Reason’s Nick Gillespie on the disaster that was George W. Bush:
In a way that was inconceivable when he took office, Bush—the advance man for the “ownership society,” smaller and more trustworthy government, and a humble foreign policy—increased the size and scope of the federal government to unprecedented levels. At the same time, he constantly flashed signs of secrecy, duplicity, ineffectiveness and outright incompetence.
Think for a moment about the thousands of Transportation Security Administration screeners—newly minted government employees all—who continue to confiscate contact-lens solution and nail clippers while, according to nearly every field test, somehow failing to notice simulated bombs in passenger luggage.
Or schoolchildren struggling under No Child Left Behind, which federalized K-12 education to an unprecedented degree with nothing to show for it other than greater spending tabs. Or the bizarrely structured Medicare prescription-drug benefit, the largest entitlement program created since LBJ. Or the simple reality that taxpayers now guarantee some $8 trillion in inscrutable loans to a financial sector that collapsed from inscrutable loans.
Such programs were not in any way foisted on Bush, the way that welfare reform had been on Bill Clinton; they were signature projects, designed to create a legacy every bit as monumental and inspiring as Laura Bush’s global literacy campaign.
The most basic Bush numbers are damning. If increases in government spending matter, then Bush is worse than any president in recent history. During his first four years in office—a period during which his party controlled Congress—he added a whopping $345 billion (in constant dollars) to the federal budget. The only other presidential term that comes close? Bush’s second term. As of November 2008, he had added at least an additional $287 billion on top of that (and the months since then will add significantly to the bill). To put that in perspective, consider that the spendthrift LBJ added a mere $223 billion in total additional outlays in his one full term.
Bush didn’t do this alone, of course. The Republicans in the House and Senate went right along with it with very little complaint or objection along the way.
But it was George Bush who was the President, and it was George Bush who set the big-government, big spending, increase the deficit agenda that is now the Republican legacy.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
“‘President Bush is leaving office and he’s not being held accountable for his offenses. There is a laundry list of things he could be charged with,’ said activist Jamilla El-Shafei, who organized the shoe-throwing protest.”
“El-Shafei inflated a 25-foot (eight-meter) effigy of Bush with a long Pinocchio nose at Dupont Circle, away from the heavy flow of tourists, and invited activists and people passing by to throw shoes at it.”
“‘I hated Bush before it was cool,’ read one banner.”
(No author listed). (2009, January 20). US activists vent their rage as Bush exits. google.com. Retrieved January 19, 2009, from google.com.
Activist Jamilla El-Shafei has become one of my role models.
The effigy of George W. Bush with a long Pinocchio nose at Dupont Circle is an apposite way to represent Bush.
Indeed, Bush is a liar of alien proportions.
As indicated by the banner—it is now in vogue or fashionable or cool to hate Bush.
Courageous activists like Jamilla El-Shafei add strength and decency to American existence.
The American people frown upon people who carry on with an ignoble fear of the criminal activities of Bush.
The American people have no tolerance for cowards who figuratively or metaphorically kneel before Bush’s tyranny with trembling and ignominy and in fear and disgrace.
The American people have no tolerance for cowards who obey Bush’s corrupt authority in the face of reason—under what I shall refer to as the “Milgram” psychological effect.
Stanley Milgram conducted experiments revealing that people are however predisposed to obey very powerful authority even when they know full well that what they are being told to do is wrong.
Milgram had been studying why people irrationally and blindly obeyed Hitler’s orders to kill Jews in the face of reason where they were reasonable people otherwise.
The American people must work together to put Bush behind bars.
The American people must fight without exception and seek accountability against Bush—even through the last day of Bush’s life.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
March 16th, 2009 at 11:04 am
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