The Legacy of
President George W. Bush
(43rd President of The United States of America)
Now that the Presidency has transitioned to Barak Obama and
his administration and the final chapter has been written on
the Bush administration, let us take a moment to look back and
examine the legacy Bush leaves behind.
In his first inagural address, he spoke of the ideals which
unite Americans from generation to generation; he spoke of the
rock on the raging sea that was America's faith in freedom and
democracy; he pledged to build a single nation of justice and
opportunity. The question that must be examined is how closely
he held to these ideals, wether he kept the faith, and wether
he helped to build up a nation of justice and opportunity.
We must remember the conditions under which he came to
office. The election was held at the end of 2000. Prior to
this time, there had been a great period of economic
expansion. Some of this, I hold, was driven by increases in
efficiency from folks upgrading or improving systems as part
of the effort to make themselves immune to the "Y2K"
problems. But this was also due to the unrealistic rise in
perceived opportunites from the commercialization of the
internet. This speculation led to a bubble that could not
last. In 1999, that bubble burst and the economy cooled
off. By the time of the election, many were out of work and
many had given up trying to find work. Spirits were down and
the economy was struggling to find momentum again.
It must not be forgotten that the election itself was not
without controversy. Thanks to Florida, we were introduced to
the terms "hanging chad" and "pregnant
chad" from the punch card voting systems and a national
push towards electronic voting machines which themselves were
not without doubt and controversy. The 2000 election was, in
many ways, not decided by the public but was sent to the
courts for what was in effect a tie-breaking vote. It was only
the withdrawl of Al Gore which prevented that from being
formalized. A very similar pattern emerged during the 2004
re-election in which, once again, Florida became a key sticking
point. Again, the outcome of the election seemed to be in the
hands of the court but the wind blew ever so slightly in
Bush's direction this time, leading to Senator Kerry
conceeding before serious legal efforts were underway.
Failed Leadership and Failed Policies
During his first term in office, we cannot forget that less
than a year after he was sworn in, America (and indeed, free
society as a whole) was attacked on September 11, 2001. A
great many people lost their lives that day. But out of
tragedy emerged the best of America. Many people laid their
own welfare aside to lend aid to those affected by these
events. Others gave money, a great many litterally gave their
blood through the Red Cross. For the first time in many years,
America was singly united by this event.
After such actions, it was only a matter of time until America
retaliated. When the president sent troops into Afghanistan,
a country that openly harbored these terrorists and which,
under the Taliban, had committed all manner of violence against
it's own people in the name of ideological purity and well
documented by a decaded of media reports and perhaps most
notably in CNN's production
titled Beneath the Veil, there was
overwhelming support for these actions. But when the president
decided that Iraq was the next to go, there was far less
support. It was perhaps that point at which the administration
began to seriously falter.
There was also some controversy over what to do with alleged
terrorists that were captured on the field of battle, both in
Iraq and in Afghanistan, or who
were otherwise detained as persons of interest. They were not
soldiers in an organized, uniformed army supported by or
holding allegiances to any political government. So when a
soldier captured any of these people, what was to be done with
them? While the reasonings were not entirely clear, it was
determined that to place them in custody under the civilian
courts would have been undesireable. Consequently, they were
retained as military prisoners however to give them the title
of POW would have bound them to various aspects of the Geneva
conventions that the Bush administration found
inconvenient. Therefore, because they were not part of a
political army, it was deemed that this was not a war. So they
were designated as "enemy combatants" and thereby
somewhat stretching the deffinition, and consigned to a
military prison not technically located on American
soil.
Thus, Americans learned the word "Gitmo" refering to
the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Here, these enemy
combatants were shuttled, safely out of the hands of the
regional governments and, more importantly, out of the hands
of the American court system which would demand formal
charges, public disclosure of those charges, public disclosure
of evidence used to charge them, swift trials, and –
most agregious of all – representation by civilian
attorneys. With this act, "justice for all" died and
was laid to rest.
