Recently, Mr. Bush has been allowed to rehabilitate his image, particularly on Reddit. My belief is that this is happening because of younger generations commenting in a contrarian way on his presidency, perhaps some of which is influenced by the absolute state of the Republican Party today.
For most of those of us who lived through his presidency, it was always clear that Bush was a religious and sexual bigot, but not a racial one.
It was always clear that the evidence for invading Iraq was scant at best. The war was protested by the biggest international collaboration of protesters ever.
Days after 9/11, there were plenty of us ACLU types decrying the USA PATRIOT Act. Many of us felt that Pelosi, Clinton, etc. had few inviolable beliefs about civil rights at that time. Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders voted against it.
Bush was the worst possible president, so I had thought.
People are talking about kids these days, but I’m in my early thirties, so the first president I remember was Clinton. The two republican presidents I’ve experienced were both bad, but in very different ways.
I think Bush thought he was a good person and tried to be one (that’s why he spent so much money trying to combat HIV in Africa), though he obviously did a fuckload of awful things (basically every other aspect of his presidency). I don’t think Trump cares a whit about being a good person, and I don’t think he even started to care about seeming like a good person until halfway through his presidency.
I know about the freedoms lost under W, but I didn’t really experience them, so his impact is a lot less obvious to me.
Additionally, W is so good at playing dumb, I think a lot of people ascribe the bad things to Cheney.
Trump is dealing with absolutely crippling levels of narcissism and perception distortion. He literally cannot understand when he encounters evidence that not everyone loves him or that he has done something wrong. When he screams, “fake news,” it’s as much a psychological defense mechanism and an attempt to lie to himself as it is an attempt to lie to us.
Pretty much this, thought Bush jr. was at best a usefull idiot riding the coat tails of a family dynasty at a time when the US needed a Roosevelt (or any calm and competent leader) the most. In my mind, Cheney will always be the one with a special parking spot in hell next to henery kissinger.
I hate to see people excusing him and blaming it all on Cheney as if he was just a buffoon caught in the flow. He knew what he was doing.
Tbf, the Bush presidency was led by his cabinet throughout the majority of his presidency. Bush spent nearly 400 days on vacation at Camp David while Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice, and Powell pretty much ran the show.
I don’t really think Bush is smart enough, nor motivated by evil enough to be the originator of most of the big blunders that happened during his presidency. However, he is ultimately responsible for the actions of his government, and his inaction cannot be excused.
I disagree. Yes, Cheney and Rumsfeld et al. played their part and enriched themselves by driving the country to war, but Bush was in charge and part of it all, not a puppet. He’s dumb in many senses but still evil. And Trump golfed more than Bush and I wouldn’t excuse his culpability in any of his admins actions because of that. He made those calls.
My dude, I was 7 when he was elected, I had no concept of party politics and couldent even participate for 2 more cycles. I now know the damage he caused, but at the time it was “ha, funny texas man dodged shoes”. I now know why the shoes were thrown, so unless you have time machine noone has any means of changing that.
You’re cool, man. I’m just saying we shouldn’t give him a pass.