Decide Bush's Legacy. (POLL)

[saltpoint]

Historians sometimes differ on presidents' legacies, but other times they're in lockstep agreement. Sometimes presidents' legacies are a mixed bag, other times not. HIstory appears to shape some presidencies, while some presidents appear to shape history.

This poll asks your response and thoughts on the legacy of George W. Bush. Nine considerations are slotted with a tenth slot for 'OTHER.' Your comments are also welcome.


SELECT ONE OF THE 10 RESPONSES TO COMPLETE THIS PROMPT:


GEORGE W. BUSH'S LEGACY WILL BE THAT --

[tenshi816]

1. You should have an option

for voting for 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8.

Edited because I can't count.

[saltpoint]

3. I thought of something like that, tenshi816, but needed more slots

or more space per slot.

Anyway, I'm going for the focus historians may place on this presidency.

(I tried to think of more positive choices, but just could not come up with any!)

[Peter Frank]

2. He was "fundamentally" an idealist...

...who (upon becoming president) became entirely subsumed, and his energies perverted by a dark and paranoid global cabal of wealthy and hopelessly jaded ideologues -- none of which swear allegiance to any one nation.

"Freedom is on the march!"

[saltpoint]

4. Hello, Peter. This is the first time I've responded to your posts, I

believe, but not the first time I've read them.

They are terrific. This one is not only historically resonant, but beautifully written as well.

A sad tale in U.S. history is George W. Bush's.

Thanks.

[EST]

5. He presided over and nominally engineered the transformation

of the United States into a totalitarian state and brought about world dictatorship, just prior to the fourth, and final, atomic world war.

[saltpoint]

6. Hi, EST. I like the way you deftly use 'nominally' in regard to Bush's

stewardship. The suspicion (or outright belief) that he has never really been in charge stays with me and I think historians may weigh it heavily.

Our blood and bones call out to oppose this administration's manipulation of a constitutional republic into a totalitarian state. You are right to register that point, even if it scares the bejesus out of me. The dark and sinister outcome is all too plausible with this bunch.

[EST]

10. Perhaps the most frightening aspect of this whole,

discouraging mess is the unwitting facilitation, provided by the disinterested or simply clueless participation of the majority of the populace.

Bush is not particularly bright-a conclusion borne out by even a cursory examination of the sparse available evidence. Never a strong intellect, he was, in a predatory, street urchin fashion, quick to utilize his skills at manipulation and bullying. He was and is very vulnerable to flattery.

A recent interview, by Brian Lamb, of c-span fame, of Josh Bolten brought this home quite thoroughly. I was listening with only half an ear when I heard Mr. Bolten describing, in effusive, glowing terms, this person of brilliant sagacity. Imagine my surprise, on pricking up my ears, that he was describing *!

Upon reflection, in light of experience, some of his history came into sharp focus.
His brother, Jeb, was always held up as the golden son, while little Georgie was repeatedly forgiven his many indiscretions because of his slowness and was constantly flattered, by his family, in order to make up for his shortcomings, and by everyone else, because of his money, power and position.

His extreme vulnerability to flattery, even the most coarse and obvious, made him the idiot tool of anyone (read Karl Rove) who took the time and effort to use him. He really believes his press releases. The sad fate of this country has thus resulted from those who wished for his gifts but lacked them in their own persons. This unfortunate state of affairs comes, in large part, from their skills at campaigning and winning but absolute ineptitude at managing and governing, coupled to their own sorry, twisted little visions of what America should be.

I fear that we have no idea just how bad things can get, but we shall find out, all too soon.

[Seabiscuit]

13. Every month for over 5 years I've thought things just couldn't possibly

get any worse yet history keeps proving me wrong. :cry:

[saltpoint]

19. I think that background summary of the personality of DimSon is

probably accurate and insightful, and probably also explains quite a bit of what happens in the current White House.

The ghost of Lincoln must be barfing up a storm somewhere in the Beyond.

I'm buoyed by recent polls showing Blackwell struggling to gain a foothold in Ohio, Katherine Harris accelerating her own train wreck in Florida, Lieberman being challenged for his Bushkissing in CT, Rendell and Casey leading their GOP opponents in PA, and so forth. The Republican Party, which is by no means my favorite group of folks, could at least become the un-Bush Party.

Unless a gleaming constitutional republic blossoms in the next couple of months in Baghdad, which seems unlikely to say the least, I think this Bush is the last Bush we will have to endure in GOP power circles.

A big blue wave in Congress on Nov. 7 wouldn't hurt, either.