The problems of Guantanamo Bay are second only to the
infamy of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. What occured at this
prison, in my view, is a direct result of Bush and his
administration permitting unorthodox means of interrogation
and a general disregard for the right of every individual to
be treated fairly, regardless of their crime or beliefs.
In another effort to combat terrorist acts, Bush signed into
law the Patriot Act and repealed FISA. With these actions, the
FBI, NSA, and other agencies gained unprecedented ability to
engage in survailance activities and retrieve personal records
of Americans without the need for a court ordered search
warrant. Thus was felled due process of law.
President Bush also signed, in 2001, an executive order
allowing much of what went on in the White House to arbitarily
be deemed confidential and not subject to public inspection.
The vice president, not able to make
such designations, came up with his own: Treat As Classified.
These actions also effectively put a strangle hold on the
Freedom of Information Act. Thus disolved the transparency of
the executive branch and the right of Americans to know just what
their government was up to.
Before U. S. entry into Iraq, Colin Powell, then Secretary of
State, went before the United Nations and made an impasioned
plea for a resolution authorizing actions against that nation
based on alleged links to terrorist organizations and a
continued persuit of weapons of mass destruction. Ultimately,
both these claims proved almost entirely false, based on
innacurate and unconfirmed intelligence reports gathered by
the CIA and presented to President Bush and his cabinet and mere
supposition. The perception that pervades, accurate or not, in
the public eye became that this president had manipulated the
facts to suit his own aims and all but lied to the American
people. This perception proved devestating to the public
confidence in his administration and the integrity of those in
office. There were even comparisons between the atmosphere
then and that which dominated during Vietnam and parts of the
cold war in which, it is held, that the U. S. government
outright lied to the American people on many fronts and didn't
give two hoots about that fact.
After his re-election in 2004 by the narrowest of margins,
President Bush made the statement that the vote had earned him
political capital that he intended to spend. This all but
ignored the fact that half of those who voted cast
their ballot in opposition to him. President Bush had
designated himself what he termed a "compasionate
conservative" during his campaign in 2000 and retained
that title through his first term. Any semblance of that
vanished over the next two years following his re-election.
After 9/11, Bush also reorganized parts of his cabinet and
created the Department of Homeland Security, thereby creating
a new cabinet post and the biggest government agency ever
created. While various aspects of this agency's creation have
merit and can actually make certain taskes much easier, it
also created a beaurocracy second to none. So much for smaller
government.
Bush championed the No Child Left Behind act to forward
education among underprivileged children. This was a noble
effort but a dismal failure. A large part of the reason was
that it was quite simply nothing more than words on
paper. It was an unfunded mandate that the states could not
support, yet they were supposed to be held accountable to
it. Such problems were much lamented by Arizona's governor,
Janet Nepolitano who, herself, had fought quite hard for
improvements in education and once quipped that she didn't
know if it was "No Child Left Behind" or "No
Millionaire Left Behind."
But it should not be thought that only conflict occured during
Bush's time in office. He also focused on trying to jump start
the economy through deregulation and a push towards better
trade policies.
The Bush administration held quite firmly to the North
American Free Trade Agreement, better known by the acronym
NAFTA, and did everything they could to persue similar
agreements with all who would come to the table, even
proposing an agreement which would include Venezuela, still
under the heels of "President" Hugo Chavez who is
rapidly turning his country into a dictatorship.
President Bush, through lack of funding, and a misguided
belief that it was beneficial for the economy, all but
thwarted attempts to secure the southern border against
illegal immigration and human smugling which brings hundreds
of thousands of people unlawfully into this country each
year, placing an enormous strain on public services but also
on the economy as a whole as there are more and more people
competing for increasingly scarce jobs and getting paid less
and less when those jobs are found. His administration even
chose to ignore the fact that many farm laborers are paid
below the federally mandated minimum wage in open violation of
federal labor laws. He allowed this because he held that it is
necessary in order to make them competitive in the global
market place. Personally, while supporting immigration
reform, I hold quite a different view
on this and other aspects of the immigration debate but thats
a discussion for another time.
