In a few hours I must but farewell to President George W Bush. I have no qualms at all in admitting I am one of the 22% who currently approve of the job he has done as president, and I have always been in that category. I have always felt that President Bush has done what he felt was right and did the best that he could do. Those who judge him or consider him incompetent probably have no idea the pressures that the job entails and really, have no right to judge his character. I have found the disrespect shown toward President Bush over the last eight years to be completely reprehensible. He was your President. If you don’t like it, move to another country and renounce your citizenship.
To that end, I hope to not see the same disrespect shown toward President-Elect Obama. I will support him, even though I do not agree with him policies, as he is my president. The great thing about a democracy is that there are sometimes not results that you like, but you must live with them nonetheless.
And live with them I will. I wish President-Elect Obama the best. I hope with all my being that he can turn this economic crisis around and continue President Bush’s legacy of keeping America free from a terrorist attack. I hope that he can end the centuries-old conflict between Palestine and Israel. I hope he can make Iran a nuclear-free country, and I hope he can make Iraq a stable beacon of democracy in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, I do not believe that this will happen. That’s the funny thing about hope- it often falters when confronted with reality. During his campaign, Obama implied that all of the change he proposed could happen instantly. That the minute he was elected everything would be better. His acceptance speech on election night, however, negated this, and the crowd was left dumbstruck. Thus hope was confronted with reality, and change was derailed.
Like I said, I hope that Obama can change things for the better and that America can become stable once more. It is unlikely, but that’s another funny thing about hope: it laughs in the face of logic.
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"Those who judge him or consider him incompetent probably have no idea the pressures that the job entails and really, have no right to judge his character."
ReplyDeleteOh, please. This is a ridiculous statement, not only because it reeks of "La la la, I don't agree with what you say so I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears like a child and ignore everything you say!" but also because, as you mention later, we live in a democracy. People are allowed to have differing viewpoints and it is important to the survival of that democracy that all viewpoints be taken into consideration. The greatest disaster in American democracy is the ease with which both sides sweep aside dissenting opinions, like this statement I've quoted. It's ignorant, it's childish, and it is reprehensible.
Criticizing the Bush Presidency is not reprehensile. He has been a piss-poor President. Cartoonishly evil, even. Bush, as President, accomplished or allowed the following to happen:
- Ignored intelligence regarding al Qaida prior to 9/11 and then did nothing for, what, 10 minutes? when he was first informed
- Did nothing substantial to secure the United States in the wake of 9/11. Airport security is a joke, port security is a joke, border security is a joke.
- Falsified intelligence and led a propaganda campaign to drag the United States into Iraq
- Extraordinary rendition, suspension of habeas corpus, trying "enemy combatants" in military tribunals, imprisoning people without charge for years and eventually releasing them because they did nothing wrong
- Katrina
- Tried to rewrite history when the Legacy pamphlet said that Bush supported the will of the people in Pakistan (despite not being elected by the will of the people in 2000, which is why people say "not my president", not just because his policies were shit) and dealt well with the recession inherited from Clinton (despite the fact that we had a budget surplus under Clinton and now we have a trillion dollar deficit)
- Pee pee, doo doo, he is a bad president.
Some other points:
- President Bush did not leave a legacy of keeping America safe from terrorism. The only time international terrorists struck the United States was in 2001.
- The conflict between Israel and Palestine is not centuries old. Israel has only existed for fifty years.
- Obama did not imply that change would be instant, unless you weren't paying any attention at all to his campaign. He said over and over that change would take a long time. I know that because I paid attention to his campaign. I also know that the crowd in Grant Park was not left dumbstruck because all of them also knew that because they also paid attention to his campaign.
A funny thing about ignorance is that it laughs in the face of logic, too. I hope you enjoy your eight years of laughter.