George W. Bush

This page, crea­ted during the 2004 Pre­si­den­tial elec­tion? cam­paign, ser­ves as a repo­si­tory of notes I refer back to when I’m asked “Why do you think Bush has been such a bad President?”

See also George’s resume, 100 Facts and 1 Opi­nion.

dan­ge­rous foreign policy

• doc­trine of divi­si­ve­ness, impe­ria­lism, and preemp­tion: iso­la­tion in dis­course, but not in appli­ca­tion of force.
• Lar­gest world pro­test ever, 10 million, on 2003-​​02-​​21

weak eco­no­mic leadership

• defi­cit, defi­cit, deficit

In one term, he has wiped away one of the Repu­bli­can Party’s most appea­ling characteristics–its con­cern for fis­cal dis­ci­pline
Elaine Kamarck

• silver-​​bullet focus on tax cuts

$5.6tr Pro­jec­ted natio­nal sur­plus fore­cast by the end of the decade when Bush took office in 2001.

$7.22tr US natio­nal debt by mid-​​2004.

…

87 Per­cen­tage of Ame­ri­can fami­lies in April 2004 who say they have felt no bene­fit from Bush’s tax cuts.

39 Per­cen­tage of tax cuts that will go to the top 1 per cent of Ame­ri­can fami­lies when fully pha­sed in.

49 Per­cen­tage of Ame­ri­cans in April 2004 who found that their taxes had actually gone up since Bush took office.

…

$30,858 Amount Bush him­self saved in taxes in 2003.
The Inde­pen­dent

dis­taste for democracy

• “If this were a dic­ta­torship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.”
• redis­tric­ting
• poor sports “if we make the wrong choice then the dan­ger is that we’ll get hit again”

policy of secrecy

• redac­tion addiction
• resis­tance to FOIA
• PATRIOT Act provisions
• $50 million for Colum­bia com­mis­sion, only $3 million for ⁹⁄₁₁ commission.

poli­tics over reason

• cen­so­ring and igno­rance of science
• Appa­rently, this has been quite a suc­cess­ful stra­tegy. If you keep insis­ting the sky is not blue even­tually enough peo­ple believe you.
• Bor­der­line Lysen­koism.

mani­pu­la­tion of public sym­pathy to sup­port pre­con­cei­ved actions

Of course the peo­ple don’t want war. But after all, it’s the lea­ders of the country who deter­mine the policy, and it’s always a sim­ple mat­ter to drag the peo­ple along whether it’s a democ­racy, a fas­cist dic­ta­torship, or a par­lia­ment, or a com­mu­nist dic­ta­torship. Voice or no voice, the peo­ple can always be brought to the bid­ding of the lea­ders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attac­ked, and denounce the paci­fists for lack of patrio­tism, and expo­sing the country to grea­ter dan­ger.Her­mann Goe­ring — Nazi Reichs­marshall, Luftwaffe-​​Chief

1 Num­ber of Bush admi­nis­tra­tion public sta­te­ments on Natio­nal secu­rity issued bet­ween 20 January 2001 and 10 Sep­tem­ber 2001 that men­tio­ned al-Qa’ida.

104 Num­ber of Bush admi­nis­tra­tion public sta­te­ments on Natio­nal secu­rity and defence in the same period that men­tio­ned Iraq or Sad­dam Hussein.

…

0 Num­ber of times Bush men­tio­ned Osama bin Laden in his three State of the Union addresses.

73 Num­ber of times that Bush men­tio­ned terro­rism or terro­rists in his three State of the Union addresses.

83 Num­ber of times Bush men­tio­ned Sad­dam, Iraq, or régime (as in change) in his three State of the Union addresses.

…

0 Num­ber of memo­rial ser­vi­ces for the retur­ned dead that Bush has atten­ded since the begin­ning of the war.
The Inde­pen­dent

squan­de­ring of natu­ral resources

50 Per­cen­tage dec­line in Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency enfor­ce­ment actions against pollu­ters under Bush’s watch.

34 Per­cen­tage dec­line in cri­mi­nal penal­ties for envi­ron­men­tal cri­mes since Bush took office.

50 Per­cen­tage dec­line in civil penal­ties for envi­ron­men­tal cri­mes since Bush took office.

$6.1m Amount the EPA his­to­ri­cally valued each human life when con­duc­ting eco­no­mic analy­ses of pro­po­sed regulations.

$3.7m Amount the EPA valued each human life when con­duc­ting analy­ses of pro­po­sed regu­la­tions during the Bush admi­nis­tra­tion.
The Inde­pen­dent

MIA

28 Num­ber of vaca­tion days Bush took in August 2001, the month he recei­ved a 6 August Pre­si­den­tial Daily Brie­fing hea­ded “Osama bin Laden Deter­mi­ned to Strike US Targets.”

500 Num­ber of days Bush has spent all or part of his time away from the White House at his ranch in Craw­ford, Texas, his parents’ retreat in Ken­ne­bunk­port, Maine, or Camp David as of 1 April 2004.
The Inde­pen­dent

sin­gle party dominance

cen­tra­li­za­tion of power… not with fede­ral govern­ment, but with a party.

bla­tant dis­re­gard for civil liberties

John Ashc­roft. Enough said.