What happened to a little historical perspective?
A rant about a pet peeve of mine
By Kevin Holtsberry Posted in History — Comments (25) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Can I just get something off my chest? If you assert that the Bush Administration is "the most disgraceful administration in my lifetime, perhaps in American history" and you are old enough to vote I will no longer take your opinion seriously.
I don't care whether you are Democratic or Republican, a statement like this is so lacking in historical perspective as to render the speaker unfit for serious commentary. President Bush and his administration have had their problems, Lord knows. But given the Presidencies of Johnson, Nixon, and Carter I fail to see how Bush can approach the top of even this short list. Do you want to compare Bush's response to Katrina to Johnson's destruction of urban America via something ironically called "urban renewal?" Do you want to compare Karl Rove to Nixon's dirty tricks or Johnson's well known blackmail to get votes?
And I will probably be pilloried for saying something so cold and uncaring, but given the death and destruction involved in the wars and skirmishes around the globe this century and the American lives lost in Iraq, I again fail to see how Bush can compete with past administrations.
Again, everyone is entitled to an opinion about the wisdom of the war in Iraq or the potential for success at this point, but conflating it to a failure of epic or historic proportions simply ignores historical context. Something can be bad or wrong and not be the biggest foreign policy mistake of a generation.
Bush derangement syndrome has simply taken hold of some people and removed their sense of history and context - if they ever had any. I realize this is part and parcel of the hyper-politicized environment we live in with its 24-hr news cycles and the need to scream louder to be heard above the din of accusations of treason and murder, but I don't have to like it.
Thanks, I feel better now.
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What happened to a little historical perspective? 25 Comments (0 topical, 25 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
It's interesting that you'd bring up Bush and Nixon. Most of the Bush administration's seeming beliefs about the extent of the power of the executive are exactly the same ones Nixon held (heck, a lot of the same people who pushed this line for Nixon are at work for Bush): the ones that eventually led Nixon to say that "if the President does it, it can't be illegal." This is the attitude that eventually led to the Watergate break-in.
Whether or not Bush is actually a "worse" president than Nixon will be left to history to judge, but suffice to say here that a lot of liberals think Bush is a terrible president for exactly the reasons they thought Nixon was.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
The point was that this is not some difference of valid opinions. One must willfully disregard history to make the assertion, or be such an utter tool of leftwing propaganda that you can't distinguish reality from CommonDreams anymore.
A lot of liberals think a lot of asinine things. It's not my opinion they need anything so fancy as reasons.
absentee
make Nixon and Dubya look like pikers. See Echelon (I agreed with), fbi and irs file scandals, Ames (I agree with), missile tech to China (impeachable offense)...
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
www.race42008.com
www.hinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"One man with courage makes a majority" - Andrew Jackson
The absurd suggestion that Bush is the worst President in American history pales in comparison to all the Hitler references that the left "liberally" throws around regarding Bush.
Certainly the first to have sex with an intern half his age at the WH, lose his law license for perjury, put up "Chinese Walls" so that intelligence could not be shared, compound that latter point by never meaningfully responding to terrorist threats (both leading to September 11th), letting genocide go unfettered in Africa, getting our guys killed in Somalia, I still am not sure what happened in Bosnia, expanding domestic easedropping, Waco, two words; Janet Reno....
Really, I could go on all day; and we are told America wants another Clinton in the WH. Suuuuure, where is the kick me sign.
"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori"
Contributor to The Minority Report
...how about comparing Bush's Katrina response to Clinton's 1995 Chicago heat wave response?
More than 700 mostly poor, black, and elderly died while Clinton and his Brownie-less FEMA remained oblivious and inactive for eight days. They finally came to the "rescue" with nothing more than money . . . a piddling $15 million for Illinois.
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"We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged." - Colonel Henry Knox
Are you seriously trying to compare a heat wave to Katrina?!
Im not talking the response mind you just the scope of devastation.
Katrina had over 1,800 deaths with 700 people missing and most likely dead. 90,000 square miles were declared a disaster area and over 3 million people lost power. $80 billion dollars worth of damage. Its been 2 years and barely half the population has returned.
The governmant's response though has been dismal.
We are talking about the federal response. There is a state and city government involved here as well.
Also just what would you want to do to get the population to return ? We could round them up and ship them back ?
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Saw that on a bumper sticker today. In a community college parking, of all places. I couldn't help but reflect that Thomas Jefferson envisioned a nation based on a rural landed gentry who studied and made careful decisions of national policy that were really best left to them. Non-landowners, women, and blacks had no place in the political discourse, and it was through slave labor that the landowners gained the wealth and leisure time necessary to study the issues and participate in the kind of informed democracy Jefferson desired.
If you don't realize that "Thomas Jefferson's America" was elitist and slave-holding, I cannot respect your opinion on anything Bush has done.
While much of what you say is true- you miss out on the fact that Jefferson expected the vast majority of Americans to be yeoman farmers.
Jefferson believed in an elite- but his concept of elite is much different than modern ones.
Elite was something a man earned with his life, and was not confined to a specific faction of American polity. (Unless you define white male property owners as a specific faction- I do not find them to be sufficiently uniform to have that status).
It is interesting to note that Jefferson left office with a very very low public opinion. He was considered at the time as a failed president.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
some major shortcomings and character flaws, given his decision to wage war on the jihadists rather than pay tribute to navigate the Mediterranean and the Louisiana Purchase, I have to say he was great overall.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
www.race42008.com
www.hinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"One man with courage makes a majority" - Andrew Jackson
is to be completely ignorant of history.
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We would also like to know your advice for somebody like my daughter, who's going to graduate in two years, advice that you would give a young person.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Advice for a young person. Study history.
Anyone who can remember the Carter Administration knows that any current or future administration has a long row to hoe before the come within shouting distance of that administration. Carter set the modern day standard for bad judgment and incompetence.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
www.race42008.com
www.hinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"One man with courage makes a majority" - Andrew Jackson
...is the undisputed title-holder of "Worst President Ever," and indeed continues to navigate uncharted territory in his endeavor to lay claim to "Worst Former President Ever."
I am sick of hearing that tired refrain 'worst president in history' for the simple reason that there is no truth to it.
Despite my grave disagreement with the administration over the attempted amnesty for illegal aliens, Bush and company have pretty much stuck by their promises and fought for conservative ideals. Anyone here can disagree with me, but the results speak for themselves.
1) Tax cuts that have grown the economy to historic highs.
2) Two outstanding Supreme Court Justices and many more top rate lower court judges.
3) Signing the partial-birth abortion ban.
4) Rebuilding the U.S. military and getting an operational ABM system going.
5) Successfully fighting the War On Terror and taking the fight to those countries that support terror.
I could go on and on, but you get the picture as do most people if they stop and think about it. W has accomplished a lot!
to the highest foreign bidders, as well as a small one or two, Paraguay, $75,000. Assuming rape and pathological addiction to sex don't count, still putting your country up for sale on the international market should count for something.
In case you haven't guessed, Bill Clinton.
As a closer moral guardian Klein refers to Brooks column and Burke. I'm sure a man who could leave Clinton off this list finds Edmund Burke a beacon of wisdom and virtue, sickening.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
www.race42008.com
www.hinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"One man with courage makes a majority" - Andrew Jackson
It's easier to spout a slogan and move on, rather than rationally think through something like Iraq and have a thoughtful opinion. We live in the fast-moving information age, and our attention spans get shorter by the day. Sound bites are more attractive than essays, and carry more weight, unfortunately.
Cheers,
Scott in Indy