“The Worst President in History?” Why the Question Mark?
The Worst President in History?” is the title of a recent article about the presidency of George W. Bush by Princeton historian Sean Wilentz published in Rolling Stone. It’s a fine piece, which has deservedly made the rounds of the blogosphere. Therefore it is not to denigrate that article that I now suggest that the question mark in that title can be dropped.
Wilentz cites a poll conducted among more than 400 historians in early 2004. Already at that point, more than 80% of these historians regarded the Bush presidency as a failure. Now factor in all that has become known about this administration in the almost two-and-a-half years since that poll was taken: how more fully disclosed are the lies leading to the war in Iraq and the blunders that assured its disastrous consequences; how incompetent the administration proved to be in the face of hurricane Katrina; how clear has become the picture of this administration’s disdain for the Constitution and the law, with its by-passing of the required judicial oversight in the issuing of warrants; how shamelessly they have sought to suppress scientific and economic facts, and so forth– a list that could be vastly expanded.
The worst presidency in history? Where’s the competition?
Could it be the sleazy administration of Ulysses S. Grant, or the likewise corrupt Harding administration, with its Teapot Dome Scandal?
No, not when you observe how the Bushite regime goes beyond such superficial corruption. Certainly, the sins of this administration include the conventional pigs-feeding-at-the-trough corruption —as illuminated by the expanding Abramoff scandals — but the corruption here goes much deeper. The moral corruption of this regime -with its apparent unwillingness to hold any value higher than its own advantage– goes beyond such parasitism to threaten the very life of the American body politic.
How about James Buchanan, the occupant of the White House immediately before the election of Abraham Lincoln and the outbreak of the Civil War?
Buchanan failed to offer the country the leadership it needed at a especially dangerous moment in American history. Surely, the carnage that followed in his wake underscores the gravity of Buchanan’s failure. But Buchanan inherited a sharply divided country. He did not, like our current president, actively create division for his own political self-aggrandizement.
Can the Nixon presidency offer any serious competition, with its dangerous abuses of power?
Hardly. As former Nixon counsel John Dean said in recent days, the abuses of power of this Bushite regime leave Nixon’s in the dust.” The Nixon administration had plenty of mean-spirited paranoia and resentment. But Nixon did not have the same a take-no-prisoners drive towards domination. Although he was a threat to the rule of law, Nixon didn’t seek to dismantle the system he abused, like these Bushites with their so-called theories” of the Constitution that seek to rationalize unchecked presidential power.
Consider the systematic assault that this regime and their party loyalists have been conducting on the basic structures of our democracy:
** The use of signing statements” and bogus constitutional arguments” to usurp the constitutional powers of the other branches;
** The flagrant violation, under presidential orders, of duly passed laws such as the FISA act, not to mention of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution;
** The violation of duly-ratified treaties banning torture and of constitutional provisions for due process;
** The K street culture of big moneyed interests buying government, even further corrupted with the requirement that only Republican lobbyists be hired;
** The rigging of Congressional districts, and other thuggish abuses of power, orchestrated by Tom Delay and his syndicate;
** The institution of a voting process that practically asks for election-stealing;
** The practice of politics by character assassination.
** The degradation of our public discourse through the distortion and disregard of science, the fixing” of intelligence, and the denigration of expertise as well as by secretly-paid commentators, and administration-produced advertisements presented as real news;
** The pattern of lies by this presidency to Congress and to the American people about vital national issues, not least in the selling of an unnecessary war’
(Again, the list could be multiplied.)
In subverting our democracy, this Bushite regime is attacking the heart of America —what generations of Americans going off to war have been told we must fight to protect. This is what takes this presidency beyond other failed or corrupt or criminal administrations.
Not only does this administration embody the sins of all the past administrations —corruption, abuse of power, leading us along the path of destruction— but the crisis of this moment in American history is unique in this crucial respect: the problem is not that this administration is mismanaging a national crisis, it is that they themselves are the crisis.
