We are All to Blame for Bush

I NEVER liked George W. Bush. Before he was elected for the first time, I posted a pretty lengthy piece on the previous 8 presidents before Bush. Four were Democrats, four were Republicans, and each had their strengths and weaknesses. In fact, I argued then, and will not repeat now, that each had a mirror image across the political aisle. I also felt, even then, that Bush was totally without redeeming value. And, as he leaves office, I still feel he was our worst president since at least the latter part of the 19th century and very likely our worse ever, if for no other reason than he had the opportunity to do so much more harm than those who held the office between Lincoln and TR. And today, this 19th day of January, 2009, editorial writers across the globe are getting in their last parting shots at the man who’s presidency most feel was an unmitigated disaster. I’ll not join them today.

While I have not softened my position one bit on George W. Bush and while I will not wax forgiving on this last day of his reign, I will take a slightly different approach in my parting comments. That is, I feel that we are all to blame for Bush. He was an egotistical, incompetent oaf, but I think that somewhere deep down, he KNEW that. He was in over his head from the get-go. In this democracy of ours, it was the American people and both political parties who were his co-conspirators.

The GOP must shoulder the blame for Bush’s first term. Faced with an impossible political position – the sitting president was popular, well-spoken and over-saw a period of peace and prosperity – they resorted to a long, expensive and ultimately hopeless smear campaign. When Clinton’s Achilles Heel emerged in the summer of Monica, the GOP clamped down on it like a starving pit bull. Al Gore could not escape the shadow of his former boss and the GOP offered up a goofy good-old boy from Texas with a well-know family name. When even that was not quite enough, they essentially stole the election. And we, the people, let them do it. In some sense, Bush was merely an innocent, if idiotic, victim along for the ride and the good times it would bring. Then came 9/11.

While I blame the GOP for giving us Bush, I place a great deal of the blame for our having kept him for eight years on the Democrats . By the election of 2004, it was already clear that Bush was a disaster. He should have been easy pickings. But who did the Dems offer us as an alternative -- John Kerry. As much as I hated Bush, I felt no comfort in casting a vote for Kerry, who probably would have been every bit as bad as W. I did vote for Kerry, of course, but it was a ballot cast totally without enthusiasm or confidence.

The litany of Bush’s failures is well-known, and I’ll not repeat the most obvious of those. But, in addition to the usual list, Bush left us a divided, fearful people with precious little hope for anything better. And so, the world editorialists are correct, the Bush presidency was an unmitigated disaster. But, in a democracy, it is we, the people, who put that fool in office – twice. And now, it is we, the people, who are paying the price, not for his foolishness, but for ours.