Just to Balance the Bush Hatred–Ten Great things about the Bush Presidency
Nov 18th, 2008 by David Anderson
I have given some critiques of the current President’s policies. Some were favorable and some were critical. I admit that I am puzzled by some recent actions, the Katrina aftermath, high spending, lack of fundamental tax reform, federal education mandates, the expansive Patriot Act, and couldn’t believe that he stuck with Rummy’s stubborn refusal to adopt a new war strategy as long as he did. Yet some people would ignore the many real successes of this good man to bash Republicans and Conservatives. They lie and pretend the last eight years were some apocolypse.
The fact is this President has done a great deal of good here and abroad. The American people elected him twice for good reason. Here is a dose of balance and reason.
President Bush restored a measure of balance and common sense to environmental policy. The repeal of the drilling ban resulted in an immediate puncture of speculation and falling energy prices starting that very day. He refused to be bullied into ill fated international recession under the name of environmentalism.
President Bush kept us safe. He took bold and decisive actions to make our government better equipped to disrupt terrorism.
President Bush maneuvered the economy through challenges that would have sent us into recession 3 times over. The 9/11 attacks, the natural disasters, energy price shocks, international market issues, commodity while being able to carry us threw two wars.
President Bush won his war. In spite of people in leadership declaring that we lost Iraq and Afghanistan was hopeless, he proved them wrong and through iron will and the willingness to adjust, left success not failure for the next President.
President Bush improved our educational system by exploding the idea that some groups of children can’t achieve.
President Bush saved millions of lives by turning around the AIDS epidemics and bringing hope to Africa. He is the most beloved American President in Africa.
President Bush confronted the idea that self government isn’t for some people and proved the critics wrong.
President Bush used the bully pulpit to turn back the radicals who would destroy marriage and the traditional family and won referendums in 30 of 30 states.
President Bush helped educate us about a culture of life and ban partial birth abortion. Abortions are down 1/3 of a million annually from Clinton.
President Bush refused to allow the voices of fear during the national crisis of the 9/11 attacks to run us into extreme actions which divide us such as racial profiling, rounding up Arabs and other, and he confronted the voices of hatred.
President Bush is like all Presidents. He did some good and made some mistakes. If we don’t value the good things, then we will undermine them. That is not the change we can believe in. Chew the meat and spit out the bones, but don’t listen to those who would toss out the entire meal.
Wow.
David – really, for Christ Jesus’ blessed sake, give it a rest. Bush was not like all presidents. He was a horrific (in my opinon, the worst) president who was/is an unqualified, incompetent, blindly-crooked, narrow-interest-serving, wannabe-gunslinging-cowboy train wreck.
He has never had the slightest respect for the rule of law and has displayed the most contemptuous attitude and the most contemptible actions towards the Constitution of the United States since FDR, and probably ever. (FDR, at least, was a real “wartime” president). He should consider himself lucky he is not being led out in shackles.
Mr. Bush deserves eternal ignominy for his tenure. Speaking as someone who wants to see this country succeed under limited government liberty-based Republican values, I ask you to please STOP HELPING with nonsense like this post! Bush is no friend to Republican values and never has been. Quite the opposite in fact.
If you are just trying to be positive, I might remind you that you can’t polish a turd.
That’s right Nemski, it is different when you look at the entire picture. I could name 100 things if I had time. The Bush legacy will be complicated. Some of it needs to be defended, some needs to be corrected with better policies. A wise person will distinguish between the two. God bless GWB. May he have a wonderful retirement.
Tyler we agree on the criticisms except in degree. Which of the good points don’t you agree with? We are better off educationally, millions who were projected to die of AIDS did not, and Iraq and Afghanistan will be better off when he leaves office then when he assumed office.
The court picks were outstanding by any objective measure. If he would have gotten his Fannie and Freddie reform and his energy reforms 4 years ago, there is no doubt we would be in a much stronger economic position. Most economists give him props for his tax policy which stabilized us through many tough times.
Those are just facts. It is not like Andrew Jackson who initiated ethnic cleansing against my Cherokee side of the family or Buchanan who lost the nation.
Yes, I am giving balance. I have written more critically than positively over the last year, but it is important for us to preserve the good. If we don’t talk about it then we will fall for the socialist mirage. President Bush’s problem was that he went too far away from our Constitutionalist conservative principles not that he followed them too closely.
Bush’s outrages tip the scales to bottom on the bad side of the equation. Nothing you cite or ever could cite absolve him of the damage he has caused this country and the Republican party by co-opting it for his big government corporate/religious socialist agenda.
I understand your point. It is unquestioned that bouts of incompentence in the administration have damaged the party and hindered the country. 75% of us would agree that it was time for change. The question is what needs to change. I think that saving millions of lives does mitigate it.
Thanks for your input.
Let the revisionist history begin!
David,
Its time to come clean and confess you are not happy being a Republican and its time for you to move to the middle!
Bush wanted to free third world countries and promote American democracy but in doing so he created a third world country within the United States. To starve your own children to save a stranger’s child is not justified. Bush is a dangerous person who is blinded by his own ego in attempt to mark his spot in history.
