As a Canadian, I remember the GWB era as the point where those around me stopped thinking of America as a noble country that sometimes makes redneck decisions to a scary place and people that we dare not talk about or piss off.
The current climate is much worse (again amongst my small sample size), especially for my more ethnic-looking friends and family, many of whom have wholeheartedly decided that crossing the border is just too much of a risk right now.
I am sure none of them will look fondly upon either era in retrospect.
Look at Jimmy Carter, for example - lots of people like him, think he’s a good person, admire his charity work, but also think he was a shit president
Lots of people are wrong. Aside from dealing with a poor economy (where the President has little control), Carter was a good President. With the possible exception of Obama, Carter was the best President in the past 50 years. The Carter administration was far cleaner than the ones before or after him, and he was willing to point to the American people as responsible for their own situations. Here is a critical excerpt from his “Malaise” speech:
The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.
Yes, we Americans preferred Reagan’s false optimism over Carter’s stark honesty. I don’t blame Carter for being honest. I blame my fellow citizenry for choosing individual wealth and celebrity rather than doing the harder work of creating a caring and compassionate society.
Precisely this. At the time, I thought we couldn’t get worse than the GWB presidency (I can be naive). But I have to give Bush – whom I viewed as the worst entitled, frat boy stereotype during his term of office – credit for exercising a degree of humility as a former President. He largely disappeared and left Obama alone during Obama’s presidency. That he is speaking out against Trump now is to his credit.
Bush still has many miles to go before I’ll reevaluate him as a man, and I’ll never forgive some of the horrible things he did as president, but he seems to have chosen a path toward some sort of personal redemption, and that I can at least acknowledge. (For contrast, see Dick Cheney, who is as remorseless as a crocodile.)
You’re right that Trump is the logical result of a multi-decade political cross-breeding experiment where the worst characteristics were selected for. The Republicans who are appalled by Trump either lack self-awareness or are being disingenuous.
I hate to say this, but as you hint, we may be lucky that we got this incompetent boob instead of a more intelligent, cunning version an election cycle or two later. We must stay vigilant and engaged.
Carter created the FISA secret court system that is one of the most powerful weapons that the executive branch wields against law abiding American citizens. His presidency was a crucial part of paving the infernal road from Reagan to Trump.
Jimmy Carter is admittedly a great man. But he really was a lousy politician. He continually bungled his use of the “bully pulpit” and (I believe) his essentially good heart blinded him to some of the evils that things like FISA would enable.
Get out of my head! Get out of my head!
George H. W. Bush was only a heartless religious bigot who illegally mined the harbors of foreign nations and diddled his secretary. Small potatoes by modern standards. He was not a total train wreck of racism, anti-environmentalism and warmongering.
1,000 Upvotes! It drives me out of my MIND when I hear “Democrat Party!” Republicans can take advantage of the fact that their moniker is BOTH and adjective and a noun.
Let’s say he’s at least better at presenting the illusion of being a decent person capable of feeling compassion and empathy; whereas 45 is utterly atrocious at even trying to feign it.
I don’t know either man personally, but based upon everything I’ve ever read and heard, it’s pretty safe to say that 45 is a terrible excuse for a human being.
My feelings as well. I don’t think I’d actively hate George W. Bush if he’d just been one of my neighbors or something instead of a disastrously terrible President; he seems like an OK guy on a personal level even if I’d still doubtlessly disagree with him on most political topics.
I’ve found Trump nasty and off-putting ever since I first became aware of him in the 1980s. I don’t think there’s any context in which I’d want anything to do with him, ever.
I couldn’t agree more. I hated what went down while W was in office, but I didn’t find him completely loathsome as a person. I cannot say the same of 45.
I keep hearing that horseshoe theory is bullshit, but I can’t help but think that either side of a given ideology will readily use the opposite sides’ rhetoric when they need to lay down a sick burn.
I personally do not recall Bush fondly…but I never thought he was wholly awful either. I was still a registered Republican at the time who had in fact voted for Clinton twice at that point. I switched to independent after Bush’s second term.
Yeah, honestly, I think W would be a decent guy to hang out with.
But that in no way makes up for the war crimes and economic devastation he was responsible for.
Honestly, I think the world would have been a much better place, and he would have been happier if he had just been allowed to slack off, drink beer, clear some brush, and maybe do a bit of painting, instead of being pushed into a career of business and politics he clearly didn’t have the aptitude for.
Not really a fan of his work but I would have been willing to buy at least a couple of those puppies if it would have prevented the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
I’m not exactly a fan of Bush 41, but its a mistake to conflate his policies and “his” war with that of his son, Bush 43.
Bush 41 actually faced reality and raised taxes to pay for Reagan’s Laffer-deluded tax cuts. The first Gulf War curbed Saddam’s adventurism and removed his weapons of mass destruction.
