The Worst President in History? One of America’s leading historians assesses George W. Bush.
George W. Bush’s presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.
With Our Glorious Leader’s approval ratings sinking to their current 33% (Can 0% be far away at this rate?), there seems little doubt that his place in history is secure. Unfortunately, it’s not the legacy he’d probably been hoping for. Of course, when you’re a lying, inept murderer, you pretty much deserve what you get eh?
And it’s not just the clusterf—k in Iraq that Our Glorious Leader will be remembered for- though being responsible for the pointless deaths of 2400 (and counting) young Americans is certainly enough. No, there’s also the supreme clusterf—k that is the new Medicare prescription drug plan, the clusterf—k that was and continues to be FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and…well, I could continue, but why belabor the obvious? This President has been the most inept, most dishonest, and most clueless President EVER. To call Our Glorious Leader THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER would hardly stretch the imagination, would it?
I realize that there are those on the right who would defend George W. Bush if he consumed a live kitten on “Fox & Friends”. There will also be that segment of the population too willing to ignore reality, too self-interested, and just plain too willing to admit what is happening around them. Those who insist on defending Our Glorious Leader and his failed, inept policies are free to believe as they choose. Despite their efforts to demonize those of on the Left and question our patriotism, this is still (nominally, at least) a free country…and we all know what opinions are like, don’t we?? Indeed, everybody has one….
Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a “failure.” Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration’s “pursuit of disastrous policies.” In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton — a category in which Bush is the only contestant.
The lopsided decision of historians should give everyone pause. Contrary to popular stereotypes, historians are generally a cautious bunch. We assess the past from widely divergent points of view and are deeply concerned about being viewed as fair and accurate by our colleagues. When we make historical judgments, we are acting not as voters or even pundits, but as scholars who must evaluate all the evidence, good, bad or indifferent. Separate surveys, conducted by those perceived as conservatives as well as liberals, show remarkable unanimity about who the best and worst presidents have been.
Yes, historians do tend to skew a bit more Liberal than society as a whole, but historians are also a fairly cautious lot. Assessing how history will judge Our Glorious Leader is something that no historian is going to take lightly. Time may soften the view of today’s current highly partisan atmosphere, but it cannot dull the import and impact of failed policies and poor decision making. Reality is what it is, and the passage of time is not going to change that.
Even worse for the president, the general public, having once given Bush the highest approval ratings ever recorded, now appears to be coming around to the dismal view held by most historians. To be sure, the president retains a considerable base of supporters who believe in and adore him, and who reject all criticism with a mixture of disbelief and fierce contempt — about one-third of the electorate. (When the columnist Richard Reeves publicized the historians’ poll last year and suggested it might have merit, he drew thousands of abusive replies that called him an idiot and that praised Bush as, in one writer’s words, “a Christian who actually acts on his deeply held beliefs.”)
Yes, there will always be those out there who will vote Republican- because it sure as hell is easier than thinking. It must be nice to be so convinced of your own righteousness and correctness that you no longer have to bother thinking- you simply react. Well, that would certainly explain how George W. Bush made it to the Oval Office, no?
Since the commencement of reliable polling in the 1940s, only one twice-elected president has seen his ratings fall as low as Bush’s in his second term: Richard Nixon, during the months preceding his resignation in 1974. No two-term president since polling began has fallen from such a height of popularity as Bush’s (in the neighborhood of ninety percent, during the patriotic upswell following the 2001 attacks) to such a low (now in the midthirties). No president, including Harry Truman (whose ratings sometimes dipped below Nixonian levels), has experienced such a virtually unrelieved decline as Bush has since his high point. Apart from sharp but temporary upticks that followed the commencement of the Iraq war and the capture of Saddam Hussein, and a recovery during the weeks just before and after his re-election, the Bush trend has been a profile in fairly steady disillusionment.
You should recognize you’re in trouble when the only available comparison is the Nixon Administration. Once the post- 9.11 hyper-patriotism wore thin, Our Glorious Leader had nothing to offer, except more rhetoric, more lies, and more attempts to deflect the American sheeple’s attention from the sorry state of his Administration and his failed policies.
How does any president’s reputation sink so low? The reasons are best understood as the reverse of those that produce presidential greatness. In almost every survey of historians dating back to the 1940s, three presidents have emerged as supreme successes: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These were the men who guided the nation through what historians consider its greatest crises: the founding era after the ratification of the Constitution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression and Second World War. Presented with arduous, at times seemingly impossible circumstances, they rallied the nation, governed brilliantly and left the republic more secure than when they entered office.
Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties — Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush — have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures — an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.
Isn’t it about time we faced facts? George W. Bush couldn’t lead a troop of Cub Scouts out of a wet paper sack. The only reason he is currently even in office is that he stole Florida’s electoral votes and with it the 2000 election. He then employed his wealthy, well-connected friends to “Swift Boat” John Kerry in 2004. For those of us who believe in karma, Bush’s ineptitude and poor poll numbers is sweet revenge. I don’t believe that any reasonable person wants to see a President fail so miserably; after all, that sort of failure ultimately only hurts the country. Still, there is something to be said for reaping what you sow.
I don’t believe that history will be kind to Our Glorious Leader- nor should it be- if for no other reason than he simply deserves nothing less than opprobirum and ridicule. George W. Bush is and will be viewed as the most inept, mean-spirited, and clueless chief executive in our nation’s history…and those of y’all who voted for him bear responsiblity as well. Your knee-jerk, thoughtless, I-vote-Republican-because-it’s-easier-than-thinking votes for Our Glorious Leader are every bit as responsible for the current mess we’re in as George W. Bush is. After all, this is a man who shouldn’t be elected McClellan County Dog Catcher, and yet he’s spent the past five-plus years in the Oval Office.
Still glad you voted Republican??
WE DESERVE BETTER….
