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Bush’s Low Approval, and Why We Need to Keep it There |
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Gallup recently released the results of a survey that assessed the performance of the Bush administration on a range of issues. Bush is poorly regarded among the public on virtually every topic:
Given his administration’s vast array of failures, this is hardly surprising. People are undeniably worse off than they were eight years ago. Unemployment has risen, as has income inequality. The number of Americans without health insurance has drastically increased. We’re stuck in two hopeless wars, and in trillions of dollars of debt.
The Bush administration has rolled out an extensive PR effort to resuscitate his image and establish a positive legacy. It’s no coincidence that Bush is highlighting his work to fight AIDS, his most favorable attribute. He’s going out of his way to appear accommodating to the Obama transition team. Not wanting to be held responsible for plunging the country further into recession, the administration seemed desperate to push through an auto bailout. Bush moved to protect 335,000 square miles of territorial water, making a direct comparison between himself and Teddy Roosevelt. Finally, his most ardent supporters are hording money for his Presidential library in order to shape his legacy.
The Obama team has shown some willingness to sweep many of the excesses of the Bush administration under the rug, allowing them to get away with their failures. This is a grave mistake.
Bush’s failures are the byproduct of his administration’s mistrust toward government. Consolidation of executive power comes from a lack of trust that government as it currently exists can keep us safe. The rollback of almost every regulation imaginable — everything from labor, to environmental, to economic — implies that government can’t be trusted to engage in oversight. Attacks on programs like public health care and Social Security are based on the assumption that government shouldn’t perform these functions, or can’t perform them well. The administration’s failures aren’t the result of incompetence, they’re the realization of conservative ideology’s goals: the destruction of government.
Future presidents need to understand that they can’t systematically dismantle government and get away with it. Bush must be held accountable.
There is a very basic question that people doing business with the USA have to ask “Is the USA trustworthy ?” “Is it governed by the rule of law ?” . The last 8 years have shown that it is largely not governed by the rule of law . If the rule of law is not restored and restored retrospectively the USA will have the status of a tin pot dictatorship . What this means is that people and companies in other countries will not want to do business with people and companies in the USA - they will just not be protected . Consequentially both trade and investment from other countries will be greatly restricted . People and companies will just not want to expose themselves to the risk .
Fact: Bush is responsible for the single greatest increase in the size and power of government in the history of the United States
I dont think the new dude in the white house can do much, you can tweak some parts of it but once something is this f**ked up you have got to let it hit the bottom first and then rebuild.
PARDONING GEORGE BUSH IS TREASON
The problem is that the poll is based on public opinion, and not fact.
Although many want to bash Bush, you need to get over it.
Possibly then you might discover that most of the problems he is blamed for were the responsibility of the congress and not the president.
The last 21 years, when the economy collapsed, the democratic congress said everything is ok when they knew better. Bush did try to pass legislation to get the mortgage industry under better control, but it was vetoed. Because ot this the policies created by Carter and build upon by Clinton could not be controlled and Bush was now there to get the blame.
You can stay stuck in the past and continue to bash Bush or move int the future with our new leadership. BTW, have you looked at what is in the new stimulus package and studied if this approach was ever used in the past, and if it was, what were the results?