, who knows how many OTHER iconic moments will be added to the list? Other nations have had catastrophes, and the successful leaders have LED their people BEYOND the tragedy, and into an enlightenment. The leaders who insist on always looking back have led their people into chaos. The middle east is a classic example of this. Massacres and battles that happened 900 years before are still festering just below the surface, ready to erupt at any moment.

A country's worth is measured by how they respond to events. Things will always "happen", and to hold a country hostage to a single moment in time is to freeze that country in place.. ..in a bad place.

I almost wish that a senator/congressperson with a "Colbert-ish" sense of humor would show up at every hearing with an air horn, and every time someone uttered 9-11 or September11th, they would give that horn a blast..

[Plaid Adder]

6. Yes, Liza said much the same thing, in response to the "7.5 perch" comment

...that the really sad thing is that for Bush, 9/11 was the <i>best</i> moment of his presidency. Which is really, really, really fucked up.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[mediaman007]

4. They should have "done no harm!"

But they have decieved the American public, American Christians, American Business (big and small). When the dust clears and we account for this miserable 8 years, we will discover that a lot of Americans were duped into supporting vague concepts, so that a miserable few could escape with the plunder.

[spanone]

5. A Legacy of unbridled corruption.

From war profiteering on a scale never before seen, to the looting of our constitution for political and personal gains. This web will be decades unraveling.

[Nitrogenica]

7. I'd say he marked the end of the Reagan era.

In the near future our government will begin to be more honest, transparent, and will represent the interests of working people.

I agree that "They expand until they reach the point where they are no longer sustainable". The damage that expansion has caused is huge and obvious.

We as a Country have learned that when bullies are awarded, they continue to bully. We are eventually reaching the end of the bullies reign.

Unfortunately I think things will have to get much worse before they get better. It took the great depression last time. I hope we don't have to get that bad. That's why it's important to change things NOW! WE must win in 2006, or life for the average American is going to get much much worse.

[geniph]

10. I think of other failed presidencies

and what first comes to mind for them. Can anyone talk about Harding without talking about the Teapot Dome scandal? Nixon without Watergate? Andrew Johnson without impeachment? Hoover without the stock market crash and the Great Depression?

I think the symbol, historically speaking, for Bush will be Katrina. Katrina swept away one of our grandest, oldest cities and swept away his Presidency with it. He could have redeemed himself after 9/11 - god knows everyone hoped for that and gave him every opportunity to do so - but after he let New Orleans drown and die, his historical legacy was fixed for all time.

In 40 years, I think textbooks will start the section on Bush II with "the event with the most impact on the Bush presidency was the Federal government's abject failure in the face of the disastrous 2005 hurricane Katrina to save the city of New Orleans." They'll mention 9/11, but only in the context of lost opportunities to unite the world.