In light of the return of W. tonight on the campaign trail in South Carolina, I have made a list of all the things we suffered through in the Bush years:
White Identity Politics
More than anything else, I hated how W. exploited White identity politics … you know, the whole evangelical cowboy act on the Crawford ranch, sitting on the back of a pickup truck, clearing brush with his chainsaw, etc. None of it was real. As soon as W. left the White House, he decamped for a mansion in the Dallas suburbs.
Taxes
It might seem strange that I would list the Bush tax cuts. It is no coincidence that W.’s first legislative accomplishment after ascending to the White House was cutting the top marginal income tax rate for the wealthy. That’s the whole point of “conservatism.” Everything else including the Bubba act is about getting to 50 percent + 1 so that the economic agenda of the donor class can be implemented.
Neocons
The W. years were the glory days when the neocons were in the saddle in Washington. If you are feeling nostalgic, John Podhoretz published Bush Country: How George W. Bush Became the First Great Leader of the 21st Century—While Driving Liberals Insane and Bill Kristol and Lawrence Kaplan published The War Over Iraq: Saddam’s Tyranny and America’s Mission, which are both available on Amazon for bargain prices.
Iraq
Nothing dominated the George W. Bush presidency like the Iraq War. Justin Raimondo reminds us how the neocons cooked the intelligence and made up the lies that embroiled us in Iraq and destabilized the entire Middle East leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead, Christianity almost wiped out, thousands of American soldiers maimed for life, and the country trillions of dollars in debt. It was part of the neocon roadmap for regime change called the Project for the New American Century.
Affirmative Action
W. stacked his cabinet with affirmative action nominees in order to be able to boast about his commitment to diversity: Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Norman Mineta, Alberto Gonzalez, Elaine Chao, Carlos Gutierrez, Mel Martinez, etc.
John Roberts
W. gave us Chief Justice John Roberts who cast the key swing vote in Arizona v. United States which struck down Arizona’s immigration law. He cast the deciding vote that saved Obamacare. Roberts also gave us Citizens United and McCutcheon in an effort to allow billionaires to debauch elections with SuperPACs.
Multiculturalism
Who can forget George W. Bush celebrating Black History Month, Asian-Pacific Islander Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, etc. He even created Jewish American Heritage Month and celebrated the fake holiday Kwanzaa.
Amnesty
W. spent his second term pushing for “comprehensive immigration reform” in two big fights which he ultimately lost due to overwhelming grassroots opposition. He also ignored the millions of illegal aliens pouring over the border and used enforcing the existing immigration laws as a bargaining chip to dramatically expand legal immigration for the US Chamber of Commerce and Republican big donors.
Gay Marriage
W. was only reelected president in 2004 by stirring up a phony culture war fight over gay marriage with the Federal Marriage Amendment. He needed a big evangelical turnout to win Ohio. After W. left office, Laura Bush came out in support of gay marriage and W. himself reportedly offered to officiate a gay marriage. W.’s opposition to gay marriage was as fake and calculated as his cowboy act.
No Child Left Behind
Remember the time W. reformed our education system in order to fight “the soft bigotry of low expectations”? It was premised on the assumption that the schools were failing blacks, not that blacks were failing in school.
Social Security
W. spent significant political capital on his failed effort to partially privatize Social Security for the benefit of Wall Street.
The Housing Bubble
The whole economy under George W. Bush was based on the housing bubble.
National Debt
George W. Bush added $5.849 trillion dollars to the national debt. Most of this was due to his adventure in Iraq.
Free Trade
George W. Bush signed free trade agreements with Jordan, Peru, Singapore, Morocco, Australia, Bahrain, Chile, and negotiated the ones with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. W.’s major contribution to the expansion of free trade though was CAFTA and supporting China’s bid to join the WTO.
Student Loans
W. signed a 2005 bankruptcy law that prevented students from discharging their student loans by declaring bankruptcy.
Economic Collapse
The rotten economy under W., which was presided over by Alan “The Maestro” Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, and Hank Paulson, was loaded with exotic financial instruments which ultimately dynamited Wall Street and the world economy, requiring the Wall Street bailout to prevent a Second Great Depression.
Check out the latest DT tweet about that, Hunter.
Donald J. Trump–Verified account*?@realDonaldTrump
Now that George Bush is campaigning for Jeb(!), is he fair game for questions about World Trade Center, Iraq War and eco coll
He certainly should be.
He was fair game even before campaigning for Jeb.
He doesn’t want to use daddy’s and (even more so) Bros name. I guess he thought the exclamation mark was more exciting for Americans than ‘Bush’.
Bill Kristol may yet swing from the gallows on the end of a rope. Just like Saddam Hussein.
W. has been an anchor around Jeb’s neck from day one. W. made Jeb’s candidacy a non-starter. To bring him out to campaign for him is COMPLETE idiocy. These people are absolutely clueless.
Jeb is a drowning man that grabs for a rock, a dumb rock at that.
