Our newest worst president

When we think of our worst presidents, usually Richard Nixon and Ulysses S. Grant come to mind. But, as Mike Papantonio on Ring of Fire quite clearly expressed in his January 21 podcast, that’s all in the past. With Bush’s approval ratings hitting an all-time low, we learn that 80% of American historians now consider Bush to be our newest worst president.

Grant is remembered as a lazy, corporate puppet at the beck and call of big business. Even so, he was honored as a wartime hero and military tactician who saved the Republic during the civil war. And at least by the time Nixon had resigned his presidency, in disgrace, he had also opened relations with China, laid the foundation for a stable economy and pulled us out of a tragically misguided war. He was corrupt and he, and his administration, will be remembered forever as dishonest — yet he also acted to achieve positive gains worldwide.

In honor of our new, worst president, here’s a brief recap of a few of Bush’s most shining moments as our Commander In Chief.

• I’m sure we’ll all remember when he snapped at his critics, saying that the Constitution is “just a damned piece of paper.” Even Nixon had an understanding that our Constitution implements prohibitions against spying on the citizens of America that separate us from the very fascist regimes Bush claims to defend us against. I find it a frightening parallel that Hitler’s regime relied on curtailing civil liberties, much as Bush is doing now.
• Another parallel that frightens me is the precedent of preemptive action, an agenda that Bush continues to push, first with Iraq and now, more recently, with Iran.
• Bush broke with the United Nations by going to war in Iraq without a second vote for war by the U.N. Security Council, a mandatory requirement. Maybe he should have listened to Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, who said “a unilateral military operation against Baghdad that is not sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council is capable only of worsening the already difficult situation in the region.”
• Bush is the first President in history to never veto a bill. Could it be because he is incapable of the analysis and reflection required to understand the complex issues involved?
• He has signed more laws and executive orders intentionally circumventing the constitution than any President in history. We managed to get through two world wars and several smaller ones without compromising our civil liberties.
• He has offended more countries than any other president. His latest foray into international relations with India is just one example of his ineptitude. Didn’t it occur to him that sharing nuclear technology and fuel with India won’t sit well with Pakistan? No matter than Pakistan might see this as a hostile act and, worse, could even decide to follow in Bush’s footsteps of preemptive action.
• He has turned a nearly blind eye toward issues of global warming, just as the scientific community has stepped forward in near-unison, claiming that we are in danger of long term harm to our ecosystems. By backing out of the Kyoto accord, signed by the U.S. in 1997 and designed to limit emissions by industrial nations of greenhouse gases, he is again snubbing the U.N. and our global partners.
• Bush can brag that he has dissolved more international treaties, such as the Kyoto accord and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, than any President in history. By backing out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia, signed in 1972 by the U.S., Bush has raised concerns with Russia, China and France. Bush continues to blindly ignore the global community and the United Nations, leaving us a legacy that will set us back decades in the eyes of our global neighbors.
• He has shattered all records world wide for having the most people simultaneously take to the streets protesting him and his policies. Over 15 million people in one day.
• He is the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the human rights commission.
• Likewise, he shattered all records for the biggest national debt in the history of the United States, $8 trillion. And now the Senate voted last week to increase it to $9 trillion.
• He can brag that his approval rating, now in the mid-30 percentile, is the lowest ever next to Nixon. And in Texas, his own back yard, only 41% approve of what he is doing.
• He has scheduled more purely political fund raising trips than any other President.
• He has cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any other President.
• While doing all of this, he still managed to set an all time Presidential record for days on vacation.

Bush has divided America over his religious, culteral and values wars, not to mention the “war on terror.” The war on terror is more amorphous and vague than the Vietnam war. Terror is a concept against which we cannot wage a successful “war,” yet Bush has used this agenda to initiate preemptive attacks against sovereign nations. There is no entity, no country, no clearly defined target. Thank you, Mr. Bush, for making this country more divided than we have been since the civil war.

And unless you’ve had your head in the sand you’ve heard the stories of corruption, throughout Bush’s administration (2). It seems some new scandal creeps out of the woodwork every week. Corruption hasn’t been this bad since corrupt lobbyist and corporate money ran Grant’s Reconstruction Government.

Perhaps the most astonishing, galling slap in the face is that Bush still refuses to tell us exactly why we are at war. Every single reason put forth has proven false, including alleged weapons of mass destruction and Sadam Hussein’s alleged involvement in terrorist attacks. Recently Helen Thomas, who was named one of the “25 Most Influential Women in America” by the World Almanac, asked this very question. Typically, Bush dodged the question, instead going off on a tangent about not “wanting” to be at war. It’s unlikely Bush will call on Thomas again; he’ll more likely stay true to form and snub her for the rest of his term in retribution.

Yet Bush manages to push on with his agenda as his staff and supporters turn more and more desperate. The latest “shoot the messenger” attacks on press coverage of the war is likely to raise more questions, not suppress them. Hopefully it also gets a rise out of our press core, who have thus far been playing ball with the Bush administration. The tightly controlled media coverage is in part due to reporters being almost totally “embedded” by both military spokesmen and wealthy media owners sympathetic with Bush. It’s high time the press woke up and stopped being sympathetic to Bush’s incompetency. The most obvious case is the Fox news channel, owned and controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Not surprisingly, recent polls indicate that the majority of Fox viewers still think Hussein played a role in the 9-11 attack.

History will show this unintellectual, non-visionary, uninspired President as one that shared mostly disdain, suspicion and doubt for America’s constitution. He will be remembered for promoting a rule of law that had no relevance when it came to spying on American citizens, including tapping phones, monitoring emails and other forms of electronic surveilance. He will be recognized for causing decades of damage to our international relations and starting a pre-emptive war for financial gain. That’s the legacy of our newest worst president.

Many thanks Robert Kennedy Jr. and Mike Papantonio for “W stands for Worst.” Much of the source information in this article is derived from the show.