[Seabiscuit]

35. I'm secretly praying for that big blue wave.

Oops. Not a secret any more.

[B Calm]

7. He's a RAPIST who stole two elections then told us to get over it!

[saltpoint]

20. Election theft would be a serious charge against some politicians but

with this president and his flunkies, it has terrifying plausibility.

I think it is one of the sad-but-true components of his failure as a public servant.

He's a powermonger, a bully, and -- I agree with you -- he stole 2 elections from the voters (at least the voters who voted against him with all their hearts against both Gore/Lieberman and Kerry/Edwards).

[BlueIris]

8. Pathetic, repressed, self-hating, gay ADDICT--who fucked us all

in a misguided and utterly vile attempt to secure Daddy's approval while protecting his own "secrets." Which I sometimes feel is the story of America, fellow posters.

[saltpoint]

21. There definitely is a repressed quality to Dubya. A heavy thing it is

too, since what holds him back holds the nation as a whole back, and I can't think of a time when that's a good thing.

Especially when the incumbent president is so unchallenged on top of it all. This man does not value, and therefor does not respect, ideas. The corruption seems everyday in part because no ideas about what public service really is ever reach him or concern him.

Would that we had President Gore or President Kerry. The public service quotient would shoot WAY up with either.

[ClintonTyree]

9. Do I have to pick just one?

That's difficult seeing that more than one answer describes bush's legacy. TOTAL LOSER would be my choice, if it were there.

[saltpoint]

22. 'Total Loser' works for me. I can't name a domestic or foreign

policy issue advanced by this presidency that has been beneficial or that has even been adopted, in some cases.

Iraq is a train wreck. Social Security reform, same. And on and on. And when was the last time we heard anything about that all-important trip to Mars Dubya announced during his 2005 State of the Union address?

'Total Loser' is real workable.

[Twist_U_Up]

11. Other

New World Order

[saltpoint]

23. The bigger stage is moving, yes. Global connectivity and both the

good and bad that go with it.

For my part I don't think Dubya is its architect but more its compliant slave. But I don't have any clinical evidence to support that, just the sense that he can't read or write or find the Gulf of Mexico on a highlighted map.

[liberal N proud]

12. So many to choose from?

[saltpoint]

24. I tried to be halfway balanced in the poll, but honestly, I couldn't think

of any more positives.

And the positives I have aren't all that positive, either.

I think Dubya is destined to be the worst ever, or at the very least among the worst three or four ever.

I'm not being merely partisan. If Republican Lowell Weicker were the poll subject, my 'positive' slots would be much stronger.

But with Dubya, his own record kind of speaks for itself.

[Chulanowa]

14. An abject failure

who created and presided over the most nationally embarassing and internationally damaging era in American history.

[saltpoint]

25. On a visit to California recently I encountered on the Market Street F

train 2 vacationers from France.

I shook their hands and offered a smile and told them "Welcome to the United States. I'm glad you're here and hope you have a great time. We're not ALL like George Bush."

Their English was infinitely better than my French and they grinned and nodded.

But your point stands: it has been an extremely damaging time, most of it laid at the feet of this administration's own ill-conceived "planning," and will take some time to un-do.

A very blue vote in 08 would be an excellent starting point after we take back the House in 06.

[Seabiscuit]

15. Nightmare scenario: Every American history book taught in school will

state that George W. Bush, American icon and hero, bravely ushered our country into this New American Century, ridding Iraq of the evil tyrant who toppled New Houston's World Trade Center (setting Iraqis free to dance in the streets and throw flowers at our kind, humane, and glorious troops), securing, with bold lightning air strikes, every last middle-eastern oil well from sinister Ahab governments for the deserving American consumer, bombing Iran and North Korea into the stone age to protect our great nation from nucular annihilation, and ridding New Orleans of its sinful ways, faggoty Frency laws, and inferior racial makeup. His brother Jeb took over the reins for another 16 years until George's beloved nephew, Mumblebutt, became the fourth Bush family member of the Great American Imperial Dynasty, and who is gloriously fulfilling the dream of his 7th term of office by eliminating every last shred of loathsome welfare for the remaining lowlifes of the earth, boosting the wealth of our most esteemed family dynasties with even greater tax cuts in the great trickle-down tradition, and ridding our great nation once and for all of that evil traitor, FDR's, Social Security program.

Meanwhile, as this book went to press, American forces eradicated the entire population and edifaces of an entire province in the evil and usurious Bankerland of China, including the notorious city of Beijing, once jokingly known as Peking, as in "Peking Duck". Looks like Peking didn't "duck" fast enough. Bwahahaha! Also, the National Church of Christ In Bush recently declared that our long-awaited salvation, the final rapture, is only six years, six months, and six days away.

