Dear Democrats: Stop rehabilitating George W. Bush

[DonViejo]

By James Downie October 26 at 1:03 PM

Two new polls out Wednesday comprise a startling finding: More Democrats now view George W. Bush favorably than unfavorably. An Economist-YouGov poll gives him a 51 percent favorability rating among Democrats; a Fox News poll puts him at 48 percent. Democrats’ estimation of the former president has risen at an increasing clip since President Trump entered the White House, but Bush’s favorability among Democrats seems to have jumped since a speech he gave last Thursday that criticized Trump (though not by name): “We have seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty,” he said. “Disagreement escalates into dehumanization. … We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism – forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America.”

Let’s be clear: Yes, Trump is even worse than Bush, and any denunciation of the current president’s hateful rhetoric is welcome. But viewing him favorably is a mistake.

Bush’s record is one of the worst in American history. He and his administration helped facilitate the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. They misled the country into a war that cost tens of thousands of lives. They spied on Americans without warrants and violated legal prohibitions on torture. They botched the response to Hurricane Katrina, costing 1,800 lives while Bush talked about his FEMA director doing a “heckuva job.” They blew a budget surplus on tax cuts that failed to help the economy and exacerbated inequality. They gutted environmental regulations, distorted climate change science and lay down for companies to exploit natural resources at will. They exploited homophobia to drive up voter turnout. And in one of several scandals not out of place in the Trump administration, when it came to light that Bush’s Justice Department had fired nine U.S. attorneys for political reasons, Bush sheltered advisers under executive privilege. None of this deserves rehabilitation.

Furthermore, as Philip Bump pointed out, the same week Bush lamented a political debate “degraded by casual cruelty,” he appeared at fundraisers for Ed Gillespie, the Republican nominee for Virginia governor. Gillespie has adopted a Trump-esque approach to the general election, running ads deceptively linking illegal immigration and crime and Link to tweet
" target="_blank">trumpeting his support for Confederate statues. It seems Bush’s objections are based not on foolish policies or rude words, but merely whether the speaker is a friend of his.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/10/26/dear-democrats-stop-rehabilitating-george-w-bush

[LisaM]

1. Don't forget his Supreme Court appointments, and the decisions they rendered.

Alito. Roberts. Citizens United. Overturning portions of the Voting Rights Act.

Don't forget his mocking Al Gore, either.

[delisen]

2. or claiming the Clinton people wrecked the White House

before leaving. There were weeks of headlines on that.

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[bullwinkle428]

9. DAMN STRAIGHT. That was as big of a shit sandwich as Spicey's pathetic claim about the

"biggest inauguration crowd in history PERIOD!!!11!"

Isn't it funny that there was not a SINGLE PHOTOGRAPH of the alleged vandalism? I realize that this took place in the pre-Smartphone era, but cameras on flip phones were ubiquitous by this time, and it would not have been difficult at all to document all of these horrible misdeeds. But we were never given a shred of evidence. We were all supposed to trust the gospel of Uncle Karl!

[Drahthaardogs]

3. I draw a distinction between neocons and fascists

The current guys don't want to govern, they want to see it burn

[pat_k]

4. Resolution condemning Bush/Cheney for torture and

...acknowledging the monumental failures of the 107th Congress to fulfill it's duty to defend our constitutional democracy by rejecting the unlawfully appointed Florida electors, and impeaching and removing the war criminals in the oval office, would be a REAL first step toward redemption.

[suegeo]

5. I still haven't forgiven them for stealing the election

and then shutting everyone up by allowing (helping) the mass murders on Sept the 11. GW was terrible, Cheney's still a sociopath. The republican party is off the rails.

[Solly Mack]

6. No shit! Thank you!

[JI7]

8. I think they are responding to things like that speech. Not to what kind of president he is

[Rhiannon12866]

14. I do, too.

I've posted before that it's the Republicans who have to get rid of Trump - as they did with Nixon. So I think people are grateful to hear such harsh criticism of Trump coming from Republicans who would command national attention - a veteran senator like McCain and a former POTUS.

[Skittles]

10. THANK YOU

I AM SICK OF HEARING THE NOSTALGIA FOR THAT LYING, THIEVING, WARMONGERING PIECE OF SHIT

[Gabi Hayes]

11. Idiocracy

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here

[irisblue]

12. The blood on his hands will never ever dry. nt

[diva77]

13. +1000 THIS!

Dubya along with Nixon, Reagan, GHW Bush all paved the way for a Dump stolen election and acceleration of privatization of everything, among other things.

[HughBeaumont]

15. It's like I said . . .

You know America has hit historic lows when the current presidency is such an undisciplined trainwreck that a war criminal seems palatable.

[melm00se]

16. Not surprising

Why?

If you ran a poll about Attila the Hun with the current Clown in Chief in the office, Attila would come out smelling like a rose.

Seriously, this poll supports a theory I have had for some time:

You cannot objectively evaluate a President for 20-25 years after the end of that administration.

Why? Emotions can run very high during this period (usually peaking immediately after the end of the administration and then trailing downward) which interferes with objectivity. Additionally, during this period is also when insiders to that administration will begin to "talk" via memoirs and, near the end of the period, the release of internal documents showing what went on behind the scenes. Finally, it can take that long for the ramifications of some of their long range strategic policies to settle.

[Tatiana]

17. The real Axis of Evil

Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

Nope, he's still evil.

[Dave Starsky]

18. I, for one, do not miss George W. Bush.

But I do find myself pining for the folksy charm of Richard Nixon.

[treestar]

19. Everything is relative

And he's not President any more. Let him join the chorus against the Orange Disaster.