Opinions about Bush harsher than past presidents...?

[imax2268]

I'm just curious to know if anyone has ever been so angry at a president like this in the past...?

I was to young for Nixon, Ford and Carter...I remember Raygun...but wasn't into politics until Bush 1...I remember getting angry when those famous words were spoken "Read My Lips"...that kind of set me in my ways of choosing to become a Democrat...then Clinton took over and everything seemed ok...I didn't worry about politics all that much because he didn't make me think of politics...everything seemed fine, everyone was making money, everyone had a job...then the first time I felt like voting for a President(Gore!)...I felt like I got ripped off...and it's been a steady decline in this country since W took office...I don't think that I have ever been so angry and have had so much dislike for a political figure(or puppet)in the past until now...

So...does anyone remember being angrier at a President before W or has he put you over the edge...?

[BurtWorm]

1. I was angry with Nixon and Reagan in particular.

And I loathed Bush I.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[imax2268]

3. I heard that...

go figure that it would take a Repuke pResident(and a bad one at that) to get me so angry that I would dive headfirst into politics...

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. In modern times

Nixon.. when he finally resigned boy his poll numbers
were LOW

(No I was not around for that one, but boy the history is clear)

We really do not have much elite history to back it up (but labor
will back it) Hoover was also seen as a total nincompoop (hence
why the New Deal was passed).

Now go back further, and you will find other Presidents who were
oh so loved as Bush

But when the history of this period is written Bush the Lesser
will probably come out as one of the worst Presidets in US
History and the most hated in the modern period, followed closely
by Nixon and also Clinton (as far as one sector of the population
goes)

Ironically Clinton will come out as one of the better ones, becuase
he had the luck of being bracketed by two idiots... like father
like son... KEEP JEB out

[imax2268]

5. good point...

[Liberal Veteran]

6. I dunno...when I realised Bush was to be crowned....

...I said to myself, "Oh well. You lived through Nixon, Reagan, and Bush and it wasn't that damned bad. You'll just have to suffer through this one."

In retrospect I laugh that I could have been so blind. This by far is the worst excuse for a president I could ever imagine. He rules for a small minority and the majority be damned, instead of looking out for the greater good.

I have a feeling that if we cannot turn back the tide of these people, we are well on way to what I had read long ago in magazine story about an alien world called Zygotea:

"Zygotea the plentiful fell into hands rings with political power but soiled with greed, insensitivity, and incompetence. Noble families were
fashioned to man the helm but the new leaders' god was profit rather than tomorrow's possibility.

First the planet fell victim to their uncontrolled hunger. Trees, mountains and rivers were replaced by scar tissue. The bright colors of life faded to a monochromatic dullness. The riches that were meant for many found their way to only a chosen few.

For the one-eyed God spoke to the people and showed them that limited facets of life exploited to their fullest could be much more satisfying than sampling the entire spectrum. So the Zygoteans dance to their doom with confused smile on their faces, wondering if they had missed something along the way.

Then one day the spring dried up, the mask fell off, the eyes cleared, and horror became plain for all to see.

The jewel had finally crumbled from with and all that remained were those who ruled and those who were ruled. The fantasy of equality melted before the reality that the world was made up of only winners and victims.

The masses cried for social justice and no longer recieved even a cosmetic response. For the only resource left to save the people WAS the people.

Sacrifices were called for.

The stars beckoned. Unfortunately, only a select few would be able to answer that siren's call. Only the best would be allowed to escape the cadaver of Zygotea's once-noble dreams.

Persuaded by the might of Zygotea's military and blessed by the holy offices of the church, the many set out to save the few.

Their sweat and muscle built the ships of their fleet. Their blood was spilt to test the weapons the families would need among the stars and finally, their bodies were used to fuel the fleets maiden voyage.

So died Zygotea. So lived the Zygoteans."

[imax2268]

7. very interesting...

thanks...

[Booberdawg]

9. Me too

...I said to myself, "Oh well. You lived through Nixon, Reagan, and Bush and it wasn't that damned bad. You'll just have to suffer through this one."

I never dreamed he would be this bad or could cause so much damage to this country in such a short time.

[tkmorris]

27. If that wasn't Kilgore Trout

It should have been.

[Booberdawg]

8. Mine is harsher of bush* than other presidents but I wasn't involved

when Nixon, Ford and Reagan were in office.

OTOH, I don't think any other president has been judged as harshly as Clinton was. Yegads - the hatred and vitriol manufactured by the right against him was just plain criminal.

[Liberal Veteran]

11. What's interesting is that so much of it WAS manufactured.

99% of the vitriol and hatred was spun out of nothingness. It was rumor, opinion, innuendo that was fueled solely by a partisan effort to destroy the Clintons and fanned by right wing media.

