Closing Days - the Legacy of the Bush Administration

The worst was "bring it on".

What people fail to acknowledge is that bush entered his presidency at one of the worst times in our history. There are plenty of other presidents who would have botched it up worse than bush. On the same token, the left give clinton too much credit as he entered one of the best times in our history.

 

I think sins of comission are worse.

Neo-conservatism is not in line with Wilsonian principles. The neo-cons may have perverted some of Wilson's language to justify their positions and make it more palatable, and it may have become a codeword in certain circles, but to say we invaded Iraq to spread democracy and actually believe such claptrap flies in the face of the evidence we have on the subject. Democracy was either an afterthought or a tertiary reason for Iraq. Even if you assume that Wilsonian thought and Neo-con cons want the same end, there is no way Wilson would have even considered the means, much less try to justify such an obvious blunder.

 

Good point. That surplus was the worst! The repeated quarters of domestic growth sucked big time, I repeat BIG TIME!

 

No. Neo-conservatism arose from the fantasies of second rate minds who found themselves in power and decided to treat the world like Risk. I will give you that they couched it in Wilsonian terms, but the analogy is Wilsonian Democracy is to Neo-Conservatism as Christianity is to Koreshian interpretations of the bible... both the Neo-cons and Koresh wanted to justify a naked power grab.

 

And anyone who watched tv in the '90's was aware of the military and intelligence cut-backs initiated by the Clinton administration. For the record, that's about the ONE thing Clinton did that I wasn't happy with.

I'm not defending Bush. Far from it. The intel sucked, it turns out he and his administration KNEW it sucked, and they proceeded with us invading Iraq under false pretenses and tried like hell to sell it to the American people and the world.

That's my only point on this. He will easily be remembered as one of the worst presidents we've ever had, if not the worst.

 

Gas prices will drop, I paid 2.29 yesterday, and there will be some kind of military action, yep, strikes in Syria today. This stuff is getting so predictable.

 

I filled up for $2.09 today. That's one good thing about living in Oklahoma, I suppose.

 

It was actually the brainchild of a bunch of Prussianist Prussians who generally despised ideas like Democracy. There is a very extensive fascist/royalistic un-American pedagree behind the neocons.

(for more examples of Prussian/German fascist proto-neocons, see Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt and many more)

 

Neo-conservatism and modern Progressivism are both Troskyite ideologies. They only differ on minor details. In fact, the first (and most) neo-conservatives were progressives who recognized the failures of progressivism, and blamed those failures not on the fact that Progressivism is based on false assumptions about human behavior, but rather that Progressives tended to over-reach.

 

So neo-conservatism is both Troskyite and Prussian? Wilsonian and Rovian?

I think the legacy of the Bush administration will be the story of how blind partisanship allows extremism to enact to ill considered policy decisions. From the smallest bureaucratic language interpretations to the presentation of evidence leading us to war, without active bi-partisan debate, oversight and public criticism, we decrease the chances of preconceiving consequences and increase the chances for unfair advantages and abuses.

The Bush legacy will be why a truly democratic system produces the best possible results and how vigilant Democrats must be to prevent the subversion of the system. (Democrats by philosophy, not party)

So far, I trust Obama to understand this (if not Pelosi).

 

delete. duplicate

 

This might be seen as another low point. Urging people to go shopping instead of calling for sacrifice and trying to lessen our dependence on Middle East Oil.

Using the attack as an excuse to attack Iraq.

 

Bush has been a JINX on this country and the entire world.

 

Bush fixed daylight savings.........

Legendary.

 

I've gone after Bush many times in the past for not asking the nation to step up to the plate and sacrifice to pay for fighting the war in Afghanistan and destroying the terrorists behind 9/11. We have a volunteer military that lets the rest of us Americans, who are either too old, too unhealthy, or simply unwilling (for reasons good and bad) to fight ourselves, so they do it for us, bless 'em. We get to kick back and type countless words on a BBS. Well, when that fine military needed its pay, benefits, and numbers increased, when it needed its equipment modernized and enough of it, and its veterans taken care of in a first class way, as they deserved, what did he do? What did George W. Bush do? Start another war we didn't need, and ask us to go shopping.

Even worse, in my opinion, Bush asked for and got passed from the GOP Congress massive tax cuts in the middle of two wars, for the first time (to my knowledge) in our history. How the man can ever be defended for these policies, or anything else, astonishes me. George W. Bush is the living embodiment of The Peter Principle.

 

I think history will be kinder to Bush when it comes to the wars he's started and his role in the economy going to ****. But, I think it will be harsh on everything he has done to undermine the Constitution, democracy and the rule of law. It might just be a chip on my shoulder. But, I expect to see the Bush damage in more clarity in this arena once we begin reversing it -- a deBushification.