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Bush's Last Stand
From forgotten scandals to "The Last Dick," read the entire Daily Beast Farewell to Bush Chronicles.
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The outgoing president's cosmic and often hypocritical parting words last night.
Wow, it was awful. George W. Bush's valedictory speech was like a greatest hits of the dumb, dishonest, insulting lines he’s been peddling for the better part of a decade. Even the structure of the speech was familiar. It started, as always, with 9/11, whose memory he has cheapened by endlessly employing it as political cover. “As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11,” Bush declared. “But I never did.” Let’s think about that statement for a moment. First of all, if Americans returned to normal life after 9/11—which Bush implicitly chastises them for doing—it was in large measure because he told them to. When the country was hungry for a call to national service, Bush told it to go shopping. He told Americans to stay uninvolved, and now he wants us to feel inferior because we were.
Bush told Americans to stay uninvolved, and now he wants us to feel inferior because we were.
Bush, on the other hand, wants credit for the fact that 9/11 never left his consciousness. But the issue isn’t how much he dwelled on the attacks, it’s what all that dwelling produced. Here Bush offers a litany. “Over the past seven years, a new Department of Homeland Security has been created.” (Yes, but it’s widely considered a disaster, in part because after initially opposing it, you created it in on the fly, and without serious planning, so you could wield it as a club in the midterm elections of 2002). “The military, the intelligence community, and the FBI have been transformed.” (Transformed is one way to put it: the Army, as numerous former generals have testified, is close to the breaking point. The politicization of intelligence in the run-up to Iraq has dealt an epic blow to the CIA.) “We have taken the fight to the terrorists and those who support them…Iraq has gone from a brutal dictatorship” (Come on. The subtle conflation of Iraq and 9/11 yet again, after all these years? The 9/11 Commission said Iraq had no operational relationship with Al Qaeda. Saddam did pay suicide bombers, but against Israel, not the United States. I can barely bring myself to type the words it’s so tedious by this point.)
“There can be legitimate debate about many of these decisions. But there can be little debate about the results. America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack.” (Oy. First of all, America went more than seven years without a jihadist terrorist on American soil during Clinton’s presidency. Does that mean Bush thinks there can be little debate about the success of his foreign policy? Second, there are all kinds of reasons we haven’t been hit again, foremost among them is that before 9/11, terrorism was government priority No. 46. Now it’s number one, and we’re spending trillions to keep bad guys out of the country. Any administration would have done that. What any administration wouldn’t have done was invade Iraq and trash the rule of law.)
Then, in closing, Bush goes cosmic. “Good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise.” Yes, good and evil are present. But both reside—and struggle—in the hearts of all human beings, which means that they reside in all nations and all governments as well. Talking about good and evil is fine, but conflating the American government with good is sacrilegious. It’s also incredibly dangerous, because it creates the illusion that—even if stripped of the restraints of international and domestic law—our government will remain forever benign. That wasn’t the vision of the founding fathers, who created checks on governmental power precisely because they knew that America’s leaders would not be angels. And their wisdom has been reaffirmed anew in this hideous almost-finished presidency, where our president blesses torture, and tells us to never forget how good we are at the same time.
Peter Beinart is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
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This article presents you're opinions quite clearly. Good writing. All you lack is your suggestions on what he should have said, what you would have said if you were in his shoes.
Thank you! The founders knew that, of the three branches of government, the executive was the most likely to seek and be seduced by the "dog of war." And when we talk war, there MUST be a compromise between good and evil--had there been no compromise post WWII, either the U.S. or Russia or, more likely, both would have been wiped by nuclear strikes. Instead, we compromised; we lived and eventually won the cold war. Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, "Nothing in history is inevitable, including the probable. So long as war has not broken out, we still have the possibility of avoiding it."
I love the 'Related Searches' first one says 'bush failures'. Yes. Lots of them. Where they heck were all of you when I was whinin' 'bout him big time 8 years ago? And where were you when I stood my ground and supported the Dixie Chicks who said NO to Bush? Why were we suddenly unpatriotic? OH, NOW you get it. Gee, thanks for getting it - way too late.
Bush tried to put a gloss on his presidency, a gloss that is visible only from inside the administration. The rest of the country and the rest of the world saw bush's two terms as the disasters they were. If it weren't for all the damage he's done to the country, I would pity him.
Good article.
Bush is sad and pathetic, and I hope his God has reserved a special place in hell just for him.
Well said. Getting a little sick of same criticisms even though I agree. Now... there is still time left right? Let us just see what he does with his 'pardon wand'. Tinkerbell used it for 'the good of all mankind'.
Americans - let's get to WORK.
Watching George W. Bush's farewell speech, I realized that he wasn't saying "goodbye". George was making a plea to the American people: "Please don't charge me with war crimes. I promise to go away and be quiet. Please!"
It was a sad and pathetic attempt to seek cover for the harm to he has done to this country and the rest of the world. Sad, but not excusable.