When did we become so complacent that we allowed AM talk radio to become right wing propaganda radio broadcasting 24 hour commercials touting the right wing and smearing the left without so much as a modicum of foresight to realize that such a thing was bound to have an impact?

[Booberdawg]

20. I'm not sure we became complacent so much as there was nothing we

could do about it. They've had the media machinery in place for a long time and the think tanks and funding for this horse shit as well. What we were complacent about perhaps was getting our own machinery in place to counter it. They've got about a 20 year head start on us.

[Liberal Veteran]

21. I am not so sure about that...

Clinton had ample opportunity to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine which might have lessened the impact of 24 hour a day editorializing from the right wing.

[Booberdawg]

23. I didn't know that. Why the hell didn't he then??

:shrug:

[Liberal Veteran]

24. Clinton was a DLC'er and that meant cowtowing to business...

...interests which lobbied hard to prevent the fairness doctrine from being reinstituted.

If Clinton had shown a bit of foresight and vision in this matter instead of caving to business interests we might be in a very different place to day.

I like Clinton a great deal, but he was mistaken not to show some leadership on this issue.

[Booberdawg]

25. I agree with you. That was a bad move.

Seems like a no brainer actually.

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Actually he tried

but after the '94 loss he really had no way of doing it

Google for it, even Rushie went spastic over this
fairmess doctrine stealing his fredom of speech...

Serious

[murielm99]

10. This Watergate junkie hated Nixon alot...

as did many other people who lived through it. But it has taken President Pinocchio to get me involved in politics again. I have not yet decided if I hate Pinocchio more...but we were vindicated when Nixon resigned.

Please watch the "Watergate plus 30" special done by PBS. It gives you some of the flavor of those times.

And remember, John Dean has said that he thinks our current so-called president deserves to be impeached.

[imax2268]

12. I think so as well...

but with the way things are and Congress and the Senat giving into his every whim...I don't see that happening...figures...impeach one for lying about a BJ...but turn a blind eye to one that lies to a nation...

[Liberal Veteran]

13. This current batch has no shame. The repubs will not admit mistakes...

...and as long they have the reigns of power they will grasp them with all their might.

They are addicted to power. We should have seen it in election 2000 when they tried everything under the sun to grab the brass ring and did not care what state the country was left in when their grab was over. Gore's (and the democratic party's) biggest mistake was failing to understand their lust for power.

[jpgray]

14. Polk was a similar sort of guy

Pushing Mexico into war in order to acquire more slave states, he had the same loopy propaganda and logically bankrupt arguments as our current president. His critics were very harsh indeed--including http://www.animatedatlas.com/mexwar/lincoln2.html">Abraham Lincoln.

:)

[WeirdSceneGoldmine]

15. The internet is an amplifier

The anger existed in the past but it was muted.

[starroute]

16. I spent 20 years hating Nixon -- but Bush is far creepier

Despising Nixon was one of the defining aspects of my childhood -- from the 1952 presidential campaign (when I was in first grade), to his obnoxiousness during the "Yankee Go Home" period around 1959, to his 1962 loss in the California governor's race ("You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more"), which was one of the few things that cheered me up right after Eleanor Roosevelt died, to his unwelcome resurrection in 1968.

By the time Watergate came around, it seemed that I had been hating Nixon for a lifetime, and that Nixon was the very epitome of everything that was wrong with America.

But lately, I've begun to realize that Nixon was only the dark shadow self of America -- the frightening reminder of what America might become in some hideous nightmare future of unchecked greed and arrogance. Bush is the actuality of all those fears, and the man terrifies me down to my socks in a way that Nixon, even at his worst, never did.

Nixon made me fear for the future of America. Bush makes me despair of the present.

[murielm99]

17. Excellent post!

I think you are correct. If this keeps up, we will all be political prisoners, I swear.

[imax2268]

18. thanks...

good post...

[NJCher]

19. observations

That excerpt is an excellent find, liberal_veteran. I saved it for a few more readings.

Oh, starroute, I could so identify with what you said about a lifetime hating Nixon. I was just a little kid but I sitll hated him and by the time Watergate turned into Watergrate I was so sick of him. "Resign already!" I would yell at the TV set. I can remember doing handstands when he resigned; I was so happy.

I really like what WeirdSceneGoldmine said about the Internet as amplifier. That's definitely true.


Cher

[jsw_81]

22. The other GOP presidents were despicable, but at least they were elected

This clown we have now was NEVER elected.

[imax2268]

26. Man...

this is the first time I think that one of my posts has made it past 10 replies...some great posts here...thanks all...very informative to say the least...

