Imagine that George W. Bush had been allowed a third term as president...

[KoKo]

(edited for copyright purposes-proud patriot Moderator Democratic Underground)

Bush's Third Term?
Comment
By David Swanson

September 1, 2009

This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.

It sounds like the plot for the latest summer horror movie. Imagine, for a moment, that George W. Bush had been allowed a third term as president, had run and had won or stolen it, and that we were all now living (and dying) through it. With the Democrats in control of Congress but Bush still in the Oval Office, the media would certainly be talking endlessly about a mandate for bipartisanship and the importance of taking into account the concerns of Republicans. Can't you just picture it?

*


There's Dubya now, still rewriting laws via signing statements. Still creating and destroying laws with executive orders. And still violating laws at his whim. Imagine Bush continuing his policy of extraordinary rendition, sending prisoners off to other countries with grim interrogation reputations to be held and tortured. I can even picture him formalizing his policy of preventive detention, sprucing it up with some "due process" even as he permanently removes habeas corpus from our culture.

I picture this demonic president still swearing he doesn't torture, still insisting that he wants to close Guantánamo, but assuring his subordinates that the commander-in-chief has the power to torture "if needed," and maintaining a prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan that makes Guantánamo look like summer camp. I can imagine him continuing to keep secret his warrantless spying programs while protecting the corporations and government officials involved.

If Bush were in his third term, we would already have seen him propose, yet again, the largest military budget in the history of the world. We might well have seen him pretend he was including war funding in the standard budget, and then claim that one final supplemental war budget was still needed, immediately after which he would surely announce that yet another war supplemental bill would be needed down the road. And of course, he would have held onto his secretary of defense from his second term, Robert Gates, to run the Pentagon, keep our ongoing wars rolling along, and oversee the better part of our public budget.

(SNIP)

THE NATION..........
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090914/swanson

[Bluzmann57]

1. Have we all gone crazy?

Seven months in and Leftists are bitching about Obama. How long did it take us to get into this mess? It will not be easy, as Obama said. But it can be done.

[rug]

14. Fucking Leftists ruining everything.

[LWolf]

18. Damn those fucking leftists.

They're all over there at DU, "one of the premier left-wing websites on the Internet...hosting one of the Web's most active left-wing discussion boards."

[LWolf]

19. Kick and fucking R. nt

[stray cat]

2. Some DUers actually claim Obama is Bush's 3rd term

I think they forgot the last 8 years....

[Political Heretic]

5. Someone didn't read before posting ;)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. They also pour Drano in their cereal.

[MrModerate]

3. 1) Bite.Your.Tongue; 2) If he had gone for a third then he wouldn't . . .

Have spent the last few years of Term 2 watching brain cells drip out of his ears as he grew increasingly detached from, well, everything. He would have been engaged, and not in a good way.

I think people forget how Bush pretty much checked out following the 2006 elections and just played at president subsequently. He also stopped listening to Cheney, which is the only reason World War IV didn't break out during that period.

[Political Heretic]

4. I know right!? We'd be escalating war in Afghanistan, ignoring those who ordered torture, and

blowing off labor (EFCA,) consistently putting corporate money interests ahead of the public good on major issues.

I appreciate an article that tells it like it is, but don't expect a warm welcome here (unless people only read the headline and assume this is some defense of a capitulating president.

[ksoze]

6. I just threw up a little in my mouth. Thanks.

[DevonRex]

7. How many times will this get posted today? zzzz nt

[ProSense]

8. You sure are posting this drivel all over the place

It is still garbage

[DevonRex]

10. Yes, it is. Now it's over on GD, too. It's like spamming the boards with

crap.

[billh58]

11. Swanson has

a book to sell -- don't ya know? His promoters are spamming many other sites besides DU.

[DevonRex]

12. Is that right? I just thought it was the usual hate Obama crowd. That's

interesting. Very interesting.

[billh58]

13. I believe that

the book was released yesterday, but he's been pimping it for months at other sites.

[bvar22]

16. Thanks! I went and recommended that one too!

:toast:

[CakeGrrl]

15. It must be "Bush's Third Term" Blast Fax Day on DU

Reminds me of last year when the old anti-Obama memes would be repeated in 10 or so different threads on the same day.

:rofl:

[Undercurrent]

17. More of this hogwash?

Is this Bizarro World?

[onenote]

20. geez, not again?

It was stupid the first time. Repeating it doesn't make it any less stupid.

[Jennicut]

21. This was posted already today by the resident Obama critic

Do we really need to see it again in all its epic failness?

Bush is a conservative...appointed conservative judges. No health reform was ever brought up under him, he started the Iraq War, he fired judges, he outed a CIA agent, he did not believe in stem cell research, wanted more restrictions on abortions.
Obama is a moderate Dem. There is a difference. These same people complaining must have voted for Nader. There really was no difference between Gore and Bush...RIGHT?