I don’t know if Bush was America’s worst president. We’ve had so many terrible ones. If you’re old enough, remember LBJ and Nixon?
But Bush very well may have been the worst.
That’ s because what makes America unique in the annals of human history isn’t our prosperity (gone now anyway), the Super Bowl, or rock and roll. It’s the U.S. Constitution, which protects our liberties by wrapping hoops of steel around government.
Bush, more than any president since at least FDR, ripped off those hoops of steel and made a massive assault on our liberties. After him, there’s not much left of the Constitution. In the name of “protecting” us, he shredded our real protector: the Constitution.
All the vast new totalitarian powers Bush seized, last week he bequeathed to Obama.
I understand people being really angry with Bush, I am not but I do understand it. Both sides of the aisle have good reason to be angry with him.
While he could have gone all the way towards totalitarian powers this election proves he did not. What Bush did he did out of a belief that it was necessary and that is enough for me to forgive him partially. Some things he did or didn’t do will never be forgiven I suspect.
I’m optimistic that with a constitutional scholar as President the changes made will be able to be set right, the checks and balances will be restored and our personal freedoms and privacy will be restored.
Oh and welcome aboard, your first post and its introduction to your blog are appreciated by at least one commenter here.
John,
Great point. I hope President Obama will at least restore some of our civil liberties.
Spoken like a REAL conservative, so I gotta give you props for that. At least you’re not a kool-aid drinker like so many Republicans these days. You’re right; the trend toward ever-increasing power in the Executive (often enabled by Congress, I might add) is completely antithetical to both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
John,
Great post. I had to leave the Republican party because of George W. Bush. The thing I found the most offensive was his obsessive lying and in close second was his dodging of any responsibility.
He also was absent/on vaction for nearly one third of his entire time in the White House. I would have fired his butt if he had been an ordinary employee. The new guy is pragmatic like me and I like that so far.
Geez, John, we’ve had some real ciphers in the White House: Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, etc.
But how many of them singlehandedly started an unnecessarty war, ran up gargantuan deficits, gor re-elected based on ignorance and xenophobia, and left it all for somebody else to pay for and clean up?
To me it’s not even a close call. And it’s amazing to me that people are still willing to champion this numbskull and his brilliant “surge” – the only (fake) accomplishment they can attribute to him.
Welcome John. I appreciate your contributions.
John,
Couldn’t agree more with you. Nice to see that there are still decent Republicans around.
I feel you on LBJ and Nixon, but remember what things they did do. LBJ gave us the Voting Rights Act and opened the door for people of color, including President Obama. Nixon opened up the door to foreign policy on China.
Bush did absolutely nothing heroic in his time in office. He was a waste of space.
Presidents have opportunity to assume more and more power when Congress is ineffectual. Seems to me this pretty well describes the last 8 years, maybe more.
#9 Guess what it turns out that it was Carter that opened up China. Nixon just had a photo op on vacation. Carter just explained it on the Daily Show maybe there is a You tube video of it. Try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qayf76IpJVs