Maybe a better president than poor Herbert Hoover, one of the presidents Wilentz considers, could have ameliorated the economic crisis stemming from the stock market crash of 1929. But the crisis was coming, independent of Hoover’s leadership, and the hard times suffered in other countries in the global economy do not suggest there was any painless way out for Americans, regardless of the quality of their presidential leadership.
Buchanan mismanaged the escalating American crisis over the issue of slavery. Maybe better leadership could have averted or deferred the outbreak of war, as previous compromises had done. But maybe not. The compromises had already started to break down before Buchanan assumed the presidency.
But this crisis is different. Unlike those of 1861 or 1929 or 1941, the crisis of today is not because of anything that’s happened to our country. (Even if the official story of 9/11 were accepted as true, there’s no reason why that trauma had to precipitate a lasting crisis in our national life.) No, the reason for our present crisis is that we’re being ruled by a regime of lawbreaking, usurpatious, lying, power-lusting and blundering thugs.
It’s not that we need better leadership in this crisis. The leadership is the crisis.
The worst presidency in history? We don’t need the question mark.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:21 am
Well said. Sadly, the damage is done.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:02 am
This needs to be picked up and distributed by Common Dreams and every other possible outlet beyond your blog. This is a classic which I will play up on our new Benjamin Franklin Press website in New Moral Voices feature (www.benjaminfranklinpress.com).
D.Loye
May 17th, 2006 at 11:02 am
We probably all agree that Bush is the worst president in history to date, having had to suffer through his mismanagement and mangling of both domestic and foreign affairs. I suppose historians will have the last say on this one.
I have just read through George Lakoff’s writings and thoughts on his website:
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/
and recommend to everyone that they read it. This man KNOWS why the conservatives think the way they do and why their actions and worldview make perfect sense to them within the framework of their belief system and he explains it in a clear informative way.
He also has excellent suggestions to progressives about how to re-frame their arguments or discussions with others in order to allow them to see the fallacy of what they are saying.
In other words, when we are clear about our own values and our thoughts are in line with those values, assuming our values are universal ones normally accepted by most moral people, we reason then from that truth down to the particular, and not the other way around (deductive vs. inductive reasoning).
He stresses the importance of remaining calm and polite no matter what gets ‘thrown at us’ and gives practical examples of how these methods play out.
I am totally impressed with the work that he has done and the clear thinking and analytical ability behind it and think it is an excellent, invaluable tool for all of us. Could not recommend it more and thanks to Kim for mentioning it on another thread.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:07 am
Well said! Thank you for a great essay.
truthout.com also has a great article on the moral corruption of this administration. See the following article there:
Incompetence Is Simply a Byproduct of Something Far More Sinister
By Bob Johnson
DailyKos.com
May 17th, 2006 at 11:27 am
My take on this President, as written awhile back…
THE UN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to let you know that we, the American people, are awakening to what you have been doing to our great country. We now see with shame that all of your agenda, as you lead us to our material and moral destruction, is profoundly un-American. Now, with your arrogant drive to secure our permission for your unchecked total power, you have gone too far, and we will no longer accept your misguided rule. Mr. President, it is time for you to step down, and to take your whole gang of zealots with you.
Yes, 9-11 was a traumatic event for us all, but how can you use this tragedy to call for the abandonment of the fundamental values we in America have fought and died to protect for over two centuries? You have immersed us in an illegal preemptive war on the basis of false information. You have called for us to embrace torture as an acceptable policy of our government. You have asked us to permit the detainment without charges of those you designate a threat to us. You have secured the passage of laws that reduce our freedoms in the hope of stopping future attacks on our “homeland�. Now you seek our assent to continue invading the sanctity of our private communications with no justification other than that you have the unfettered right to order this intrusion as our “commander-in-chief�, regardless of established law.
