The Bush Legacy

What happened; what we learned; what we can take from it moving forward…

(NOT necessarily in chronological order…)

These are some perhaps unique if not interesting takes on some of the things we saw in the Bush years. Certainly, I am not going for comprehensive here, as that would take a book, or two, or nine.

So- some reflections…

2000 Election

What happened:

• In a razor thin election, it all came down to little pieces of paper called chads.

What we learned:

• The extent to which the left will go to sue and litigate their way into any office when they don’t win at the ballot box is impressive. How far the left will go to target specific areas or demographics of people to win, instead of making sure that, as their mantra (every vote must count” says, that we actually try to count every valid vote. These efforts have only redoubled since then, and continue today with Norm Coleman and Al Franken, and in Washington State 4 years ago, they (the left) canvassed the streets for affidavits from only people who voted for Gregoire.

What we can take from it moving forward:

• We have not, on the right, done much of ANYTHING to make sure that military absentee ballots are better taken care of. This needs to be improved on all levels. 
• We also have to take note that the left has created a huge machine, financially, and internet/tech/social media based, and get our machine up and going. If we are to contend with Soros, MoveON and others, as well as in the arena of the youth using MySpace and Facebook (and Twitter), we are going to have to get it together as a party.
• Motor voter and other forms of “make it easy for anyone to vote anytime, anywhere” legislation from the left must be attacked and defeated.

NCLB (No Child Left Behind, also known as “Nickel-B” in the education world)

What happened:

• In an effort to broadly reform education and instill accountability, No Child Left Behind was put into place, setting State mandates that schools must perform to benchmarks or be closed.

What we learned:

• The extent to which the left will use the Union arm of the NEA and State Education Associations to undermine any effort to instill and mandate performance based criteria, as well as an enforceable punitive mandate, was revealed to us more clearly than before. Prior to this, the Union’s had to only fight local level charter and voucher initiatives on a State by State level. NCLB turned the screws, and even though the improvements on a lot of levels are encouraging, they are not materializing at the level we would have hoped for.

What we can take from it moving forward:

• We on the right are DROPPING THE BALL on education. I for one am increasingly irritated that we let the LEFT appear to be more supportive of issues we should be championing. I am going to write an article on this soon, but let me just say for now that, simply, if we don’t “fix” our education system, we won’t have to worry about taxes and military spending. I will make that case soon, here on COasis; but we need to get behind public education, and making IT work, because throwing it out as broken, as they say in Tennessee, “Just ayunt gunna happun!” (Sorry Tennessee… you know I love ya!)
• Push and support every reasonable charter and voucher initiative in your State, as they come up for vote.
• Go to a few school board meetings, and ask this simple question: “What are unfunded mandates, and how do they prevent you, the District, from spending wisely on classroom time?” You might be amazed to find that public education is not broken; the bureaucracy running them is…

Hurricane Katrina

What happened:

• Although she only hit land as a Cat 3 storm, Hurricane Katrina was a storm on more levels than just wind and rain, or flooding. It was one of the top 5 Hurricanes in US history, and the 6th strongest in Atlantic Hurricane history. It will probably rank #1 in the “political storm” arena for many years to come. 

What we learned:

Well, the most important things we learned from this, in terms of political, are:

• Even though the Governor of Louisiana and Mayor of New Orleans are DIMocrats, if you are the President and a Republican, you will be blamed.
• Even though Nagin, an African American, leaves hundreds of buses sitting where they will flood out, YOU, the WHITE REPUBLICAN, will be blamed.
• If the majority of the people affected (left behind on rooftops) are black, then the left will use it as an excuse to call Republican Presidents and Republicans in general, racist.

What we can take from it moving forward:

• Bush deserves SOME credit for the heat on this one. A “flyover” was not wise, but making it even worse was he was not there until 4 days later.
• Show up with a broom, boat, lifejackets, tanks, water, food, guns, search dogs, kitchen sinks, the SECOND the wind drops below 70mph.
• Never trust Democrats with any disaster, war, or crisis. Had Nagin and Blanco done their jobs, with the resources the Feds had lined up just out of the hurricane damage zone, then their would have been far, far less criticism.

National Security

9/11

What we learned:

• We have not been attacked in this country in over 7 years.
• You don’t protect this country in courts of law.

What we can take from it moving forward:

• Liberals have a short attention span, and are only occasionally capable of patriotism- for- short periods of time. See ADD/ADHD
• Things like Guantanamo and wiretapping work. So does waterboarding.
• Controlling the time and place of battle is always best. 

No WMD’s

What happened:

• We didn’t find them.

