Asking the wrong question…..

Lex and others have taken a great deal of pride in flashing this picture around-and then with a certain amount of snarkiness proclaiming how great it was under George W. Bush. Sad to see how short peoples memories really are:

 

Let’s just say for argument’s sake-Barak Obama is really the worst President since Millard Filmore-which is not a premise I am willing to postulate just yet-it does not automatically follow that George W. Bush is somehow now a good President.

The better conclusion to come to is that because George W. Bush was such a bad President, and the average American voter so ignorant, that it enabled the conditions that led to the election of Barak Obama in 2008. And may, in turn, lead to the election of someone equally reprehensible in 2012.

The question voters should be asking is NOT “do you miss George Bush?”. No, the question we all should be asking ourselves is: what is so wrong with the American poltical system that really qualified candidates-smart people with real solutions, not stupid platitudes-cannot get nominated,  much less elected?

The only thing that might even make me even a little bit nostalgic for the Bush years was that I was not living in this country for them-I was on the right side of the International Date Line and not having to experience American craziness first hand. But for those who were here-they would be well advised to remember a few facts:

George Bush did two fundamental things-that when taken together-are practically unforgivable. He started the war in Iraq, while still fighting a war in Afghanistan, and he cut taxes at exactly the same time. Individually, the former remains reprehensible, while the latter might have been commendable-but not when the country is fighting a war with out end. Combined that with an economic policy that favored the wealthiest corporations over the average working man-perpetuating the policies that created the housing bust, and the 2008 economic implosion- its hard to call his term in office a rousing success. Even conservatives should be furious with him,  Bush did very little to advance  their agenda.

The number that matters to me though: 5000 dead, 30000+ wounded, in a totally avoidable war of choice, that did NOTHING-I repeat NOTHING-to advance the interests of the United States in the Middle East. In fact if anything,  it made our lives that much harder in that end of the world.  And as some really qualifed writers have pointed out-has bought us nothing that we intended for Iraq. ( Newsweek has it totally wrong, there has been no “victory” in Iraq-just more of the same old Arab stupidity).

 The Bush administration was defined by two things—ruthless partisanship and an iron commitment to presidential power. In his first term Mr Bush pushed through a conservative agenda of huge tax cuts and a war against Iraq despite the fact that he had the narrowest of mandates. In his re-election bid in 2004 he relied on supercharging the conservative base rather than reaching out to middle-of-the-road voters.

And that just about sums up old GWB. His incuriousity and anti intellectualism created a space in which the Sarah Palin’s of the world somehow managed to become credible party leaders. That certainly did the Republican party -or the country-no favors.

It is perfectly possible to loathe Bush without loving Obama-its very easy in fact. It is also not “hatred” to point that out. Sorry Lex.

A year ago The Economist ( a real newsmagazine) reminded it’s readers:

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE was so enthralled by the nine months he spent in the United States in 1831 that he wrote two fat volumes about the country. He admired the vigour of its democratic institutions and the entrepreneurial spirit of its people, which was rapidly transforming a vast wilderness into a polished civilisation. And he approved of the way that the country’s potential vices were moderated by its commonplace virtues, particularly its civic pride and religious observance. The proud French aristocrat was happy to call himself “half Yankee”.

But in the 1840s and 1850s de Tocqueville’s views on America took a darker turn, as a new collection of his writings makes clear. (“Tocqueville on America After 1840: Letters and Other Writings”). Public life was dominated by people who lacked “moderation, sometimes probity, above all education”. America’s sense of “exaggerated pride in its strength” was promoting military adventurism. “Primitivism” stalked the land. “What is certain is that, for some years, you have strangely abused the advantages given to you by God,” he chided.

Sound familar?

If you want to miss something-how about grieving for the two words that best describe the first decade of  America’s 21’st century: Squandered Opportunity.