The Power of Speech

Bush as an afterthought

Bush as an afterthought. It’s amazing how little the Republican party wants to talk about George W Bush. They mention Reagan, they talk about the old man, Bush Sr, but very little is said about the current occupant.

It’s funny, that kind of uncomfortable and unmentioned silence with Bush and the Republicans. It’s as if he’s a mentally challenged family member of a bygone era or the black sheep he had once been purported to be in the Bush clan. No one really wants to talk about him. It makes you begin to feel almost sorry for him.

It didn’t have to be like this. I find myself searching for his accomplishments. If you are wealthy, he has been cutting your taxes for years. In Africa, he has acknowledged the crisis over AIDS.  He has used the faith-based initiatives to some extent to help alleviate chronic homelessness.  He has been good-intentioned at times. Laura Bush seems like a very nice person.  But it is all out there. You can’t run away from his legacy. He is the one-the “decider in chief”.

He’s the one who put us on the path of war that has led to massive debts. It is his fiscal policies-or lack thereof-that have led to fiscal crises. He had curiously distanced himself from his own Treasury pick, Paul O’Neill, who wrote a scathing book about his mismanagement.  He condemned Scott McClellan for writing a scathing book about his lies and detached style of governing.  He condemned Richard Clark for writing a scathing book about his incompetence and mismanagement of 9/11.
The 9/11 commission and the Iraq Study Group, two bi-partisan efforts, were dismissed and their recommendations trashed. He has made a mockery of science and the long-term implications of 9/11. He has reduced our standing in the world among other nations. Our word is no longer to be trusted and we are seen as war-mongering bullies.  He promised to work across the aisle and change the tone in Washington.  He not only did not do that, it has become an even more hostile environment of partisan bickering.
Katrina was the crowning blow, exposing cronyism and widespread incompetence. He will probably go down as one of the worst Presidents in American history. During the debates in 2000, he said America should be humble. Finally, one can believe he is humbled by the spectacular nature of his failure. It is truly failure on a grand scale.
Currently, I am researching a book about Grand Failures. There have been many failures in the history of our nation and throughout history that are necessary and eventually lead to great discoveries and accomplishments. In this case, Bush didn’t need to fail on such a grand scale.

The most curious part I find at the end of the Bush era is the deafening sound of silence.  Martin Luther King speaks of the “appalling silence of good people” in the wake of social injustice. King also said, “We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Bush doesn’t seem to have any friends left willing to defend his failed policies.  That silence, in the end, may be most damning of all.