Good one.
Jeb is incensed that his family is being criticized. After all, where do we get off criticizing a family who believes it their damned birthright to rule over us every other presidential term.
After Bush III, I suppose it’ll be time for one of Jeb’s sons to take the wheel.
Fake Christians are worse than Satanists because when it comes to Evil its always better to have a Devil you know. Bush and his whole Skull and Bones Gangster familia are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. He has this phony populist cowboy act and talks about how he’s one of you, and then his Cohen brigade throw Whites out of work and steal their money to hire brown retarded slaves for jewboys that are too stupid and lazy to work. You left out his grand “achievement” of throwing a Billion Dollars away to buy AIDS drugs for dumb African trash to grind up and smoke. That’s neocohen right there. Pharmaceuticals are the legalised drugs these retards use to avoid the DEA and RICO confiscation laws. Its like how Rushbo lost all his hearing by abusing painkiller janes all day. Opioids are bad no matter how they are packaged and sold. They are as addictive as heroin or opium cause they come from the same damn plant. The only difference between Pharmaceutical monopolies and drug cartels is one cheats the taxman and the other dodges him by getting dumb niggers to sell it on streetcorners. Either way, you pay the bill for the crime and death these bloodsuckers sell to you and your kids.
You left out his grand scheme to turn the security of our seaports over to the United Arab Emirates. Unlikely as it may seem, Hillary led the cavalry that stopped that silliness.
Who cares about ports? Do you have stuff coming from China do you? We might as well sell them all to China anyway. Almost everything that goes through them come directly from China. If you see an American at a port, he’s either lost or looking for something shipped from China.
I assume you’re including the sub-prime mortgage debacle under the housing bubble. What a monumental fuck-up.
Tweedledee (Jeb) and Tweedledum (George).
According to Rush, criticizing W. for 911 and the Iraq War means Trump is a li-buh-rull Democrat
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/02/15/my_take_on_the_gop_debate
Just typical of the Empire. Deo Vindice !
You want see George Sr. campaigning for Jeb. He is for Trump.
Not nice but….
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca0DS7JUUAElhNm.jpg
She’s fair game. If he’s elected, think of the taxpayer costs to make the White House ADA compliant!
Didn’t his mother tell him that genetics is everything? I guess not. She was too busy showing George his aborted sibling in a jar. True story. Look it up. He said it was a positive moment if I’m not mistaken. Positively freaky.
Oh please let it be the result of a shotgun wedding after a blind drunk stupor. Voter Alert, Voter Alert – be very wary of his decisions!
Boy, that Amerindian hit the jackpot! Yes, I have a mean streak.
Excellent summation of why Shrub was easily the worst POTUS since Carter … at least, before Obunghole.
David Frum, the neocohen who enforced conformity to neocohen line on the Iraq war by denouncing conservative opposition to the Iraq war as ‘unpatriotic’ has the audacity to write the following statement as though he had nothing to do with the suppression of criticism of Bush.
“For a decade and a half, Republicans have stifled internal debates about the George W. Bush presidency. They have preserved a more or less common front, by the more or less agreed upon device of not looking backward, not talking candidly, and focusing all their accumulated anger on the figure of Obama. The Trump candidacy has smashed all those coping mechanisms. Everything that was suppressed has been exposed, everything that went unsaid is being shouted aloud—and all before a jeering live audience, as angry itself as any of the angry men on the platform.’
https://twitter.com/TeamTrumpAZ/with_replies
This would make a great propaganda postcard just add some
Governor Jeb Bush gave you this.
Paul Kersey ?@sbpdl
It’s amazing the @GOP and George W. Bush (@JebBush brother) have more fight against Trump than they ever did against Obama. Fuck you people.
Paul Kersey ?@sbpdl
You know how you stop Islamic terror attacks in America, @GOP and @JebBush — Don’t let Muslims in America. #TRUMP
Paul Kersey ?@sbpdl
The Left wants your guns, 2 curtail all speech as “hate”, & to overwhelm you via mass non-white immigration. Constitution ain’t saving us
Blaming 9-11 on Bubba Caligula like Little Rickie the Ambiguously Gay Pool Boy did is sorta like blaming Monica Lewinsky on Dumbya Bush.
Would it be more fun if Dylan Storm Roof — currently locked up in the North Charleston City Jail (I need to send the kid a Christmas card) — endorsed Hillary or Jeb! or Bernie?
Hail Victory!!!
Pastor Martin Luther Dzerzhinsky Lindstedt
Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations of Missouri
Thank you. This is WHY I read your blog. Thank you.
Watching this jerk come back is sort of like watching Chauncey Gardner come back. And they both seem to be about at the same level of mental awareness.
W also pushed hard to have Turkey admitted to the EU, a move that would have instantly destroyed Europe, as Merkel’s invasion is now showing. It would have been even worse. The scumbags at the top of conservatism and the Republican party are absolute traitors.
What was that the Bible said about the blind leading the blind?