Bush’s legacy can be summed up in four words: Leave No Disaster Behind. What do I mean by that? Let’s do a short list of them, shall we (in no particular order)?
Allowed 9/11 to occur. Iraq. Patriot Act. Illegal Spying on Americans. Eviscerated civil liberties. Gitmo. Secret Overseas Prisons. Abu Ghraib. Torture. Lies, lies and more lies (about everything). Destroyed CIA. Millions of dead people. Censored (not just ignored) news of global warming. Faith based health care (stem cell research eliminated, CDC and NIH cuts, abstinence only sex education and a Medicare Drug program only Big Pharma and the Insurance industry could love). Katrina. Halliburton. Blackwater. Food and Drug insecurity. Disaster capitalism and a worldwide economic meltdown. Using the US Military as our primary means of conducting foreign relations. Ran the Department of Justice as a criminal conspiracy. Ran the most corrupt and inept administration in American history. Enron. Wall Street. Valerie Plame Wilson. Stole elections. Walter Reed Hospital. Denial of veterans health care and disability benefits. PTSD. Broken US military. Trillion Dollar deficits. Letting North Korea obtain nuclear weapons. Pakistan. Increased global terrorism. Made “Patriotism” synonymous with supporting his policies right or wrong. Made Freedom of Speech a crime against the state. Made the rule of law a joke.
Want more? Post your own. I’ve given myself a headache just recalling this much.
The only positive mark of his Presidency? Made it possible for a Black man with the middle name “Hussein” to be elected President of these Divided States of America, something I would have bet would never happen in my lifetime before Bush. Only Nixon could go to China. Only Bush could pave the way for Obama. It ain’t much, but it’s all he’s got.
