Recently George W Bush miraculously recovered from 8 years of muteness to issue a rebuke of Donald Trump. While he didn't single Trump out by name, the implication was clear, and the language was the same monotone screed we're accustomed to hearing from liberals: in so many words, that Trump represents an ideology of hate. This is fine, because it prompts us to return a long-forgotten exercise we used to enjoy: criticizing George W Bush. Let's look at why his legacy is the worst of both worlds.
This blog has never said anything nice about George W Bush. Any nostalgia we might have for him stems solely from the fact that he was succeeded by Barrack Obama's nearly open hatred for America. Bush didn't hate America. Not openly, at least. The major problem with Bush is that whatever love he has for America seems to be a love for American empire, rather than the American nation. We've made the case many times here that empire destroys nations. Thus we are not much more affectionate towards Bush's inadvertent destruction of America than Obama's intentional reign of regret. Looking back, I don't recall anything of benefit that came out of Bush's tenure in office. (Perhaps I'm forgetting something; it's been a while.) Let's just consider four of the most significant outcomes of the Bush administration.
Bush championed and signed the No Child Left Behind Act. It's the kind of legislation we'd expect to have been passed by Democrats because it transfered more control of education to the federal branch. We might concede that, outside of the troubling political ramifications of such legislation, at least there would be some upside. We can all understand the problem at hand, which is that many bright American minds might be inhibited from reaching their full potential because they had the misfortune of being born in an area with bad schools. We understand that in our history the greatest minds have had the greatest impacts, and we don't want to risk losing the benefits of our resident geniuses to circumstance.
The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act was to implement standardized testing so that no school system could fall far behind the pact. We all know the actual results. Bad schools have only gotten worse, and the rest have been hindered by the legislation. Nearly every teacher I know has complained about the "teach to the test" mentality that now permeates even the lowest grade levels. Non-tested areas of education like the arts, music, industrial arts, etc, have lost emphasis (and funding) so that schools can focus on improving their federally mandated scores in math, science, and reading comprehension. Ironically, it is the non-college-bound students hurt the most by the changes. The bad schools still suck, and the better schools suck the life out of the students. Bush's education legacy is a dark cloud with no silver lining. It is liberal policy that delivers the opposite of the intended benefit. It is the worst of both worlds.
Most notable from Bush's legacy is his foreign policy. Bush oversaw a resurgence of American imperialism and formalized the policy of pre-emptive warfare. While it is our opinion that empires tend to destroy the host nation, we've made the case that there is some benefit to American empire. For instance, the principle of the network effect (mentioned in Global reserve currency: army of the modern empire) would suggest that some country is likely to arise as global financial hegemon, and we'd rather it be us than China. Perhaps we could argue that ultimately invading countries like Iraq was worthwhile to protect the petrodollar. But as we know, Bush's adventures have proven to be boondoggles. Both Iraq and Afghanistan would fall to rebels tomorrow if not for sustained American military aid. Iraq opened the door for ISIS, a far more evil force than Saddam ever was. While the petrodollar is safe for now, the region is much more unstable than it was before, and the risk of future catastrophe is higher than it was 20 years ago before Bush took office. Again we have the worst of both worlds. In this case an imperialistic foreign policy that is not very efficient at sustaining the American empire.
Domestically, the most significant aspects of the Bush legacy are surveillance-state actions introduced by the Patriot Act. Again, the worst of both worlds. Not only does the legislation not address the true problem at hand - a clash of civilizations where European-held lands are being invaded by nearly everyone else, especially hostile Muslims - but its effect was to erode the civil liberties that are the bedrock of American society. The pattern is clear. Everything Bush did to solve any problem only made that problem worse, and introduced new problems that were even worse yet.
The final legacy of the Bush administration that jumps to mind is his love for privatization of government services. We're familiar with the logic, which many conservatives support. Because the free market is more efficient than government, we should offload as much government activity as possible to the free market. But there is a very big problem with that. They weren't shifting activities from the public to private sphere. They were keeping them within the government sphere, just farming out the implementation. The corporations that acquire the contracts will do what corporations always do: maximize profit. And they'll do so by cutting quality and generally ripping off the government at every opportunity. Keeping corporations within a government bubble is the worst of both worlds. We get corporate greed uncoupled from the normal market forces that work to keep that greed in check.
George W Bush is now out there talking like a liberal. He might as well, since he's done just as much to destroy this country as they have. This is the magic of Trump. He flushes out all of our enemies into plain view.
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