Mr. President, we say to you, these things are un-American, and we do not now, nor ever will, embrace these actions as necessary in our desire for a secure existence. No, we will stand with Benjamin Franklin, who called us to understand that “those who would sacrifice our freedom for some small sense of security deserve neither freedom nor security.� We stand with Franklin Rooseveldt when he reminded us that, when faced with great challenge in America, we must unite to face it squarely, that “the only thing we must fear is fear itself.�
You, Mr. President, instead chose to make fear itself your ally in driving us to accept the unacceptable in America. You, who promised us you would be a uniter rather than a divider, took a tragic attack upon us that promised to unite the world in an effort to defeat the forces that committed that atrocity, and used it to stoke our fears and to promote an imperialistic agenda that has made America hated and feared all around the world. You have used that event to realize a narrow partisan agenda that benefits the wealthy few at the expense of our poor and middle classes.
Mr. President, look around you today at what you have wrought. You have taken us into a disastrous and costly war, killing tens of thousands of innocents, and making us the target of the world’s anger. You are bankrupting our nation while the few wallow in unimagined riches. You have abandoned caring for our environment when all reasonable science calls for a planetary stewardship that might save our species from untold calamity. You have increased our dependence on foreign oil when we are approaching a massive energy crisis that could devastate our global economy and destroy modern society, when our priority should be on promoting conservation and developing new sources of reliable energy. You have sought to remove many of our important personal freedoms in the hope of an impossible promise of absolute security.
But, most importantly, Mr. President, you seek to undermine the most important element of what has made us all proud to be Americans. You are attempting to drive us in our fear to give up the values that we hold most important, that give us hope that we might as a nation become better as we move forward together in building a better future. You ask us to sacrifice the rule of law for a dubious expediency in our fight against ‘terrorismâ€?. You ask us to condone torture and concentration camps in the hope of an impossible dream of invulnerability. You tell us no sacrifice is needed, only blind trust that you and the cronies you appoint to key governmental positions will keep us safe. You ask us to turn away from the lies and misdirection you employ to launch illegal preemptive war to satisfy your lust for power. You seek the powers of a monarch, and expect us to embrace a despotic rule that we threw off at our founding.
No more! No more of this will we take, Mr. President. We have shirked the obligation to be vigilant in defense of our great nation long enough, and now we have awakened. Now we are demanding that you, the most un-American President, cease and desist in your arrogant grab for unaccountable power, to stop the lies that seek to take us further into even more insane wars, to stop the fear-mongering that has allowed you to perpetrate this travesty upon our country. We call upon you now to step down, to take with you those who carry out your heinous agenda, and make room for those who might seek to focus our government on solving the really important issues of our time.
Yes, we admit that America has often failed to live up to the dream that was brought forward at our country’s birth, but we Americans will not abandon that dream now. We have faced greater challenges together in our journey without succumbing to fear or despotism, and we will do so again. For, despite our many past and present failures as a country, we aspire always to be better, to find the ways to admit to our shortcomings and move towards a better day for all.
Abandon your effort, Mr. President, to demean us all in your appeal to our selfish and fearful nature, and let us raise up leaders who can again call upon the best in us to face our future with courage and determination. Step down, now, and let Americans who embrace the promise made in our founding once again find their way through the challenges we will dare to face together in our freedom. Step down now, Mr. President, and give us back our opportunity to together forge a better future for all.
Jim Oberg
May 17th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Andy,
Great piece, as usual.
Blundering thugs. Ouch. I have been trying to wrap words around this evil bunch of fascists since Day 1 (Jan 20, 2000), and “organized crime” has has crossed my mind many times.
And I think your point that the leadership IS the problem is interesting. How can the problem solve the problem? This seems to imply, again, that the only viable solution is impeachment.
Let’s pray that Bush’s upcoming October Suprise does not involve tactical nuclear weapons. I would bet he is planning one right now, to rally election support for his Republican enablers.
Keep up the good work.
May 17th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Hi Andy,
Your outrage comes across loud and clear.