I was born in 68, and when I was in school they never talked about Nixon, Watergate, Vietnam, Carter, Reagan or anything...what I have learned I have learned by reading and searching out the info on my own...

It's great to hear what some people say that actually expierenced it...!

[tkmorris]

29. Yep

School is not too helpful in areas like that.

You can't really talk much about recent presidents without getting political, and schools must avoid being political. Issues like Vietnam and Civil Rights have the same problem. They are still considered political footballs by some people. No matter what a teacher said about topics like those there would be some parent that had a cow over it. So they just don't.

Yes it stinks. But knowing the score means you can educate yourself. Young citizens have an OBLIGATION to do this. Not you of course, I am barely older than you. We need however to do what we can to convince young folks that there is a lot to learn about the world we live in that isn't taught in school. They know this intuitively already, we just need to remind them that politics is one of those things and convince them that it DOES matter.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. Can I make a sugestion

Since schools no longer teach what it means to be
an American either...

Start reading things like Common Sense and the actual
writings of the Founding Fathers...

Oh and if you google enough you may find good blogs that will
go into this

Also read the Classics, where we took a lot of our ideas

Oh and the Enlightenment

Here is a blog I found one day, you may want to check it,
as this person has done this in some ways, but don't take his words
as gospel, just as a starting point

http://plubius.blogspot.com/

[Spentastic]

28. Prick

I have observed the man quite closely and his veterans day performance pretty much summed the reasons why I think he's unfit for the position.

He seemed entirely incapable of standing still for two minutes whilst the honor guard did their thing. This annoyed me. But the next part was unbelievable, he did something that only 8 yr old children do. He started talking to the guy next to him OUT OF THE CORNER OF HIS MOUTH to try and hide what he was doing.

The guy is mentally incompetent to be in charge of the U.S.A.

The bloke I despise more at the moment is Tony Blair. He's bright enough to know better.

[jsw_81]

30. I saw that

Couldn't believe my eyes.

[Spentastic]

33. Glad it wasn't just me

Also he can't salute, and was talking and turning around whilst taking the salute.

The vet next to him should have called him to order.

I'm not big on military pomp, but if you are going to attend at least you do it properly.

[Skittles]

35. I SAW IT TOO

I had the same face I always have when I see Dubya on TV - like I just found a pubic hair in my soup. IT'S PAINFUL. As a veteran, he completely DISGUST ME.

[Skittles]

34. HELL F***ING NO

I've suffered through Nixon and Reagan and Bush I but g.d. it I accepted them as my presidents; THEY WERE AT THE VERY LEAST *ELECTED*. I cannot in my wildest DREAMS respect that piece of shit occupying the White House now. NOT NOW, NOT EVER.

[sweetheart]

36. then Clinton took over and everything seemed ok...

"seemed OK" is the operative phrase. Clinton was a veneer that ultimately undermined democratic interests, and certainly he was no friend of mine... but relative to the criminal BFEE, he was a bloody saint... just somehow, i connect him to the rise of the BFEE in 2000, and i have not forgiven him for making the presidency a joke under democracy. He should be tried for war crimes for his unwarranted attacks on sudan, and his supporting the KLA ethnic cleansing of the serb population of kosovo.

So, yes W has put me over the edge where i would speak up on a forum such as this, which i never did during clinton's time. IN that regard, BFEE is the worst ever. According to my neigbors and acquaintances in europe, bush is similarly as evil as reagan... and i never saw reagan's presidency from outside the USA, so i have no benchmark.

[NicRic]

38. Good Intensions !!!

If Clinton ultimatly weakened the Dem party ,believe that was not neither his goal or his fault .It was more then stuburness and the inability of others in our party to defend our Dem President and to follow Clintons great ability to come to a agreement and get things done .For the frist time in my life I have a picture of one of our Presidents on my wall and its President Clinton .His record speakes for itself. Them other elected Dems ,who where so afraid of showing strong support for this President(Clinton) that are the reason the Dems are looked upon as a spineless party. Blaming Clinton for that is a cop out ! One of the frist things Clinton did as President was sign the family leave act. I believe that speakes for itself on what kind of person this great President is !

[Q]

37. It's not a matter of 'anger'...

...that's a word that other side uses to frame the debate and suggests that we're being 'unreasonable'. The RWingers hatred of the Clintons was/is based on false perceptions encouraged by their 'leadership'. Our views about Bush* are based on his smugness after knowingly stealing an election, taking political advantage of the death of 3000 on 9-11 and lying to push this nation into war.

- It's a matter of 'proportional' response and informed consent. Americans should be ashamed if they're NOT pissed at this most corrupt executive branch in history.