Bush’s attempt to change cultures that have been in existence 10 times + longer than American is a fool’s journey! The respect American had by it’s charitable ways who even gave aid to the USSR a perceived enemy by granting grain contracts back in the 70’s has tarnished the meaning of being an American. I remember being greeted by Russian crew members on cargo ships in the Port of Orange ,TX and being in the bottom of the cargo-hold looking up at the on looking crew! Government creates the enemies not the people! Bush has predetermined our enemies. The Iranians did nothing to us expect had a revolution to feel themselves from a U.S. puppet put in place by the C.I.A.. American have not create the enemies as did foreign policies of Bush and company and those before him who lost sight of the U.S. Constitution designed to be implemented in American not around the world. So when I worked in the bottom of a ship with the flag of the USSR flying overhead, I felt even my labor in loading the cargo was part of peace efforts and a hand shake by a crew member was rewarding!
The United State created Saddam Hussein’s Army in efforts to help him destroy Iran during the Iraqi and Iranian War. We created this monster and Bush was sent to eliminate him! It had noting to do with 9-11.
David free yourself from the poison and focus on the humanities of mankind! Myself, I may be a political outcast however I see and think for myself!
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32
OMG – I can’t believe you put Bush in with the fight agasint HIV/AIDS – if it wasn’t for Bush we’d be a lot further in the fight then we are. His whole abstinence only crap didn’t do shit in the fight agasint HIV/AIDS
Oh please. Look in your own philosophical backyard if you want to find fault with poor planning regarding AIDS, dearie. The epidemic in the [male] gay community could’ve been stopped a LOT sooner if it wasn’t for PC bullsh** and the willingness of the community to change its behavior a LOT quicker, period.
I’ll never forget Magic Johnson chastising Bush’s father about more AIDS funding. “You have to do more,” he said. I was thinking, “Really?” A guy who slept with an uncountable # of women, many sans protection (i.e. risky behavior) telling SOMEONE ELSE they’re not “acting responsibly??” What a laugh.
Suzanne, look at the stats and not your ideology. Thanks Hube. Bush has his faults, but he also deserves his due. Even President-elect Obama gave him some recent praise.
The repeal of the drilling ban resulted in an immediate puncture of speculation and falling energy prices starting that very day. He refused to be bullied into ill fated international recession under the name of environmentalism.
Unnnggghhhh….please tell me I am misreading this. Please tell me you do not think the repeal of the drilling ban is responsible for the low prices today.
Environmentalism is not evil, either. No, you did not say that, but you may as well have by labelling it such the way you did.
The fact remains we haven’t been attacked again. This isn’t by accidcent.
No, Smitty it is just one point. As I said the day it happened prices fell because it punctured the speculative bubble caused by fears of lack of supply. There were three factors, supply and demand which the slowing economy is affecting, the dollar’s weakness which is disappearing with the global recession, and speculation that we were near the peak of available supplies.
The radical environmentalists are not only mistaken, but they are a danger to world. The would increase global poverty which causes more premature deaths than anything in world. I would call that an evil result. I don’t subscribe to bowing before the radical fringe of the movement. Many good people want better environmental controls. They unfortunately are not a willing to boot the radical fringe. The result is that the mainstream proposals are mingled with loony ones. Bush divided the two.
Re: Africa… Distributing Bibles and not condoms is not a realistic approach to AIDS prevention. I’ll agree that it was nice when Bush was finally persuaded otherwise.
Re: “President Bush won his war… he proved them wrong and through iron will and the willingness to adjust, left success not failure for the next President.” … do you really believe that insurgents won’t start crossing the Iraqi border to try and destabilize the country again the SECOND the last C-130 lifts off from Baghdad? I honestly believe that Bush could have made a better, more-legitimate case for going into Somalia than going into Iraq. Everyone on all sides of Iraq couldn’t STAND Saddam Hussein. Yeah, he was doing some evil shit to the people in his country… so are about a half-dozen people all around the world. But we’re not opening up new military fronts left and right.
Meanwhile, Somalia hasn’t had a government in a dozen years, they have REAL-LIFE PIRATES, FOR GOD’S SAKE, and the country is basically a few million desperately-poor people and a handful of warlords trying to hit up al-Qaeda on their stolen satellite phones. No one knows who’s going in, who’s already there, and what they might be doing.
Sorry, I’m way off the subject now. I don’t vilify Bush as much as others, but I have a feeling his legacy is going to be that of an empty suit who initially responded well in the face of the U.S.’s greatest national tragedy, but who also fell flat on his face to the point where his own party blamed their election loss on “Bush fatigue.”
It is no doubt that he was a drag on the party. They are correct in that assessment. I would also point out that Bush did not make Stevens and others get into corruption trouble. He did not send the emails in Mark Foley’s name. He did not decide to skip the big issues and issue tens of thousands of earmarks. It seems like the party has more than just Mr. Bush to deal with if it wishes be a majority party in the near future.
I agree on both points. I’m a Michael Steele fan.
They unfortunately are not a willing to boot the radical fringe…
I’m going to extract this and apply it to a struggle I’ve posted about GOP politics over the last handful of years. Hmm…interesting.