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George W. Bush: Media is Indispensable to Democracy
- Thread starter Rainy
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Arrogant Bastard
Banned
No thanks, that is what he is waiting for to crack down.
SolarPowered
Member
Don't feel too bad. All it meant was that you as a young man expected your fellow countrymen to have some standards.
ReadingRambo
Member
Obama's silence is starting to irk me.
Sgt. Kabukiman
Banned
Lol, I missed that. Well, then nothing makes sense anymore.
He already came out against him, you must have missed this:
yo his paintings got really good
Mammoth Jones
Member
Oh shit. LMAO. I definitely missed that. Retract my previous statement.
I still do not miss him and I think he is still worse then Trump for the moment.
Zantetsuken
Member
I agree. How easily people forget.
He wants it. He's making enemies of the whole damn world. Every foreigner, every person of color, every Muslim... he's the spiteful, hate-mongering face of intolerance and discrimination that's done more to radicalize individuals than any piece of ISIS propaganda ever could.
And I don't want to say it, and I knock on wood hard, but breeding this level of resentment and hatred makes all of America a very big target. Should something happen, Trump will pound his chest and say everything he's done is vindicated, that he was right to fear "the others", all without a clue that he's the one that kicked the hornet's nest and then complained about the sting marks.
It'll rationalize every terrifying, unlawful decision he'd make, and there's a large enough subset of Americans out there fearful and irrational enough to champion him as their personal savior against the "bad hombres" out to hurt them, with none of the self-awareness to realize it's a demon of his own making.
For real. I'd love to own one of those.
SolarPowered
Member
He is doing more than saying if you look at the DNC at least.
He uses no attacks, attacks and made up attacks. He is first right, than finds a reason.
Red Blaster
Member
of course bush would be charitable to the media, they sold his war for him
fredrancour
Member
inauguration-aligned, how do they compare, though? bush had years to make iraq and the katrina response and on and on happen.
What was the worst thing to happen in the first month of Bush's presidency?
I haven't forgotten a thing. I don't think Bush is a good president by any stretch of the imagination...
... But let's just compare him to Trump's resume, shall we? And this is JUST during Trump's campaign, nothing before and none of the debacles in office like his war against the media, discrediting the CIA, FBI, DOJ, and DHS, Muslim travel ban, transgender bathroom reversal, etc.
Everything Trump has done and said...
Trump is far worse.
He's on a whole different level than Bush.
The fact this man is our president SHOULD terrify the hell out of you.
theechrisfox
Member
Far worse, Bush's inauguration crowd was so puny. And he only won with like, three electoral votes.
It's a photoshop.
Aww. I thought maybe but, I was prepared to be impressed.
Any Questions
Member
Don't say such a thing. It would be nuclear. The thought is scary
Sho_Nuff82
Member
Could you guys knock it off with the hypothetical terrorist attacks.
Bush may have been a bad president, but he still abided by the decorum of the office. Hell, Bush had one of the most infamous presidentialpardons commuted sentences of all time, and it's still better than what we have now with no one willing to perform an actual conviction on administration officials committing awful federal crimes.
Bush may have been a bad president, but he still abided by the decorum of the office. Hell, Bush had one of the most infamous presidential
Calamari41
41 > 38
A terrorist attack of that level perpetrated by someone from his list of 7 countries, especially if they entered after the travel ban was stricken down, would basically give him his re-election and a free foreign policy pass for the foreseeable future.
Herr Schwarz
Banned
Yeah and if it came out of Saudi Arabia just like the first time he'd still ignore that, just like the first time.
Cesare Borgia
Banned
What's he supposed to say lol. Obama said it too. It's a norm of our democratic system. Outgoing presidents almost never attack or criticize a new president this early. Clinton criticized W Bush quite a bit later into his term, but W has refused to criticize Obama (or now Trump).
I wouldn't expect Obama to criticize Trump until the election season starts, and even then it won't be a pointed/disrespectful as it was during the 2016 campaign.
Back-In-Black
Banned
Yup. Hey, let's give the guy a chance whose every word and action both before and after winning has been to divide the country. Bush still waiting on the pivot.
This is wrong for two reasons.
1. Obama didn't slam Trump before because he was The President and needed to ensure a smooth transition. You'll notice he's not said a peep about "unity" since leaving office.
2. It's not exactly the norm for outgoing Presidents to not criticize a new President, it's only a recent trend because the past couple outgoing Presidents left in disgrace and thus were in no position to criticize anyone. Clinton went out on the heels of a massive blow job scandal that almost got him impeached. And, Bush basically destroyed our country. Obama doesn't have the baggage of either of them and left office with high favorablilty numbers, we'll soon see him coming after Trump once he's done vacationing.
