Source: http://theanchoressonline.com/2009/02/23/yep-i-miss-bush/
February 23, 2009
And if that annoys anyone, that’s too bad.
Seems increasingly like all the “Fascist Bush” caterwauling was the usual fake, dishonest theater meant as a means to an end - the end being to destroy the hated “election stealer” and his legacy, and not much more.
But you know, for someone who “did everything wrong,” his policies suddenly seem wise and right to some surprising people.
It’s easy to campaign and criticize. It’s much more difficult to govern, especially knowing that if you don’t keep the country safe, you don’t get re-elected.
And if you don’t get re-elected, good heavens! How can you continue and complete the coup?
Even with restrictions to free speech and the press watching your back as much as possible, and destroying all possible rivals, it will be very hard for them to spin it if people start saying, “at least Bush kept us safe, not like Obama.”
So, the FISA stays, Gitmo (despite all the righteous-sounding rhetoric) is not so bad, after all. Terrorist-suspected detainees do not enjoy constitutional rights, after all. Patriot Act, stays. Whether succeeding presidents will abuse the powers Bush put in place to protect us is rather less a question than a surety. Not an “if” but a “when.” And that is troubling, oh yes.
Of course, if we’re destroyed from within, economically, socially and in every other way, well…that won’t be seen as “not keeping us safe,” will it? That will just be seen as “Obama’s brave economic unilateralism being unable save the country from the disastrous global Bush recession.”
But at least we had the courage to elect an “elegant man” as president.
And of course, a Democrat could never, ever have anything to do with economic disaster. And Bush and his administration never warned congress about Fannie and Freddie and this sort of stuff, or asked for some revisions to a ruinous policy.
You believe that, right? Of course you do.
Up is down.
War is Peace.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Such disorientation.
Everything “unacceptable” about the last 8 years is now “acceptable.” Except, of course, the “wiser countries” led by tyrants and despots are our new friends, and our old friends are either being sacrificed or left to precede us to implosion.
Oh, and human rights - an issue for which Bush’s commitment was never much discussed in his own country Ah, well, these days human rights are less important than money, honey
The truth is, that’s what Bush was all about: Human freedom. All the cries of “fascist” and fantasies of assassination only emphasized his respect for free speech, and served as misdirection from the fact that human rights and freedom were what Bush was all about. Freedom for you and for me, and for Africans dying of AIDS and malaria, for hopeful Georgians and Eastern Europeans, for Iraqis and for the Cedar States. Freedom.
He should have steamrolled the congress into allowing domestic drilling; the resulting job creation and energy sovereignty would have been our salvation in the current climate, but he was a president who actually believed in working within the system. I mean, if Obama could declare things closed with a flick of the wrist, couldn’t Bush have done the reverse, and put teeth to it - particularly back when his approval ratings were high?
Oh, right, I forgot. If Bush had done that - or, for instance, or if he’d have tried to put the census under his own control - he’d have been called an “imperialist”. I keep forgetting the double standards.
Still, for all of his faults, and there are no perfect presidents, I miss Bush.
Bush was all for freedom. American-style freedom, writ large upon the whole world. Free speech. Free markets. Freedom to build and create. Freedom to criticize. Freedom to explore (yes, really). Freedom to pursue the American dream. Freedom from scolding. Freedom from fear. Freedom from want. Freedom of speech. Freedom of Worship. Freedom of Assembly.
The last American president did not get pissy and thin-skinned, calling out members of the press, who engaged in non-stop lambasting.
The last American president, despite all the nasty narratives, cried “freeeeeedom!” Even when he stammered.
Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our
time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us.
— G.W. Bush, September 20, 2001
A silly picture, just because it will piss so many people off
UPDATE: Imagine Imagine the world with Hussein (Saddam, not Barack) still in power.
The tingling legs and pitter-pattering hearts seem to be calming down, finally.
More good advice is needed.
UPDATE II: What Went Right For Bush and Obama sides with Bush in Spy case
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