Monday, December 17, 2007
The Legacy of GWB
"Listening to the fatuous Al Gore claim his undeserved Nobel Prize and maunder on about how America is ruining the planet makes me realize how fortunate America is to have as its president George W. Bush. Yes, Bush has his ample share of failings. He occasionally speaks at the fifth-grade level. He is too willing to surround himself with cronies and sycophants. An unsupple man, Bush sometimes reminds me of the toy soldier who walks into the wall and keeps going."
This is an excerpt from Dinesh D'Souza's most recent column. I think that the he doles out a perfect balance of praise and criticism for an imperfect President that still gets undeniably shafted by a dishonest media on a daily basis. I am inclined to disagree with his final claim that Bush could be remembered as one of the great Presidents of our time, but anything is possible. It is interesting to go back and read what Lincoln's critics predicted of his legacy.
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5 comments:
Oh yes, Dinesh D'Souza, the great intellectual who published: The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and its Responsibility for 9/11
I think more people care about Bush's failed imperialism in Iraq then his diction and word choice. In the long run, he will be remembered through his many blunders and failures as one of the worst presidents in American history. You can quote me on that in 50 years
I really don't understand how you just tried to compare Abraham Lincoln with George W. Bush.
In response to both of comments:
I agree that it is unlikely that George W. Bush will be remembered as a great President. However, years down the road, after the overwhelmingly critical and biased media has had its say on the administration, the actual results of his policies will be seen, for better or for worse.
Similarly to President Bush, Abraham Lincoln followed his instinct on a controversial issue when he prevented the south from seceding from the Union (rightly or wrongly). Both Presidents were incredibly unpopular with their opponents. History was favorable to Lincoln because of the largely unintentional consequences of the war, namely the emancipation of the slaves. Perhaps some positive unexpected consequences will result from the Iraq war (or other Bush policies) a decade from now. I take a more iconoclastic approach to analyzing Lincoln's Presidency because of overtly racist comments he made over the course of his life. These are typically ignored in elementary and high school education, overshadowed by his seemingly benevolent policies.
1) "Both Presidents were incredibly unpopular with their opponents."
-Usually all people are unpopular with their opponents. George W. Bush, however, is unpopular with his opponents and now most of his former supporters.
2) Lincoln had been a Whig politician and always against slavery for moral reasons. He was also the first candidate for the Republican party which was founded by anti-slavery activists and modernizers. He didn't speak up against it until the Kansas-Nebraska act but for important reasons. You'll remember his quote "A house divided cannot stand"...he knew that if you divided the Union over the slavery issue, it would fall apart. Yes, he was a racist in the sense that he was not a supporter of racial equality but that does not detract from his emergence as an icon for abolitionism.
Excellent analysis. I agree completely. Bush has numerous flaws, but ultimately I think his visionary views on the role of freedom and democracy in this world will have far-reaching impacts and will greatly shape the coming decades. One can never guess what the future may bring, but I believe the future will bode well for the pillars of a great society: capitalism, democracy, and freedom. Great blog, man!
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