3. Like you said, Clinton, after the ire of his scandal cooled down was quickly after criticizing Bush all the time. After all, despite his personal scandal he was still a great President and after Bush's disaster people looked back more favorably towards him.
BoosterDuck
Banned
Aw, of course Dubya will continue to dupe meIt's a photoshop.
Not until he drops the "give him a chance" thing
andythinkpad
Member
He already came out against him, you must have missed this:
These seem to be a bigger news. has he painted any older president?
edit: ok nevermind.
To comment on his actually paintings, them have kind of a Cézanne color palette to them.
Bush obviously fucked up a lot. Like, Iraq has basically fucked up the Middle East for decades and sapped a lot of America's will to engage in foreign policy at all, leading to the rise of Trumpish isolationism, and he fucked up the budget in ways that we're still recovering from, that forced Obama to run such massive deficits to dig out of the recession.
BUT recent years have also convinced me that he did a lot of good in constraining the most awful, racist elements of the Republican coalition. He made a lot of talk about multiculturalism, including sticking up for Muslims, and while that wasn't often backed up by policy, it still did a lot in keeping other Republicans from pandering to racist elements and denying that stuff the oxygen it needs to live. The GOP went full racial nutso as soon as he wasn't there to put a cork on it. A lesser president could have turned 9/11 into a nightmare for Muslim Americans and immigrants beyond even what we're seeing with Trump now.
He at least believed in the basic tenants of American liberal democracy and cared about them on the level that a president should, even if he made some foolish decisions about how to best pursue those goals. Trump is just raw disdain for everything America is supposed to be about.
BUT recent years have also convinced me that he did a lot of good in constraining the most awful, racist elements of the Republican coalition. He made a lot of talk about multiculturalism, including sticking up for Muslims, and while that wasn't often backed up by policy, it still did a lot in keeping other Republicans from pandering to racist elements and denying that stuff the oxygen it needs to live. The GOP went full racial nutso as soon as he wasn't there to put a cork on it. A lesser president could have turned 9/11 into a nightmare for Muslim Americans and immigrants beyond even what we're seeing with Trump now.
He at least believed in the basic tenants of American liberal democracy and cared about them on the level that a president should, even if he made some foolish decisions about how to best pursue those goals. Trump is just raw disdain for everything America is supposed to be about.
I H8 Memes
Member
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/us/politics/16obama.html
Remember how Presidents used to follow a common decorum of not commenting on a Presidential election while on foreign soil?
Remember how Republicans keep shutting the government down.
Remember that time Congress invited a foreign leader to came and talk shit about the President on capital hill? This is not just a breach of decorum, but a breaching of congressional powers. The President decides all foreign policy. The President alone. Well it used to be that way.
The entire state of the Republican party is built on 20 years of abandoned decorum combined with a solid investment in cognitive dissonance. Every Republican had a hand in this.
I kind of feel like that sentiment stems from the same place that makes Bush look good in comparison to Trump, though. Like, Bush fucked up some fairly big things with fairly long-lasting repercussions. He did great harm to the US and the world.
But he was at least playing by the rulebook we were all aware of, and he had a base level respect for how American government worked (the good parts and the bad) and the general stature of office of the President. He says give Trump a chance because that is what you do with Presidents--acknowledge that they're not your guy, but they're the guy, and hope that they won't totally fuck you over forever.
It just doesn't work with Trump because Trump has no respect for America, the office of the presidency, any of the people he claims to represent, or really anything but Trump. Bush was a problem, but he was at least playing the same game as the rest of us. Trump thinks the game is stupid, the people playing are morons, rules are for other people, and if he doesn't like the way things look he'll just flip the board over because he'd rather nobody play than he lose.
radios shipping overview
Member
The Bush administration laid the ground work for the current security/surveillance state - via the Patriot Act - and the abuses of the totally unaccountable Customs and Border Patrol. He and Cheney worked to expand the powers of the executive branch in the process. His administration suspended habeas corpus and imprisoned hundreds of Muslims without cause. All of that was done in a way that could be justified as keeping the American people safe.
Authoritarianism doesn't happen all at once. It just needs the wrong guy at the right time.
Authoritarianism doesn't happen all at once. It just needs the wrong guy at the right time.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
Funny. Didn't his administration plant stories to drum up support for the Iraq war?
Certainly indispensable indeed...
Certainly indispensable indeed...
he also killed more than 100,000 iraqis and 4,000 US soldiers in the iraq war
diverted resources from afghanistan which killed thousands more
burned more than a trillion dollars doing it
but hey, funny guy
I H8 Memes
Member
Also exposed one of our best spies/handlers intentionally because they didnt like an article her husband wrote. I wonder how many of her contacts got killed?
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