Bush's legacy: Villain or visionary?

Villain

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by Greg Slack

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The Presidency of George W. Bush is now in its twilight and the end could not have come soon enough for many the world over. In my opinion his era has been a step backward for America and humanity at large.

Under this administration inflation, fuel prices, and property values have become obscene, and our standing worldwide is that of a rogue nation. Because of his war in Iraq we are no longer apart of the UN Security Council; a body and council we helped to conceive.

In addition his administration made speaking out against his policies treason, and have aggressively stifled all opposition or any of dissenting opinion. They have infringed upon our rights in the guise of national security, lied to the people for war, and attempted to stack the judicial branch with like-minded conservatives to further their own party in the future. All of this, and he still claims to be a Christian and patriot.

In fact he sent us to war without proper equipment for our brave young men. My own nephew went to Iraq on three separate tours, and had no body armor until the last few weeks of his final trip. This did remove a tyrant and a vile human to be sure, but which would be better to you a tyrant you know or a bunch of tyrants given to you by someone else?

Democracy cannot be given, it must be wanted and earned by a society otherwise you have an imposed government. An imposed government no matter their intentions is still imposed upon a people with or without their consent. What good is an election if the choices are already made for you?

We went in and removed a dictator, then gave them a system of government similar to ours but with a religious presence. Then we chose who would be eligible to run for office and lined them up for their so-called election. Tell me exactly where was the freedom and choice in that? They did not fight and win their own independence like Americans did; they had no meeting of their best and brightest to address the needs and issues that most trouble their society or what kind of government would best serve them. Sadly, they were told what would be allowed and how it would be. This is not freedom, nor is it liberty only a new kind of oppression, not from within but from a foreign body.

Right now 4092 young men and women; US soldiers, our own future people of action, have fallen in the war in Iraq; a war that was based on a lie, and backed up by more lies to perpetuate the violence.

George W. Bush was hiding in the Air National Guard in Texas during Vietnam, and had the nerve to support the attack of a war hero's performance in battle. Ask any person who served in the military of that time and they will tell you what the assignment Mr. Bush had really was; it was called "protect the rich kid" or spare the child of the powerful Bush family.

His presidency has been blight on this country for eight long and difficult years, and hopefully will end very soon. Honor, trust, integrity, and decency have become rare commodities in our society; they are often viewed as weakness and labeled liberal mentality.

I like my freedoms and rights just the way they are, does that make me a liberal? I think all people held prisoner by this government should be given the right to a fair trial, the right to council, and be bound by and given the same rights I expect to get in turn. Is that a liberal way of thinking or a sense of fair play? I want my government to stand up to big business when I am being taken advantage of, stop putting party over democracy and respect my right to express dissent when needed, and that is not un-American nor unpatriotic but the most American and patriotic thing I can do.

According to the current administration, their media spin jockeys, and their backers my views are not only liberal but treason as well.

Everything in life is a part of a balance; change the balance to an extreme one way or another and it will fail. This is true in nature, society, life, and government; take away the voices of dissention and you will lose your democracy. For that is the very nature of democracy, and one cannot address the needs of so many with only one voice or opinion.

George W. Bush does not agree with this and it shows in his attitude and policies. One of the first things he did once his term started was to remove all the white house journalists that served so many years, and replace them with those of his choosing. This eliminated any difficult questions that may be asked and fortified him with a propaganda outlet. Ever wonder why he never gets asked potentially embarrassing questions or faced with the same kind of banter given to those presidents before him?

Just by listening to his replies to questions on the war we can see he not only feels no responsibility for any of his actions, but firmly believes he is never wrong no matter what. He has stated that god made him president; anyone claiming divine purpose and reason must in turn believe his decisions infallible, therefore he must be infallible.

God made him president to go to war, impose a foreign and unwanted government on a people, aggressively eliminate all opposition, protect the oil industry, prevent the saving of the environment, and setup the various other branches of government to best serve his party in the future. Wow, seems like god has changed his views on many things lately.

Remember this; there many kinds of people who instead of doing the right thing, tell you how the other person does the wrong thing. This whole administration has been based on this bunch of thinking; they don't want freedom, justice, and equality for anyone they deem unworthy. Nor do they think the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

They believe that what is best for the richest ten percent is by association best for you and me. This is an elitist mentality; it is the same kind of thinking that made kings, emperors, and dictators. It also made the fascist regimes, ethnic cleansing, and slavery the scourges of society.

I do not believe what's best for Bill Gates is best for me, and by that same token I do not believe what's best for me is best for him. That is reality, that is democracy, and that is America. It is what we fought for, it is what we died for, and it is what we should hold in the highest regard unless we wish our democracy to become the next form of tyrannical despotism.

The question of George W. Bush being a visionary or villain is best answered by looking at the number of people who believe their lives better or worse after his term. One person can have a flawed reality of any situation, but when a majority sees the same reality, one must decide that perception is reality. Or more simply; if it walks like it, talks like it, acts like it call it what it is.

Before drawing my article to an end I would ask each of you to look up the definition of Fascism in at least two different dictionaries, and then ask yourself if it sounds familiar. I ask for two different definitions because no one should ever accept only a single opinion on anything; that would not be democratic and would undermine my point.

Tyranny, oppression, and elitism are not democracy no matter how it is presented, or the disguise it wears. Hitler was not called a tyrant at first but a hero and patriot and Stalin was called visionary once as well. Napoleon was supported by France almost unanimously until his true nature could not be ignored. Are these men considered visionary now?

None of these men became madmen overnight; their people had no idea that this one thing would lead to an atrocity. The Nazi party did not start off telling the people their plan for racial purity; their attempted extermination of the Jewish was a culmination of small events, leading to an ultimate end. You don't bake a cake by throwing flour in a pan and waiting, but by adding all the ingredients together and baking it according to a plan. Once you add the ingredients and bake you don't have baked singular ingredients but a cake.

That is how freedom dies, that is how liberty is stifled, and that is how oppression and fear get a foothold in a society. GW may not be a Hitler, but he is a step in the wrong direction for any society and no friend of democracy, no friend indeed.

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