[saltpoint]

27. Wow, seabiscuit. "Nightmare" doesn't do that scenario justice.

As soon as I'm done with this speciic post, YOUR post makes it necessary for me to hide under the desk with a grocery bag over my face.

The Rapture bit in particular is spooky. Powermongers in previous centuries have used that religious card, too, and it seems within reach for this pea-brained little lizard to invoke it also.

A chilling post!

[Seabiscuit]

31. Well, it's certainly the direction we're headed in. And unless we stop

the neocons in their tracks, that's where we're going.

Did I forget to mention the environment? What environment? If it's not cement, it's asphalt. We got rid of the "tree-huggers" by getting rid of the trees, "the world's worst polluters" according to Ronnie Rayguns.

[saltpoint]

32. Sad to say, Reagan really DID say that. For all I know he was either too

dense not to know any better, or was so far embecilic at that point, even earlier maybe, that he just didn't know what was coming out of his own mouth.

Unfortunately the rest of us had to hear statements like that.

The GOP faithful love Reagan but he's nobody's buddy, buddy, as you deftly pointed out & which I wish history would record.

[Seabiscuit]

33. Don't get me started on Ronnie... :)

He's the one who brought these jackasses into power (Bush I, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, et. al.) and gave them such a taste of power that now they have the reins in their own hands they'll never give it up without trying to destroy us all first. And he's the one who sold WMD's to Saddam in the first place. Not to mention the Iran/Contra fiasco he treated us to. He also introduced us to the "trickle down" theory of Reaganomics and no taxes for General Electric in his first year in office (that was a payoff for letting him host the "General Electric Theater" TV series - now it's hard to find any corporation that pays taxes). And Grenada? Don't forget the heroic war on Grenada (he couldn't find another war to fight so he invented that one)!

[saltpoint]

34. You and I both. Reagan is definitely not my favorite guy.

The media is none too sharp at covering Dubya but they were far worse allowing Reagan to get away with almost everything.

It would be a very splendid thing indeed, seabiscuit, if we could take the House back in 06 and then the White House in 08.

I'm more than ready for a major change in focus.

[Seabiscuit]

37. I'm ready to ride that big blue wave in '06.

Campaigning here for Francine Busby.

[Seabiscuit]

16. Bush's legacy? Three words: Worst. President. Ever.

[abluelady]

17. Most of the options apply.

However, the bottom line is he failed us as a leader. And many will not realize it until it is too late. He has also lowered the bar for future leaders in our country.

[saltpoint]

28. Agreed -- and it's that lowering of the bar of leadership and

public service that sticks in my craw deepest and most painfully.

Any human is just human, but I say the Democrats ran 2 good tickets in 2000 and 2004. (To qualify that, I would say that Lieberman would have been a much stronger vice president than he ever will be a U.S. Senator. It would have kept him out of trouble, so to speak. Plus, if he ever went too far right, Gore would have slapped him around until he came out of it.)

It bodes well for the Democrats in 06 (more immediately) and 08 (since Dubya's model of public service is so pathetic and corrupt). So I do have some sense of change and reform and uplift.

But I hope a lot of people will volunteer time and a little cash to keep the gears well-oiled.

DeLay's departure was good, but there's still a long list of Repblican hacks who need replacing!

[npincus]

18. Other: WORST PRESIDENT EVER

[saltpoint]

29. Bill Clinton's tryst with Monica Lewinsky earned him the scorn of

the GOP, yet all of the Bush administration's glaringly horrifying transgressions against personal liberties have been significantly or even MOSTLLY ignored by the "liberal media" and many of those same GOP moral guardians.

Dubya is the worst, or in the very least among the very worst of U.S. presidents, and I hold the elder members of his own party to blame also. Their voices were mostly silent during each and every violation of the law committed by this administration. Dick Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, is running unopposed for his Senate seat in Indiana. It's one of the safest seats in the hitory of the nation. He challenged the popular Ronald Reagan on Marcos and on Apartheid but we didn't hear more than a peep out of him on Iraq.

The president and his administration are in that 'worst ever' category, yes. And I think the GOP generally has to share a lot of that blame.

[madokie]

26. The du polls i've checked out this morning tells me I am in good company

[saltpoint]

30. Yep. Mr. Bush is not too popular on DU.

And he has earned our contempt.

[fleabert]

36. self delete- didn't read all of them correctly- oops! nt