Friday, March 31, 2006

Is Bush the worst? Impossible to say right now...

I have taken my time responding to Tusk and Talon and Homercles, who have graciously responded to my request for reasons why President Bush shouldn’t be considered the worst president of all time. You should really check out their responses. Particularly T&T, who have really made some excellent arguments. What follows is my response.

Homercles, first. The nice thing about his response is that he outlines a number of things he feels Bush didn’t do well first. That’s appreciated.

However, his first two positive points about Bush are the appointments of Bolton to the UN and Rice as Secretary of State. Even if you do like these appointments (and I like one out of two), you can look at other appointments he’s made or attempted to make (Brown in charge of FEMA, Chertoff in charge of Homeland Security, Miers to the Supreme Court) and you realize this is someone who often appoints friends not qualified individuals. This was never more apparent than during the Hurricane Katrina response. I am not one of those people who closes my eyes with regard to the failures of the local governments, but I absolutely hold Bush responsible for the failure of the federal government. Either 1) his decision to fold FEMA into Homeland (Michael Brown’s assertion) or 2) Brown being appointed to run FEMA when he wasn’t qualified to do so contributed to the loss of property and loss of life.

Homercles also supports Bush’s moves in the war on terror, but I’m going to skip that one for the moment and come back to it.

Next Homercles applauds Bush saying we need to look into alternative fuels. Saying it and doing it are two different things. What exactly has he done besides point out the obvious? Not to mention the fact that I’m taking points off for waiting until now to even admit that there’s a problem.

Homercles brings up the AIDS appropriation. Like Bono, I give Bush props for that. However, unlike Homercles, I think putting conservatives on the court will hurt our country more than help. But I do agree about the need to get Kelo overturned based on what I read about the case today. In any case, this is one of the points where it’s impossible to agree as we just have philosophical differences.

Homercles final point is about exposing Russia and France for their immorality. Did Bush do that? Seems to me that happened on his watch. And exposing immorality of other nations hardly qualifies someone as a good president. I have a higher standard than that, I guess.

Okay, let’s check out what Tusk and Talon had to say.

First Don explains how he determines what makes a good president. I agree completely with this statement:

I define a president who protects the elements of American freedoms as “good”, and one who yields them as “bad”. It is difficult, but necessary to differentiate between short-term expediency and long-term effects of any action, or decision not to act.

According to Don, those elements of American Freedoms include:

Our constitution and bill of rights guarantee majority rule with protection for minorities. Free-market capitalism allows the most opportunity for people to get those things they desire while rewarding innovation and economic growth. And hundreds of years of history have ingrained transparency, tolerance and respect for private property into our culture.

Again, I agree with that, however where I differ a little bit is that I recognize that a free market economy is not perfect and there are times when an outside force (i.e. the government) needs to step in. But still, I think we’re starting at a pretty similar place.

The first point that Don brings up is Bush’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Treaty. I’m pretty torn on this issue. I think it’s impossible to say that Bush’s refusal to sign this treaty was a good thing at this point. We may not know for many years whether this hurt or helped us. On the general issue of the environment, Bush has clearly failed. Go here for more information on that front. Don makes the point in one the quotes above that we "must differentiate between short-term expediency and long-term effects of any action." On the environment, the Bush administration has clearly ignored the long term effects of its actions.

Don’s next point is tax cuts. We’re not going to agree on that issue and I’ll just say we have a different philosophy on this issue and leave it at that.

Moving on... the No Child Left Behind Act has failed. It’s great that he tried to do something, but it didn’t work. You don’t get president points for trying, you get points for succeeding.

Don then brings up the appointment to the courts of judges who will base their rulings on the constitution. This one makes me smile a little bit. I have to give Homercles props for admitting that he applauded Bush for putting conservatives on the court instead of hiding behind the 'judges who use base rulings on the constitution” line. Let’s face facts, the constitution requires interpretation. Individuals are going to bring their biases to the table. Presidents are going to choose individuals who think the same way they do on issues. As someone who is pro-life (which is a terrible label, but everyone knows what I mean when I use it so there you go), I am glad to see the court move toward a makeup that is more in line with my views on that issue. Of course, there are other issues that the new judges will probably not go my way on. I guess I’m kind of jaded on the whole Supreme Court issue.

There’s still the one big issue that, as Don points out, will be the determining factor in figuring Bush’s place in history: The Iraq War. And the problem with that is… we just don’t know how it will all turn out.

So here’s what you get from asking the question and getting well reasoned, informative answers. I will not say that George Bush is the worst president in my lifetime… at least not yet. Right now, it doesn’t look good and in fact, I don’t see any successes that both political parties can point to and agree on, but I suppose if by some miracle his plan to create a democracy in Iraq leads to more democracies in the Middle East, then I’ll give him props. And that success could be enough to lift him out of last place. But I think that plan is doomed to failure because you can’t force democracy.

Don also brings up the wiretapping issue and I’ll address that in another post.

Finally, I just want to say thanks to both Homercles and Don from Tusk and Talon for responding. You both gave me a lot to think about.

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