In November, 2004, I wrote a column for Watauga Watch. George W. Bush had just won reelection and I reacted as openly and honestly as I could.
Now that the Bush disaster – I mean presidency – is finally over, I thought it might be useful to review the column for reflections on its accuracy.
Here is the original column:
“George W. Bush has just won the most important election of my lifetime. It is even more important for the health and welfare of my daughter, who is 3 ½ years old, and my son, who is only 8 weeks old.
“Imagine that – my daughter will have lived her first eight years under the rule of one George W. Bush. And my son will have lived his first four years under the most divisive President in recent history, as well as the most loathed at home and abroad.
“But now it is time to be philosophical about it all, even four more years of looking at and listening to George W. Bush.
“George W. Bush's win means we will likely:
“Be in Iraq for 5-10 years and lose as many as 5,000-10,000 military personnel – sons, fathers, brothers, daughters, mothers, and sisters who should be home safely with their families.
“Start another war against a country not involved in the 9/11 attacks (can anyone say Iran? Syria?).
“Continue to swell the ranks of al Qaeda, thereby creating more enemies and putting our country at greater risk.
“Be attacked again by al Qaeda (the Bush team incompetently missed the largest ever attack against our country, and terrorist cells are still here plotting against us).
“Continue to dismantle protections afforded by Medicare and social security.
“Get two or three new Supreme Court justices in the mold of Rehnquist, Scalia, or (God forbid) Thomas.
“See the rich get even richer.
“See more increases in poverty, child poverty, and true unemployment (as measured by the number of people actually not working).
“See even more Americans lose their health insurance (even with caps on punitive damage lawsuits).
“Continue to pollute our nation's air and water and rely too heavily on foreign sources of energy.
“Continue to fail to fund a proper education for our children.
“Pass more laws that diminish civil liberties.
“Since all of this is all right with the American people, it has to be all right with me, too. Look at it this way – George W. Bush will finally be forced to take the responsibility and the blame for it.
“After all, on whom could he blame it? Bill Clinton? Nope. Gone for years. Democratic Congress. Nope, it's Republican (even more than before!). Terrorists? Probably, but Americans won't fall for it this time (will they?).
“People will finally ask, ‘If he can't even keep us safe from terrorism, what can he do? If he can't even achieve his primary goal of protecting America, what can he do?’
“Basically, I have found a way to be comfortable with tens of thousands of more poor, uneducated, uninsured, polluted, sick, threatened, hated, suffering, monitored, and even dead Americans.
“The next four years of George W. Bush will assure a pendulum shift to the left that will be unlike any other pendulum shift we have seen in our lives. And Democrats will benefit from this shift for decades to come.
“And then we Democrats can get back to fixing the problems thrust upon us by eight years of the Bush Administration.
“Try to be philosophical about it.
“Oh, and one more thing ...
“Ugh. I feel sick.”
So how did I do? Not too bad I must say.
FYI, my kids are now 7½ and 4 ½ years old. They managed to survive the Bush presidency, but not unscathed. Fortunately, each is happy and healthy, still too young to know what they’ve actually managed to live through. But each is also much poorer than they would have been had someone else – probably anyone else – been elected in 2000 or 2004.
As for my specific predictions, thankfully I was wrong about the most important prediction that we’d be attacked again on our soil by al Qaeda. There has not been another attack against America on our soil under the Bush presidency, and Bush takes credit for this every chance he gets.
Frankly, he does deserve some credit for this, but I expect not as much as we all think. I’ve read numerous accounts of al Qaeda – what its goals are and how it operates – and I’ve come to understand that each attack must be bigger and more dramatic than the last. Thus, the next 9/11 has to be bigger and more horrific, and this takes time to plan and carry out.
The first time al Qaeda attacked us on American soil was in 1993. The next time was in 2001. So there were eight years between attacks, and of course the last attack was much bigger and more horrific than the first. Well, it’s now been about eight years since 9/11. Had we done nothing to weaken al Qaeda in American since that time, it’d be just about time again for another major attack.
But the Bush Administration has done a lot to protect us at home from al Qaeda. Most significantly, he’s given al Qaeda a much easier way to attack us, by invading Iraq. The group known as “al Qaeda in Iraq” did not exist until our invasion, and there simply was no al Qaeda presence in Iraq prior to 2003 when we started the war. Now that we are there, so too are they, and surely enough, Americans are paying for this with their lives.
Which brings me to the next prediction – that we’d be in Iraq for 5-10 years and lose as many as 5,000-10,000 military personnel. I pretty much nailed this one. Six years later and we’re still there. Fortunately we have not yet hit 5,000 deaths, but well over 4,000 troops have died, and it is still not over yet. And about 600,000 Iraqis has died prematurely as a result of our invasion and occupation.
We also did not start another war against a country not involved in the 9/11 attacks. But efforts were clearly made by the Bush Administration to provoke Iran, and Iranian influence in Iraq and the Middle East is far greater now than it was prior to the 2004 election. The Iranian problem has been passed on to President Obama, along with the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Sure enough, we’ve swelled the ranks of al Qaeda, creating more enemies and putting our country at greater risk. US intelligence shows al Qaeda is stronger and larger now than on 9/11, and operating freely in portions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The rest of my predictions were 100% accurate. Bush gave us Justice Anthony Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. These two individuals are young and healthy and will continue to push the Supreme Court to the right for decades to come.
Medicare and social security are still in deep trouble. The gap between the rich and the poor is higher than ever. Poverty, child poverty, true unemployment, and the number of people without health insurance have increased steadily throughout the Bush Administration.
The Environmental Protection Agency was reduced to a good old boy network, just like FEMA (“heckuva’ job Brownie”), and thus plant and animal species are threatened. Further, literally nothing has been done to reduce out reliance on foreign sources of energy (“drill baby drill!!”). Funding for education (and just about every social service) is in serious jeopardy. Cuts are occurring everywhere.
We are less free because of the USA PATRIOT Act (now permanent law), domestic eavesdropping/warrantless wiretapping (in violation of US law), the suspension of habeas corpus, the detention of US citizens as enemy combatants, and the use of torture as part of the war on terror.
What I was probably most wrong about was that George W. Bush would finally be forced to take responsibility and the blame for all of this. Just the other day, Bush gave a sort of farewell address to the press, saying he was disappointed that we did not find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that one of his greatest mistakes was hanging that “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier. What a warped sense of morality this guy has!
The last four years of the Bush Administration did in fact give us tens of thousands of more poor, uneducated, uninsured, polluted, sick, threatened, hated, suffering, monitored, and even dead Americans. And thankfully, I was right that the last four years of George W. Bush Administration shifted the pendulum to the left.
And it gave us a black man named Barack Hussein Obama, the 43rd President of the United States of America. Think about it – would this have even been possible with a George W. Bush presidency?
Like I suggested, now Democrats can get back to fixing the problems thrust upon us by eight years of the Bush Administration.
It’s over.
Whew. I’m feeling much better now!