In order to regain our moral standing, we must show the rest of the world that we hold our leaders accountable when they commit criminal acts ... even if they are under the delusion that they were "making the hard decisions".
George W. Bush:
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
The U.S. does not torture.
(With thanks to George Orwell.)
Bush is a traitor, did not uphold the oath of office as he swore to do, led America to a war on the pretext of bold lies, wanted to control us with fear, is saddened we didn't buy the lies. I hope, that if he does not have as much grace, as say Hitler did, to take his own life, that he will slink off to Texas and spend the rest of his days taking comfort in the war profits he no doubt netted with his oil cronies. As long as he goes away, who really cares what this evil moron thinks or feels?
Evil cannot be battled with evil. It can only be beaten with goodness. If the country has gone off the rails with Bush at the throttle, we all have a chance to redeem ourselves and the nation with actively seeking to express and patriotism and humanity with good works.
It is not only likely but probable that history will judge President Bush far less harshly than his liberal critics. As for equating 'good' with the US government, this is, and has been by-in-large, a good government for many years. Presidents come and go but the structure of the government remains, and this one is a pretty good one, designed for minimum intervention in the private lives of its citizens and maximum accountability to those same persons. It doesn't always work like it was designed to, but those are not likely design flaws but application flaws. Interestingly enough, liberals who criticize the current president with accusations of misusing government power are often the very groups encouraging the government to acquire even more power over the lives of individual citizens.
I am by no means a cart blanche Bushite. I have lived through enough presidents to know that even Nixon, whose abuse of power was beyond belief, has been judged, on many levels, to have been a good president some thirty years later. It may well be that Bush will have the same sort of judgement passed on his presidency after thirty or more years of objectivity has allowed tempers to cool and facts to actually percolate through ideology to see things as they truly are.
Why don't neo-cons expect the President to "uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America" like I do. Does that make me a liberal? I hope it makes me a Patriot.
My response to the " Liberals who...." .. check out this Day in the Life of Joe Six-pack
>
> Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water
> for coffee. The
> water is clean because some tree-hugging liberal fought for
> minimum
> water-quality standards. With his first swallow , he takes
> his daily pills,
> which are safe because some stupid commie liberal fought to
> ensure that they
> work as advertised.
>
> All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his
> employer's medical plan
> because some liberal union workers fought their employers
> for paid medical
> insurance - now Joe gets it too, although he is not in the
> union.
>
> He cooks breakfast- bacon and eggs - safe to eat because
> some girly-man
> liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing
> industry and the
> Democratic Congress - led by a woman - prevented the FDA
> from caving in to
> the meat industry.
>
> After his shower - with properly labeled soap and shampoo,
> thanks to the FDA
> - Joe walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air is
> clean because some
> environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop
> industries from
> polluting our air.
>
> He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to a subway
> station for his
> government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him
> considerable money in
> parking and transportation fees because some Prius-loving
> liberal fought for
> affordable public transportation.
>
> Joe has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits,
> retirement, paid
> holidays and vacation because socialist lazy liberal union
> members fought
> and died for these working
>
> At noon, Joe makes a bank deposit so he can pay some bills.
> Joe's deposit is
> federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal
> wanted to protect
> Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the
> banking system before
> the Great Depression.
>
> Joe has a below-market federal student loan because some
> elitist liberal
> decided that Joe and the nation would be better off if he
> was educated and
> earned more money over his lifetime...helped by his degree
> at a state funded
> university.
>
> Joe visits his dad at his boyhood home - driving there on a
> state-funded
> highway. His was the third generation to live in the house
> financed by
> Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't
> want to make rural
> loans.
>
> The house didn't have electricity until some
> big-government liberal stuck
> his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural
> electrification.
>
> Joe's father lives on Social Security and a union
> pension because some
> wine-drinking, brie-eating, French-speaking l iberal made
> sure he could take
> care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.
>
> On his ride home he listens to Rush complaining that
> liberals are ruining
> the country and only conservatives are moral and know what
> they are doing.
> Rush doesn't mention that the Republicans have fought
> against every
> protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. And
> Joe doesn't think
> about it - he is too busy being a proud dittohead who
> agrees: "We don't need
> those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all,
> I'm a self-made
> man who believes everyone should take care of themselves,
> just like I have."
>
> So here is what I think:
>
> Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got
> African-Americans the
> right to vote. Liberals created social security and lifted
> millions of
> elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation.
> Liberals passed
> the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals
> created Medicare.
> Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act.
>
>
> What did Conservatives do? They opposed every one of those
> programs. Every
> one. So when you try to hurl the word 'liberal' at
> my feet, as if it were
> dirty, something to run away from, something that I should
> be ashamed of, it
> won't work, because I will pick up that label and wear
> it as a badge of
> honor
Was Bush all wrong - of course not, the problem is that when he screwed up it was STUPENDOUS!!! couple that with his total inability to change direction even when utter failure was assured is, well, nothing short of amazing.
For me though the most disturbing part of the last 8 years
were the eerie Orwellian tones (NewsSpeak, Ministry of Love, Ministry of Peace etc). I often laughed that I could speak out on the war around my friends not because this was America - land of the free - but because I served over 8 years in the military and since none of them did they couldn't call me unpatriotic....ridiculous (these were my friends mind you!!!) These otherwise intelligent people who during the rush of fear mongering after 9/11 bought into it have since recanted, but not until it was 'socially acceptable' to be so UNPATRIOTIC.
America is great not because we all get along and are a bunch of nationalistic drones but because we have so much diversity and we AREN'T lobbing bombs at each other. The last 8 years of hate and fear filled leadership has been much more damaging to this country than any terrorist attack ever will be.
He seems to have not matured at all in his eight years. Then again, everything about his presidency has been stupefying.
Readers can point the finger at 'liberals' all they want but the last I checked dubbya's approval rating was in the low 20's which means that 'repubs' aren't so thrilled either.....
Cheney summed it all up with the always classic: 'so what' response to the query that 80% of the public was against the war......they better hope history is kind to them!
Flashback: remember the 90's??? -- the 'off with your head' for Clinton's bj (no pun intended) from the repubs was as over the top as the liberals 'totally unfounded' indignation over Bush II's current trainwreck....
What Bush failed to understand is that no one wanted him to deny his conscience. Of course, respecting one's own conscience is a minimal ethical requirement. Rather, what people wanted him to come to was a fuller and more rational understanding of the issues. If one is woefully uninformed or inattentive to the issues one is responsible for, and the values on which one acts, then an appeal to conscience is totally hollow. Bush's understanding of ethics and of civic responsibility - and with his comprehension of history and any higher vision - is alarmingly thin. Saying "I did what my conscience told me" will not excuse him.
Don't know why it bugs, me, but I didn't like seeing a variation of the word "conflate" used twice in this article. Surely there are other words.
That said, I thoroughly this article. Well thought out.
Bush is a tragic figure at best, for he clearly has learned little about the world, less about himself, and nothing about the human condition. It's even questionable if he knows more about the constitution than when he started, given his apparent lack of respect therefor. One of his earliest utterances said it all: "This would be a lot easier if I was a dictator".Try as he might to become one, he proved over and over how ill-equipped was he for the "hard work" of the "decider". The mea culpa befitting his tenure, while disarming us all ? " I was never qualified to be president, and so remain". But true to form, he's left as he arrived - clueless.
In the years to come, I'm fairly certain Bush will rank as one of the worst Presidents in history.
I find everyone of you ... full of crap. There is not a single person in this world who know we certainly what they would have done as President of the United States when it came under attack... Everyone and I mean Everyone makes judgements that they would like to re-evaluate or change. But when you are the Person that an entire Nation depends on don't any of you think for a moment that the burden would destroy most people.. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with the descisions made. YOU SHOULD RESPECT THE FACT THAT HE STOOD UP TO TAKE THE JOB and THE SACRIFCE THAT HE AND HIS FAMILY MADE. AND THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT SHOULD ALWAYS BE RESPECTED.... GROW UP!
Janine2 -
May I remind you that every single one of those government-funded benefits Joe Six-pack enjoys are paid for by Joe and everyone else like him? The problem with government is that government has no resources. Not in this country. We the people have all the resources. So Joe, who has a good job with benefits, pays his taxes. And his company, which is unionized, is bankrupt, in part because so-called legacy payments - benefits, retirements, settlements, medical benefits, ect. - eat up more than seventy percent of the compnay's annual earnings, which means that the company cannot pay its bills. Now, I grant you that ridiculous CEO compensation is a part of the problem, but the bottom line is that, like the US government, these legacy payments are eating up money and generating nothing. A solution must be found, but this entire country has to realize that the government HAS NO MONEY UNLESS IT TAAKES YOURS! So don't tell me that liberals have brought me all the government funded benefits I enjoy today. I paid for them. So did you.
BEWARE: Bush still has three days to declare martial law as an excuse to keep the presidency for himself. Long live the king! Uh, Emperor! Uh, whatever title he will insist we call him.
I find it amazing that people could feel sorry for Bush because everyone is now piling on. What is sad about this piling on is that it took so long to come to fore. Unlike so many of his current critics, Bush has been amazingly consistent these whole eight years. Consistently ignorant, consistently tin-eared, consistently Bush-first, country-second.
finderj's notion that history will be kinder is a notion that one can only ascribe to either wishful thinking or willful ignorance of someone proudly politically unaligned. Will nice things be written about Bush over the years? Undoubtably. But these voices will not win over those who simply look at the facts. The facts of what Bush did and how he did are what will not be kind to him or his underlings. And it should be noted that all the facts are far from known. With more time there will be more facts, and information is what Bush has always feared most. History will be harder on Bush, or rather, history will be harder on us, and in disbelief over him. The fallout from all the dirty, underhanded dealings will continue to unscroll for years to come and to haunt the GOP. Instead of feeling sorry for Bush, people should probably be feeling sorry for this party which sold it soul for Bush's victories and now stands like an empty shell.
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