With the increase in "free trade" came a side
effect... it increasingly became cheaper to do business outside
the U. S. resulting in many more companies shutting down
manufacturing plants and call centers and the like and sending
them off to Mexico, India, China, and others. So as the pool
of workers continued to grow, the availability of jobs which
pay, as the unions like to term it, a "living wage"
sharply decreased. (It should be noted that some of the unions
responded, in several cases, by not only forcing employers to sign
agreements preventing them from taking their operations off
shore but insisting on pay and benefits increases at the
same time, thereby making it even harder for these companies
to compete in the market place.)
What of success in Iraq and Afghanistan? There have been
successes, yes. The Taliban is out of power, Saddam Hussein
and his confederates are gone, this is true. But Bin Laden
remains at large and even though we pretty well knew where he
was, military leadership did not place priority on capturing
Mullah Omar so even he escaped. After the overthrow of Hussein
in Iraq, there were not enough troops to stop the whole sale
looting that occured in the days afterward, nor were there
enough troops to put down the inevitable insurgency. After six years,
there are still deaths every week among American troops and
what little remains of the coalition.
Disapproval
In 2001, when his presidency began, Bush attained a 57%
approval rating according to a Gallup poll. This sort of level
should not be assumed to
be at all bad, rather, it indicates a generally neutral or
slightly positive oppinion of
this president and was actually higher than the rating attained by his
father, President George H. W. Bush. After 9/11, his approval
rating soared to near
90%, depending on which poll you watched, before trending back
down to around 50% again. It is during this period that the
president was able to get the Patriot Act ratified along with
other invasive policies.
After the capture of Saddam Hussein, there was another brief
surge in the approval raitings but by the time of the 2004
election, this had fallen back down to around 50%. President
Bush would hold these levels for a few months but would never
again rise above them. Instead, it was a slow, steady fall
from that point forward.
When President Bush finaly left office on January 20, 2009,
a poll conducted by CBS News and the New York Times showed his
approval rating at just 22% and similar polls showed a disapproval rating near
80%. This approval level is the lowest ever recorded since
Gallup began tracking such numbers a bit over 70 years ago.
His policies have many branding him as the most divisive
president in history.
So what about his effect on the Republican party? Well,
congress, when under the control of the Republican party
between 2004 and 2006 gained a reputation for sitting on their
hands and doing virtually nothing, despite the fact that Bush
only drew his veto pen a total of 12 times during his two
terms in office.
Along with Bush's rise to power, various radical right-wing
members of the party also began to rise to prevelance. The end
result of this was that the legislation passed and the overall
governance of both houses of congress had a tendancy to lean
hard right, in line with party leadership. However this was
not in keeping with the overall position of the American
populace and completely ignored the interests of centrists and
those tending to more leftist views. (In other words, it ignored
the desires of perhaps 80% of the American populace.)
"Yer Outta There!"
At the end of 2006, the country was ready for a change. After
the elections that fall, congress changed hands from
Republicans to Democrats. This, though, did not end the
pain. Even though the Democrats had a majority, their own
party had become divided to the point where they also were
unable to accomplish much of anything and it is arguable
wether they ever really tried that hard. A Rasmussen
poll in July of 2008 showed congress with just a 9% approval
rating, the lowest in the history of that organization's
records. Even support among Democrats fell markedly since
the prior poll.
Yet the American people seemed, through their ballots in 2008,
to largely blame the Republicans. Along with tossing the
Republican party out of the White House by electing Barak
Obama, they also seemed to decide that they had had enough of
Republicans in general. This most recent election handed the
Democrats an overwhelming majority in the House of
Representatives and a near veto-proof majority in the Senate.
So bad was the public oppinion of Bush's administration that
the Republican candidate, John McCain, did not openly seek his
endorsement, nor did very many members of congress. He became
political poison and everyone stayed as far away from him as
they could.
