by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 30, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

"The legislature's job is to write law. It's the executive branch's job to interpret law."
-George W. Bush, Austin, Texas, Nov. 22, 2000

After his tumultuous victory in the 2000 presidential elections against incumbent vice-president Al Gore, George W. Bush portended with two simple sentences how ignorant the Texan was to the basic functions of representative democracy. As any high-school government student can recite, it is the job of the executive branch to execute the laws enacted by Congress. Was Bush simply making an academic gaffe, or was this a more ominous illumination into future actions by the forty-third elected chief executive of the United States?

In the hotly-contested 2000 election, Bush first illustrated his cutthroat style of power assumption. Whether sponsoring pro-Nader advertisements to split the left-wing vote or contesting election results in Florida with the active assistance of his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Bush skews interpretations of fair play to suit his personal needs. This would manifest itself in partisan politics soon after his assent to the presidency. With a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, Bush would alienate Democratic legislators and strongarm the passage of personally-advantageous bills.

Then, an event which turned the course of the United States forever occurred eight months into Bush's tenure. The jihadist attacks on 11 September 2001 shaped the Bush presidency and molded its future course as no other event possibly could have. Soon after this tragedy, Bush declared in his 2002 State of the Union address a "war on terror" against an "axis of evil" triangulated by Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Pressing an overconfident armed forces into pitched conflict in Afghanistan, Bush soon procured the downfall of the Taliban leadership that had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda operatives responsible for masterminding the 9/11 attacks. Heady on military accomplishment, the administration then turned its attention to an old foe: Iraq.

Despite having in his Cabinet much of the nucleus of his father's inner counsel - the same people that sagely advised the senior Bush to stop short of Baghdad during Operation Desert Storm - Bush stormed ahead with his war preparations. Drumming up support from the general public and both political parties with the nefarious introduction of falsified reports linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda and enriched-uranium sales in Niger, Bush signed

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