Saturday, January 17, 2009

Bush's Only Gift to America

By Robert Parry
January 17, 2009

George W. Bush’s gift to the American Republic may be that he has discredited a host of right-wing theories and practices – “trickle-down economics”; “self-regulating markets”; “tough-guy” foreign policy; the “imperial presidency”; and the notion that “government is the problem.”

Read on.
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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of your best articles. Congratulations! Starting after FDR's New Deal a handful of radical capitalists decided to spin the old myths that caused the Great Depression in the first place (which you articulated so well in your article). Over time through many administrations the myths took root in the American political dialogue and came to fruition when Bush entered the White House. Consequently, political myth gave rise to a president completely out of touch with reality. As you said, Bush did us a favor by demonstraing what those myths lead to; namely, a government run by elites for elites, imperialism and captital markets out of control run by a bunch of greedy and lawless CEOs.

Sat Jan 17, 02:30:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

The San Jose Mercury News yesterday had a short editorial advising what Obama should do regarding torture, which is to set up a truth-finding commission. It went on to say one of the commission's goals should be to decide whether prosecution of Bush administration officials should be pursued. The analysis was corny and shallow, but this is the Mercury News.....

What's really exasperating is that it started off with a noble statement demanding that Obama reassert America's moral authority and ended with a paragraph that said it's understandable prosecution is unlikely due to "the highly charged political atmosphere." The conclusion was as long as we get the facts out, the actual prosecution is not of much significance. The editorial writer didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that a country can't assert moral authority if it lets the political atmosphere dictate legal decisions.

There's a huge crowd encouraging Obama to look forward, as exemplified by this editorial, which used criticisms of torture as a veil. (Besides, "look forward" is simply a nice and charitable thing to say. Most Americans would have a much harder time understanding long phrases such as "looking backward to avoid repeating the same mistakes.")

Sat Jan 17, 02:49:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

As a major supporter I lost faith in Obama when he chose dual citizen and Mossaud soldier, Rahm Emmanual as his Chief of Staff. That let me know that the Israeli Zionists are still controlling America. From that point on, I knew that every single Cabinet choice was no Obama's but rather, that of the son of a terroist, Emmanuel's. The choice of Hillary Clinton, the AIPAC ass-kisser, for Secretary of State had to be the biggest slap in the face of the loyal Progressive's who put him in Offce.

I am sorriest for the young voters who are still starry-eyed over Obama's so called "Change" and who will wake up in great disgust and disappointment perhaps 4 years from now. Just as many of us tried to explain how Bush had bankrupted every single business he had ever owned or run, way back in 2000, Most Americans are just now realizing that he has done the same thing now to this country.

I had hoped that perhaps Obama has some method to his madness of ignoring the needs and wishes of his base and pandering to the right-wing journalists and pundits and that perhaps once in office he would come across and do the right thing, I now realize that he is Hillary Clinton in drag. She who claimed to hate everything Bush stood for regarding the Iraq war yet who voted to support his every demand.

I am disgusted with Obama and see no possible good to come from him now even though I voted for him. What a total downer!

Sat Jan 17, 05:25:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

Obama lost my support the day he voted to confirm Condi Rice as Sec. of State. He confirmed my decision when he aided the effort to block modification of the bankruptcy bill, which is being tabbed as a major cause of the current economic crisis. The last straw against his redemption was his vote in favor of FISA. Add to these items the lack of vetting Bill Richardson over his legal issues and picking Tim Geithner for Treasury even though he can't keep his own finances in line, and one does have to question his motives.

I have long wondered whether the chumminess between Clinton and the Bush family wasn't headed in this direction. Now, we have to wonder if the chumminess displayed between Bush and Obama isn't the continuation of pushing toward a totalitarian plutocratic state.

I fear that the voters of the United States will soon discover that they have been hoodwinked once again. Maybe not in the manner suggested by Charles Krauthammer, but in some significant way. We as a nation cannot afford this loss of trust in both political parties simultaneously. It opens the door to the rise of a totalitarian who will appeal to those who don't know why this is a bad idea. They will be fed up with being lied to and watching as nothing that benefits them passes the Congress. They will be ripe for receiving a few crumbs from the table of the elites in trade for their political birthright. They will buy into the message that "voting for me to hold all power will set you free" because every other path to the future will have already been traveled back to where it all began, with the few having too much as the many have nothing. What will they have to lose but their misimpressions?

Sat Jan 17, 11:11:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

Bush leaves office with many Republicans looking at government the same as their Democratic colleagues. They see government as an agent of 'good' in society, rather than an agent of corruption or iniquity. The economy can rebound and civil liberties can be restored, but ideas have lasting consequences. The idea that government can be unquestionably trusted will have disastrous consequences for liberty in the United States.

Sun Jan 18, 03:44:00 AM 2009
Anonymous said...

Itzamirakul7 said...

"As a major supporter I lost faith in Obama when he chose dual citizen and Mossaud soldier, Rahm Emmanual as his Chief of Staff. That let me know that the Israeli Zionists are still controlling America." And on and on......

Oh, God, when are we going to be free from these racist bastards that pretend to be liberals?

Buster, you may claim to be an Obama supporter, but neither he nor the rest of us need supporters like you. Crawl back into your hole and leave us to get on with our lives.

Sun Jan 18, 01:38:00 PM 2009
Anonymous said...

other gifts, but to the world, would be the loss of US prestige and influence, and degredation of our military machine, and consequently, of our ability to play the bully.

Wed Jan 21, 04:23:00 PM 2009

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