It’s hard to imagine one man creating so much havoc, but George W. Bush really takes the cake.
In just a little under eight years, he’s managed to:
- Ruin our economy, plunging the United States into the worst recession since the Great Depression;
- Take us to war against Iraq for no good reason at all (other than to steal their oil – or maybe it was because Saddam tried to kill his dad);
- Take us to war against Afghanistan looking for bin Laden, only to withdraw most of the troops before their job was done, insuring bin Laden could safely escape;
- Taken away many of our civil rights in the name of combating “terrorism”;
- Condon the use of torture against what in many cases were innocent civilians, again in the name of combating terrorism;
- Promote the raping of our wilderness and public lands to find gas and oil, as well as generally raping the environment;
- Allow oil companies to post record profits at the expense of consumers and the economy in general (in 2000, the average cost of gas was $1.48 a gallon; contrast that to the $4.00 a gallon we recently had to pay). That’s a 170% increase in the eight years Bush was President!
And those are just the high points. The bottom line: His rich buddies got richer; the rest of us paid their way. Bush and his cronies raped the world.
Without the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Bush would have been a one-term wonder. Pre-9/11, he was a rudderless, bumbling non-entity. His presidency distinguished itself by creating no distinguishments. He was mediocrity incarnate. No plan to do anything. A caretaker president. His approval ratings were abysmal. Bush was going nowhere, fast.
Then 9/11 came, and wisely, his handlers seized on this.
Everyone rallies around a “wartime” president, they thought. We’ll declare “war” on terrorism. And then everyone will pull together around GW! What a plan (evidence suggests Bush isn’t bright enough to have figured this out himself – I’d guess Karl Rove was the one behind it).
And the plan worked.
They used this phony “war” as a handy excuse to take away many of our civil liberties and to invade Iraq for no reason. The outcome: we killed thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians (possibly as many as 96,000), and spent the lives of over 4,000 American servicemen in this useless, un-just war.
Plus we pissed off millions of Arabs just being in Iraq (I’m not sure why, but they didn’t like being invaded – talk about promoting terrorism).
Truly, the only ones who have gained out of the Iraq war were George Bush’s buddies – the oil companies and of course Halliburton (Dick Cheney’s company).
Then on the homefront – surprise, surprise – it’s exactly the same: big business has won big under George W. Bush; and the American citizens predictably, are paying for it – just last week to the tune of $700 billion – for the Wall Street bailout (in comparison, the Iraq war has only cost around $600 billion to date).
To be fair, Bush wasn’t entirely at fault for the present Wall Street crisis – this is basically the end result of almost 30 years of “Reaganomics” – the “trickle down” theory of economics, coupled with de-regulation where possible and where not, lax regulation and no meaningful oversight. Capitalism run rampant. Greed run rampant.
Bush took Reaganomics to its natural conclusion.
And so now the un-checked greed and corruption have taken their toll and the bankers (and Bush) have gone to the American people with their hands out. And we’re stuck paying for their mistakes (and will be for years and years).
But that’s not all by a long shot.
There’s the matter of oil prices: Americans are paying historic record prices for gas while oil companies are making the highest profits ever. Obscene profits.
Do you see a pattern here?
Big business has totally run rampant for the last eight years. They’ve been able to do any damned thing they want – they could act with impunity (can you say Enron?) and basically get away with murder. And best of all, if they fuck up, their buddy George Bush will bail them out – and we’ll pay for it.
By comparison, private citizens have seen their rights diminish – and have come under considerably more regulation.
Under Bush, the government can spy on us with impunity; they can hold people without due process and actually torture them – just by labeling them “terrorists.” The bankruptcy laws were tightened severely under Bush making it tougher for private citizens to do what Wall Street has just done. And the little guys have seen their taxes go up while rich people pay less.
There is no doubt at all that George W. Bush is the very worst president in history. Worse than Herbert Hoover. Worse than Andrew Johnson. Worse than every other president before him.
He’s ruined our great country; sullied its name; he’s killed people needlessly; he’s wrecked the lives of thousands and thousands of people.
He ought to be impeached and tried for treason.