Perhaps post 911 paranoia paralyzed the American public and all their representatives, leaving a gateway to fascism exploited by the current administration to achieve their nefarious goals. Let’s face it oil is the goal but surely there were better ways to secure a supply.
Both political parties and their processes share responsibility for their failure to curb the excesses of the Administration. One way or another both parties go along mildly, meekly and mutely with each excess. Oh there were one or two individual exceptions but generally there was no effective resistance by Republicans or Democrats. This process failure almost suggests that they are equally culpable for their failures in office. And of course the usually unquestioning media parroting the releases of the Administration for the most part in a supportive way. The people of America are badly served by these failures,The peoples of the world are also badly served.
I read that The Past and Present Presidents Bush both support the candidacy of Jeb Bush for next USA President. Nepotism keeps it all in the family dynasty. Why it is almost like Royalty.Maybe we are experiencing another rise and fall of empire.
Democracy USA is experiencing real setbacks. The White House serves oligarchic hegemonic interests not the people. Their indifference is more than evident in their failure to prioritize and deal with domestic problems of education, health , literacy and the poor in an effective way. Abroad US military ventures support economic piracy and deal devasting blows to other peoples who resist.
Is it not time that we really respected that other folk bleed when they are pricked just like we do and that Domestic and Foreign policies should work for the good of all?
That the most powerful Nation in the world should do so is a hard sell. But that I think is what is needed , the Golden Rule in practice at home and abroad. Maybe as a first step we might Return
Good for Good,
and
May 17th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Andrew,
I cannot agree with you more. I especially like your sentiment that the list of outrages could be multiplied. Bravo! When George W. (Dubya) Bush was first elected, I thought that although four years would be hard, surely, he would be out of office after that and that four years was not enough time to really screw up our country. I was wrong in that he was able to do plenty of damage in four years and especially I was wrong in assuming that the American people would not reelect this group, so now we have eight years of damage to contend with. I hope that the Democrats can regain control both houses of Congress and bring some sanity to our government in the upcoming elections this fall.
One thing that may bring the issue of honesty to the fore is for the Democratic Presidential Candidate to declare full disclosure at the end of his term and full disclosure of all prior presidential papers as well. A statement indicating that any change to this disclosure would be a sure sign of corruption, deceipt and dishonesty would help to discourage future attempts at secrecy. Surely if Bush could change the Presidential papers act by administrative fiat, the next president could do the same. I would say that this should be one of the first actions of the new president to prevent as much destruction of presidential papers as possible. I know I would like to have more insight into the quid pro quo, corruption, greed and self enrichment of this presidential administration. I do believe that the Presidential papers should probably be sealed until the administration leaves office to give the President the ability to do the right thing even if the majority of the American people don’t think so. That’s, in part, what the job of President is for, to speak to the greater good, even when most do not recognize it. Any President that truly is working for the greater good, even if it is not perceived as such, should be willing to be judged by history after he has left office.
May 17th, 2006 at 1:08 pm
Andy, this time I salute you and your courage without any reservations.
It is an honor to read this article and also an honor the witness the undying spirit of the real America incarnate in you. This is not flattery, just an admiration. Sublime.
May 17th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Your accurate summary only serves to sharpen the sense of nightmare that shrouds our nation today. Aspects of daily life that in other times, even times of war or crisis, would help Americans balance and cope with danger or loss, are today suspended due to the comprehensive nature of the Bushite phenomenon. Thought of our kids, our jobs, our prosperity, entertainment, seem tinged with the storm cloud that could mean the end of America as we thought we knew it.
What a feeling to know that the driver of the bus is bent on harming the passengers.
May 17th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Everything that has happened was predictable from their history. I researched the Bush family history in 1999 when the current President was running for the Republican nomination, and came to the conclusion then that they are the WASP mafia.
Their history of business dealings have always been sordid. From even before grandfather Prescott Bush, who was was charged with “Running Nazi front groups in the United States” in October, 1942, through to Bush43 and his brothers, Neil and Jeb, whose business lives include one shady deal after another.
