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Morning Topic: Bush Claims Legacy of “Principles” — What Principles Exactly? |
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When asked on his European farewell Tour (though most Europeans seemed to view it as a “good riddance” tour) what he thought his legacy would be, President Bush responded:
“I want it to be said about George W. Bush that when he finished his presidency he looked in the mirror at a man who did not compromise his core principles for the sake of politics or the Gallup Poll, or the latest whatever, and you can’t lead in this world if you’re chasing something as temporary as a popularity poll.”
When I heard this, my first reaction was, What principles, exactly, are those that you were talking about? What, exactly, did he not compromise? Looking at his record, there actually are some principles that stand out:
- What’s Good for Big Oil is Good for America — Seen as recently as this week with his call for new drilling for oil off America’s coastline, this principle includes protecting their tax loopholes, letting their lobbyists write the industry’s regulations, and making certain that their profits continue unfettered. He once admitted that “America is addicted to oil,” but his policies show that wasn’t really a bad thing in his mind.
- A Crisis isn’t a Crisis Unless it Hurts the Republican Voting Base — Hurricane Katrina hits Democratic and poor sections of New Orleans? Look at it through an airplane window and send political hacks to do something about it. Hurricanes hit the state where his brother was Governor in 2004, and the $12 billion in federal aid was requested and delivered almost immediately.
- You’re Either With Us or You’re Against Us – This principle, stated most clearly, is for all the allies who supported the United States after September 11th, or all the countries caught up in the maelstrom of politics before the invasion of Iraq, or just anyone who didn’t think the Bush Administration’s post September 11th “strategy.” Either you support the War in Iraq, the shredding of the Constitution, the wiretapping of American citizens, the no-bid contracts for Halliburton and Guantanamo, or you supported the terrorists out to destroy our way of life. Any questions?
- If the President Says it, It Must be True — Bush can make statements like “The economy is strong,” ” America doesn’t torture,” “Mission Accomplished,” and “We are winning in Iraq,” and it doesn’t matter what the actual facts are — when the President tells you what is reality, there is no need to question it.
- Loyalty Overrides Competence and Experience — When hiring people for critical jobs in the Executive Branch, look at whether someone is a blindly loyal Republican, like the 20 year olds fresh out of college sent to the Green Zone fix Iraq, or appoint people who have contributed a lot of money to your campaign, like when you appoint people to head FEMA, or just Republican hack operatives, like for your Cabinet. Competence is for wusses.
So Bush does have a legacy of principles. Not particularly good principles, but they are there. Did I miss any?
You really ought to include Regulation and Laws are Bad for the 1% - the appointments of opponents of the protections of the public to all administration posts is more than just cronyism. It is an attempt to counter all the laws meant to protect the public. Dangerous products and food poisoning have been allowed to be foisted on the public along with dangerous financial machinations.
While he shall be made to wait for vindication of his failed policies,as long, if not longer than it will take for his “death cult” Christian base to realize that their solipsistic yearning for a rapture that will never come is a sick life denying fantasy. And his Straussian / Likudnik / Trotskyist handlers admit that their overarching desire to help their country of primary loyalty, has endangered and not helped Israel in the least.
However I will say this much for Bush, if remaining a willfully ignorant no nothing, incurious, narcissistic, sociopath is his idea of sticking to his core principles than he has been a singular success.
That the world sees him as a malleable dupe of the neocon’s who have hijacked America’s middle-East policy in behalf of the extreme right Likud party and others, makes little or no difference…just some necessary stroking of this sociopath, telling him how he will be vindicated, is sadly more than enough for him to remain the biggest single danger to world stability as his disaster of a Presidency comes to a merciful end.