What we learned:

• This is perceived as perhaps Bush’s greatest “blunder”. But, this is only because he has allowed the press and the world to paint the story for him. He has made, and continues to make, the following mistake- he does not state over and over “We had no way of knowing if they had them for sure or not, as they would not cooperate with the UNSCOM inspectors. After 9/11, I was not going to take any chances with the security of the Nation. What we know now is that we have no threat from a WMD armed Iraq. We did not know that for sure before. For the safety of my Country, I’d do it again.” Bush should have repeated that over and over again from the beginning. Even before the war, Powell and Bush should have been saying “If UNSCOM can’t prove they are not there, WE will go in and do it ourselves.” I applaud Bush for his boldness on this issue.
• The left is full of gotcha wafflers who vote for, before they vote against, and then support the troops, only to call them murderers or claim them guilty of crimes, or that the war or surge is a failure. Again, we might coin the term “ADD Patriots”… 

What we can take from it moving forward:

• It is always better to be safe than sorry in the world of nukes and anthrax.
• Take copious notes of what every liberal says every step of the way through war. They will surely change their tune with the wind. Thumbs up when it is politically expedient, thumbs down when it is not. Always has been, always will be.
• Democrats love to SAY they support the troops… but their actions always say different.

Financial Market, Housing Market, Manufacturing Failures

What happened:

• The nation’s economy went into a downward spiral starting in early 2008. It spread through the financial market, the housing market, and finally all the way to our major manufacturing markets. This spiral was worldwide, simultaneously, and sent shivers through the international banking communities.

What we learned:

• That, like the dot com false economy of Clinton, propped up houses of cards do not withstand even the most moderate of storms.

What we can take from it moving forward:

• A major conservative principal here was not followed, for the better part of the last 15 years: Keep Government out of the business of creating and (over) regulating business.
• Wolves make poor henhouse guardians. I.E., Barney Frank
• People who don’t deserve loans because they have poor credit should not be given loans.

Some final thoughts on Bush…

(ramblings- I’m not going to overthink or over edit these)

I am going to miss his Bush-isms. Really. “Nucular”. I loved the way that irritated the left. ”They misunderestimated me.” Classic. “Strategery.” Beautiful.

Bush was an optimist and a patriot. He treated the press with far more dignity than it deserved, or ever treated him with.

For me, honestly, Bush shot himself in the foot when he said the he saw Putin’s soul, or something like that. That was one time when I thought, “Whoa! NOW you’re freakin me out…” All of the sudden he became Shirley MaClaine? Let me tell you all something I thought then… “Um. The man is the former head of the KGB. He can act. He can make you see anything he wants you to see. He’s as genuinely phony as a well trained Hollywood actor. And you say you trust him, you saw into his soul? Better rethink THAT one, George…”

I know that seems like small potatoes to some, but that comment really put me off. It showed me a simplicity and naiveté that I could never shake after that day. 

Still, though, I was proud of him for his strong will and decisiveness to take the war to the enemy. This is one of the more “subcutaneous” and insidious of the administration’s tactics. While we all have heard the term “take the battle to the enemy”, many people think what that means is, we go agressively after them and kick their butts. What it reeeeeeally means, is, if you fight in THEIR backyard, you don’t have to fight in YOURS. You don’t wait for them to sneak into your house, because they are fighting for their lives in theirs. The terrorists and Al Qaeda knew damn good and well that losing Iraq would be huge for them. 

Put another way, the critics of invading Iraq always cry about no WMD’s. Ok. And then they cry about Al Qaeda having no ties to Iraq (which is disputable). One things was for SURE that the left missed about this, however… while the left pointed to the fact that there was NO Al Qaeda in Iraq before the war, but now there WAS Al Qaeda in Iraq, they felt that this was proof that we had done something wrong. 

Now, follow me here… IF… if we drew hundreds of Al Qaeda to Iraq during and after the war… isn’t that better than having them run willy nilly all over the world? Would you rather those dimwits rushed headlong into the swords of the US Military, or would you prefer they be infiltrating your neighborhoods, your workplaces, your town…?

This simple point is often lost. Think about it.

And one last note- little known trivia:

Tecumseh’s Curse

Every President who has been elected since 1840 was either shot, assassinated, or died in office. Until now… (Reagan may have broken the curse in the eyes of some, as he was of course shot and did not die.)

1840- William Henry Harrison

1860- Abraham Lincoln

1880- James Garfield

1900- William McKinley

1920- Warren G. Harding

1940- Franklin Roosevelt

1960- John F. Kennedy

1980- Ronald Wilson Reagan

2000- George W. Bush

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