The Bush Question

When I wrote about the nature of debate in the digital environment I mentioned a comment debate I had with a gentleman named Bill. That post came out of a comment he made in which he included the question that inspired this post

So moving on to meatier matters. What is your opinion on George W. Bush?

I responded via email that my personal opinion of President Bush rather closely mirrored the national polls. Which is to say I give him about a 50-60% approval rating.

There is a long list of things for which the Bush administration claims credit, that I would more accurately say I blame them for.

No Child Left Behind. Anyone who has taken even a quick look at the history of public education in this country can see that a chart showing the decline in educational quality would closely parallel a chart showing the loss of local control over education. The decline of American public education began in the late 50's and early 60's when states began to take control of education away from cities and towns. In response to the decline in education the federal government began to take control away from the states in the 80's an 90's. Beginning with the establishment of the U.S. Department of Education in 1980, the federal grip over public education has been tightening. No Child Left Behind. is just another step in the process of the complete federalization of public schools.

Campaign Finance Reform Having sworn the he would

faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I fail to see how Bush could have signed such an outright assault on the first amendment. That the Supreme Court upheld this travesty is subject for another post. How an act of legislation that explicitly limits (i.e. abridges) freedom of speech is not in violation of the first amendment truly defies logic.

Faith Based Initiatives President wants to take my money and donate it to charities. Let him donate his own damned money. He seems to have forgotten that old saying "charity begins at home." I'll just cut to the chase. Bush wants to hand tax dollars to politically connected conservative Christian Charities. What does he expect to get in return? What every politician expects in return for our tax dollars well spent - votes.

Medicare Prescription Drugs Plain and simple more vote buying. Buy the votes of aging baby boomers with the tax dollars of everyone young enough to still hold a job.

Immigration Policy What we need is not a policy that says "Congratulations. You made it in illegally and got a job illegally. To reward your violation of our immigration laws, we're going to go ahead and give you a legal status." There's really no way that kind of policy would encourage even more border jumping is there. Bush needs to articulate a policy far closer to what he said regarding states supporting terrorism. Something along the lines of "You're either here legally or you're gone."

The one caveat I can put on most of these complaints is that these are things Bush said he would do. As much as I disagree with the policies, I have to credit him with being true to his word.

All of this though, is only one part of the Bush Presidency. And in my view a very small part. There are a good number of entries on the other side of the ledger as well.

Tax Cuts I am not rich by any scale other than the U.S. tax code. I live a comfortable life in a nice neighborhood in a relatively upscale town with good schools. I worked very hard to get to where I am, and I work very hard to keep what I have. Any reduction in what the government takes away from the money that I earn is welcome. I have no enmity for anyone who earns or has more than I do and I do not begrudge them the same relief from the burden of taxation that I received. It does not bother me that a cut in the tax rates results in a larger dollar savings for them than it does for me.

September 11, 2001 In the first hours after the 9/11 attacks when no one really knew what was going on and what was going to happen, I sat staring at the images of disaster and murder on the television and hoped that when the smoke cleared and America officially responded that it would not be with speeches of condemnation, calls for sanctions and pleas to the United Nations. When the response came, it was one of strength, resolve and anger. George bush spoke the words that Americans needed to hear. And then those words were followed with force.

Afghanistan Yes, George Bush went to the United Nations between the attacks of 9/11 and the start of action in Afghanistan. But he did not go hat in hand begging for the UN to solve the problem. He did not go asking their permission to act. He went to issue a challenge. To say that we and those who oppose terrorism are taking offensive military action against terrorists and their state sponsors. That we and those who oppose terrorism will take whatever financial and diplomatic actions necessary to defeat terrorism and the states that support it.

When the time for action came George Bush showed well that he had indeed learned the important lessons of Vietnam. He establish the objectives and the goals and left the strategy to the military. He said this is what I want done, tell me how you can do it. And it was done. It was done with a speed and efficiency and care that defied all of the predictions of armchair generals of months of fruitless battles and hundreds of thousands of civilian dead.

Iraq Many people have mistakenly confused the war on terror with a war on Al Quiada or even more simplistically a war on Ossama Bin Laden. In Iraq, the administration saw a growing threat. They saw a brutal dictator with a history of invading neighboring countries. A brutal dictator who had a history of using chemical weapons both in his war against Iran and against Iraqi Kurds. A brutal dictator who was known to give sanctuary to terrorists and pay rewards to the families of Palestinian terrorists. A brutal dictator who repeatedly defied world opinion and played cat and mouse games with weapons inspectors before finally just throwing them out. This growing threat had to be stopped before it was realized in the form of thousands more dead Americans. It was stopped.

ABM Treaty The end of the cold war did not bring an end to threat of a missile attack on this country. There are still missiles in Russia and China targeted at the United States. Nations like North Korea are aggressively developing missiles capable of reaching the U.S The ABM Treaty is the product of a time when it was felt that the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction of two superpowers was the best way to ensure that destruction never happened. The world has changed and it was time for the ABM Treaty to go.

Kyoto A bad treaty based in incomplete science and suspect predictions. Kyoto is more about politics than science. It is an effort to create a global egalitarianism by shackling the strong and the prosperous. It is the politics of envy played out on a global scale.

Is 100% perfection too much to ask for in a President? I suppose it is, unless I am some how elected! I would have to put my approval of rating of george Bush at somewhere around 58%. This clearly puts him ahead of any candidate for the office since Ronald Reagan who probably topped out at about 70%.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 10:10 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment