Quick Question

Is anyone else distressed by the United States that GW Bush is handing us younger generations of Americans? 

A ridiculously bloated deficit, inadequate health care and education due to the tax cuts he hands out to his wealthy friends, and two wars that are eating money like Cookie Monster consumed, well, cookies.

Not to mention the untold costs to our morale as a nation, as the rich get richer and poor get fucking hammered by the rich, and poor kids keep dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Oh yeah, things are looking UP for my generation.  Can't wait until we have to figure out how to run a broken country.

Comments

[Jeff]

In a word, yes.

I share your distress.

Your post only scratches the surface of the legacy he'll leave.

A blurring of the seperation of church and state, a radical redefining of executive powers (see: wiretapping without judicial warrants), rolling back civil liberties, an attempt to permanently give tax breaks for the rich, encouraging Alaskan oil drilling that threatens to extinct multiple species, rolling back work safety regulations (see: the recent preventable mining tragedy), rolling back pollution standards (see: "Clean Skies" act...it's a joke), stuffing incredibly important federal agencies with cronies (see: FEMA), cutting $40 billion for health care programs and $12.7 billion for college grants, an attempt to privatize Social Security (see: pre-Great Depression era of America), waging an unnecessary war, appointing two right-wing SCOTUS justices (see: CJ Roberts' recent pro-death penalty decision), galvanizing the anti-reproductive rights base (see: his recent phone call on the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade), appointing an ambassador to the UN that said the organization needn't exist ten years prior, not to mention the almost unfathomable deficit you speak of -- yes, I share your distress.

(I'm Jeff, by the way. Found your blog via multiple degrees of seperation.)

[Radical pooj head]

First of all you are assuming that this country wasn’t broken before GWB and that’s wrong. Running a country / civilization in any age = broken. I am not smart enough and stupid enough to try to defend any American administration that has been in power in my lifetime. Nixon? Johnson? Carter? Clinton? Impossible. I think GWB and his cronies will fit nicely into my little list there.

This administration has been obsessed with a problem that no other administration has had to deal with; the reality that non-military Americans and visitors to our country were attacked and mercilessly murdered on our home soil. I think the magnitude of this problem cannot be underplayed. I don’t want any of my family or friends attacked at work or at play by anyone that feels the need to take down our way of life. If we lose control of the security of our homeland, we can lose it all. The economic implications of 911 continue to stagger America. (see: the deficit, failing airlines, automakers). If the economy completely tanks, we will all be a little more concerned with the survival of the American civilization than we are with the survival of the snail darter. Does that make me insensitive to the snail darter? No, it only puts them on the priority list where they belong.

Is the current administration doing everything they can? I think they believe they are. But, being human they are making mistakes; it happens. I also believe they are doing some things right. They are getting passing grades on some of their challenges and failing some of the others. It’s really easy to play Monday morning quarterback. You have the luxury of seeing what has happened and make judgments after the fact. It’s much harder to make decisions on the front line and hope you’re doing the right thing.

You know I don’t like a lot of what this administration stands for and I don’t agree with a lot of what they do but I must stand with them because I believe there is some truth to the words “United we stand, divided we fall”. My next chance (however small it is) to try to improve things will be on the next election day. I hope there are some choices that are better than what I’ve had just about all of my life. Right now partisan politics has created a divide that leaves us ineffective because so much energy is put into widening the divide for the sake of control and precious votes. What happened immediately after 911 was a revelation. Non-partisan action! It unified us for a few months which probably ended when the political consultants advised their clients it was safe to go back to partisan business as usual. Disgusting.

I don’t have answers, nobody does. If I did, I would share them with Oprah and if she liked them, all of her devout followers would get the picture and America could live happily ever after. Thank you for your post…I feel better now.

[Manogirl]

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree, Pooj. Because I don't agree with anything you just said.

Maybe the part about Oprah. I might agree with that.

But otherwise, no. I do not think we are safer or protected because of Bush. I think exactly the opposite, in fact, and think the long-term effects of this administration's decisions make us less safer in the long run.

Again. Agree to disagree. You'll never think my way, and I will never think yours.