After the election results were tallied, I saw on
some of the political talk shows and heard on some of the
radio shows some very depressed people talking about
effectively how the party was rudderless and was struggling to
reogranize. So Bush's legacy to the party seems to
be it's demolition. Efforts to salvage the party and make it
relevant again center around a "return to the core
values the Republican Party has advocated for
generations." (From the Republican Leadership Council's
website and echoed on the web site for the House Republican
leadership's website.) Realize that there would not be a
need to return to core values unless the party at last acknowledged
a departure from them.
Two Steps Forward
It should not be assumed that all that he did is a subject of
derrision. Not at all. Under Bush, relations with China warmed
considerably as a side effect of his trade policies. The
cost, though, has yet to be measured. Laura Bush fought hard
for women's rights in Afghanistan and elsewhere, earning
considerable personal honor as a result of her efforts. Under
Bush, there has been a notable increase in medical aid being
sent to third world countries. Bush did indeed try to do good
where he could but with so much else overshadowing his
efforts, they're easy to overlook.
What We Leave Behind...
What will George W. Bush be remembered for? Well, it won't be
for giving justice to all, thats for sure. With the spectre of
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay hanging over him, it's hard to
argue that he was a champion for human rights.
Making America
a more secure nation? He's done little to nothing to secure
the borders of this country, only token efforts. Many hold
that we are pretty well as vulnerable now as we were
before. The tide of illegal immigration has only swelled
during his term. With this tide comes increased violence from
drug smugglers and human traffikers.
Standing up for the American worker and American business? His
global trade policies have devestated American business.
Fiscal conservatism? Under Bush, the federal budget deficit and
national debt grew to
unprecedented levels from what had previously been a budget
surplus under the waining years of President Bill Clinton.
Promoting American interests and strengthening America's
reputation among the international community? If you as an
American traveled abroad in the last few years, you know how
easy it was to find someone willing to snarl or spit at you
because you were an American. America's reputation in the
international community is perhaps at an all time low.
Strengthening the Republican party and establishing a strong
foundation for the future? Republicans are now few and far
between not only in Washington but in many state governments
as well. With the decided "blue shift", the party has
lost most of its influence and virtually all of its power.
Improved education? Hardly. His answer to failing schools was
his voucher program. That is, don't try to fix the school,
instead pay the students to go somewhere else and let it
die. We are fortunate that this did not pass.
Saving Social Security? He advocated allowing younger persons
to place part of their social security money into the stock
market. When conducted properly, after the manner of a more
stringent 401k, this could actually be quite beneficial
– over the very longer term. But
with the market collapse, thank heavens it too failed.
Openness in government and accountability of public officials?
Few administrations have been as secretive as that of President
Bush. It
may be decades before we'll know the extent of what has been
hidden from the public eye.
Economic prosperity? That one is debatable. Economic growth
during the first six years of his administration cannot be
overlooked but ultimately, it did not last. The deregulation
that contributed to the current problems did not begin under
his watch but he certainly did everything he could to
encourage furthering of these policies. Were Bush's policies
the only thing that caused the dramatic collapse at the end of
2008 and what has been billed as the worst economic conditions
since the Great Depression of the 1930s with the potential to
worsen further before we start to see improvement? Most
certainly not and there were additional factors from the
market itself, but they played a part, and since it happened
under his watch, the history books will forever tie him to
it. Fairly or not, thats the way it is.
So what is his legacy? In virtually everything Bush presided
over, his legacy is one of turmoil and ruin. In his farewell
address, he reminded us that history was the ultimate judge of
a president. Well, history has largely been written. True,
over the next 10 to 20 years, we certainly will learn more about what
happened behind the scenes. History will help us gain a
certain clarity but with so much negative that has already
been tallied, it is extremely unlikely that history will judge
the Bush presidency as anything other than a monumental
failure.
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