The information has long been available (for example, see http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1992/09/bushboys.html from 1991) and despite being easily Googled, is still consistently ignored by the media.
May 17th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
The list against the Bush administration will most likely be multiplied further when the revelations of “Hookergate” become common public knowledge:
“Hooray for Hookergate” by By Dave Mulcahey
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2652/
“On April 27, Republicans awoke to a PR disaster. Tucked away on page A6, a brief Wall Street Journal article updated the saga of former Rep. Randall “Dukeâ€? Cunningham (R-Calif.), who was convicted in March of taking bribes. Investigators were expanding their inquiry to determine whether, in addition to the $600,000 he pocketed from defense contractor Brent Wilkes, Cunningham had also accepted the complimentary services of prostitutes.
The article further revealed that investigators were looking into the possibility that other members of Congress or their staff were being similarly serviced. Wilkes, it seems, was using a sketchy limousine company to connect his friends with escorts and making hospitality suites available in that most suggestive of Washington crash pads, the Watergate Hotel.”
Also Molly Ivins has a good piece, and we could probably drop that question mark as well.
“Is Bush a Lunatic?” by Molly Ivins
http://www.alternet.org/story/36327/
For Sam Gruen, I agree with you, the Bush clan has always been guilty of sordid business dealings. Robert Parry wrote an excellent book, in case you have not heard of it: “Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq” It is fascinating reading. He has also written yet another illuminating piece: “The CIA, a Bush Family Fiefdom,” May 9, 2006, on http://www.consortiumnews.com
And JimZ said:
“Aspects of daily life that in other times, even times of war or crisis, would help Americans balance and cope with danger or loss, are today suspended due to the comprehensive nature of the Bushite phenomenon. Thought of our kids, our jobs, our prosperity, entertainment, seem tinged with the storm cloud that could mean the end of America as we thought we knew it.”
I agree! I’m completely terrified for my very young children, that “storm cloud” you mention is palpable and it is growing darker.
May 18th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
The good news is many USA citizens are waking up to the reality.
May 19th, 2006 at 9:19 am
I just wrote the editor at Common Dreams and suggested that they put todays essay on their site, as well as Jim Oberg’s letter to the president. I urge other to do the same.
May 19th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Response to John Bengtson who wrote to the editor at Common Dreams to suggest they run this piece, and who encourages others to do the same:
Thanks, John, for your supportive message.
As it happens, this piece HAS appeared on Common Dreams. I’m always delighted when my pieces get onto that fine site and reach their large audience, and regret when they don’t. They provide a powerful megaphone.
Whenever anyone here sees a piece here that they think deserves wide dissemination, helping spread that word is certainly one of the most helpful contributions he or she can make. That can involve forwarding the piece to friends. But calling it to the attention of other sites engaged in a kindred mission –like Common Dreams, and various others– as John Bengtson just did, can be especially helpful.
So again, John, thanks for your support of the message. Keep that thought!
May 19th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
I have a slight variation on your point, Andy.
Bush is the worst president ever, I agree, but I think it is a mistake to call him a failure (you did not, many others do). He is actually very good at what he does.
The problem is that what he does well is to take control of an operation/company/government and run it into the ground. He did this with his oil company(s) (Harken, Arbusto), (I will leave out the Rangers baseball team, as I don’t know much about its history), and now he is doing it to our federal government.
His handlers have put him into place in order to: 1. break the budget by massive military spending and tax cuts to provide an excuse for eliminating all social programs, 2. privatize everything (give all public assets to the rich) and 3. turn the US into a totalitarian state. (You know my rant … fascism). He is there to remove all the restraints placed on the corporatocracy. His is the ultimate “inside job”.
What we rightfully see as a disaterous presidency is not a disaster for Bush’s friends. It is going just the way they planned. Grover Norquist’s wish, to make government so weak it can be drowned in the bathtub, is coming true. (Of course, Norquist only wanted government to stop restraining the corporations, he is fine with restraining the public.)
This view makes the Bush presidency even scarier. If there was any hope that they would see their actions as failure, there might be hope they would change. But by their qay of thinking, they are succeeding, so why would they think of changing?
May 19th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Election season is upon us, and at this point in time, Bush can utter that the sky is fuchsia or purple or orange or chartreuse, and his core believers will keep on believing. They will justify their beliefs with all their righteous indignation that the polls are WRONG or just further perverted tactics from the wacky and immoral Left. The MSM is lying- again.
It does not matter a rat’s behind what he says as long as Bush says it and the True Believers are spoonfed their daily bigoted diet: put up a wall or send the National Guard to the Mexican border; attempt to amend the Constitution to include a homophobic marriage doctrine.
Hey, election season is coming soon, and some of those True Believers are not happy! I feel a little nauseous, make that very nauseous. The Bush administration continues to steamroll right over the truth; polls do not matter, appeasing the fundamentalist religious happy freaks is the only thing that matters- and at ANY cost to our humanity and dignity as Americans.
In Bushworld, failure IS success. And the Bush presidency is my most horrific waking nightmare.
May 19th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
To Paul Archibald, who maintains that Bush is actually succeeding:
I’m familiar with this argument, but I am not persuaded by it. Do you really believe that this Iraq war is working out the way the Bushites planned?
May 21st, 2006 at 6:40 am
Wow. This sounds not unlike the Declaration of Independence with that long list of charges. Now, where are the Sons of Liberty when you need them? Oh, wait…I forgot, they’re terrorists. They’d be thrown in Gitmo in a heart beat, or shot on sight.
>>>Everything that has happened was predictable from their history. I researched the Bush family history in 1999 when the current President was running for the Republican nomination, and came to the conclusion then that they are the WASP mafia.
May 23rd, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Andrew:
Impassioned and articulate. That’s a good combo. Thank you for your essays, your website and your progressive energy.
For so many who cannot even remember Nixon or Reagan, it’s nice to have the perspective of historians who can reasonably make comparisons. The worst president? The contest is only for second place—Dubya has lapped the field.
May 23rd, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Andy,
I’m sure that you and I pretty much agree in our assessment of GWB. In a truly just world he would be in prison for war crimes, if he had not already been in prison for his white collar crimes. In my view he is an utter failure as a human being. I am just not so sure that that is what he is trying to be.
Bu, what you and I think is an appalling disaster in Iraq may be exactly what the Bushies want. They have yet to openly state their goals concerning Iraq, so how can we be sure that what is going on there is not what they want?
We assume that they wanted to steal the oil, but read Greg Palast’s interesting article of a few weeks back (www.gregpalast.com), speculating that instead they wanted to stop production to drive up prices. And GWB is just the guy to do it. Expert, in fact.
Or, are they just trying to bring the world closer to World War 3? As unimaginable as it sounds, there seem to be some people who actually do want Armageddon, and we know Bush talks with those people.
ps. I have been reading Parable of the Tribes. Great work. I am trying to incorporate some of it into my thinking on GWB et al. I am especially thinking of your idea that a society can get stuck in behavior detrimental to its long term survival, but unavoidable because of the power stuggles inherent in a complex world.
May 23rd, 2006 at 6:13 pm
To Paul Archibald: I still don’t buy the idea that everything is working out just as they foresaw (like the Emperor on the Death Star in THE RETURN OF THE JEDI).
It is a historical pattern that people who feel powerless will attribute to the nefarious powers that victimize them a kind of omnipotence that they do not possess. In various places around the world, for example, people have imagined that everything that happened that they didn’t understand must have been engineered by the CIA.
These Bushites are good at political manipulation, and they have been making a mess of everything else. That’s how it looks to me.
If our movement succeeds, the forces they represent will be shut out of power for a generation– discredited less than I wish by their evil, but a whole lot for their mismanagement of just about everything.
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