The Legacy of George W. Bush?

Even as our former President seems to be assuming the profile of his Vice President – as in, felt but nearly

invisible – Dick Cheney opens another can o’ whup-ass on his former boss.

As cited on Politico.com, during an appearance on Fox News, the Cheneygator revealed that he’d felt General Motors’ proper course was through bankruptcy, “And the president decided that he did not want to be the one who pulled the plug just before he left office.” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23283.html#ixzz0Hf4qFpYT&D

Cheney characterized the Bush Administration’s actions – bundling up the resources to tide GM over until the Obama Administration could assess the options – as an attempt to assist the incoming Democrats.  Yes, Obama’s team went along with that for obvious reasons.  But that sort of overlooks the fact that GM’s problems existed throughout the Bush Administration’s tenure – and before – and with the worsening of the conflict in Iraq, the rise of oil prices and the slowing of growth globally, storm clouds could clearly be seen on the horizon.  GM’s market share continued to decline, and the auto giant was surpassed by Toyota during the Bush Era.  Whether by distraction – dealing with the other 10,000 problems ranging from North Korean nukes to the growing economic servitude to China – or by ideological design, the Bush Administration did nothing but keep propping up the Detroit Three, adding layer upon layer to the house of cards underlying the greatest remaining bastion of manufacturing in the United States, our auto industry.

When the foundation buckled, everything was poised to come tumbling down.  Cheney said that he and Bush wanted to allow Obama’s team to “decide what they wanted to do.”  It’s a pure canard: George just didn’t want to have it happen on the eve of his leaving office.  That would be a big blot on his legacy.

A disaffected conservative, now a progressive Democrat, posted a notice on Daily Kos of the type he still gets from the right wing money machine operators.  This one was an announcement of a new book from Rev. Moon’s Washington Times: W. The Legacy of President George W. Bush. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/6/739318/-Epic-Fail:-W,-The-Legacy-of-George-W-Bush-by-Washington-Times-is-coming-out-shortly

This is just the latest in an ongoing campaign by the right wing to rewrite history before it’s set in concrete, to reshape memories while we’re distracted with the economic and political debacles currently on our plate.  The Chinese government has squelched all history of the massacre of Tiananmen Square to the point that current generations, a mere 20 years later, have no knowledge of that horrendous incident.  Conservative activists, Constitutionally deprived of the tool of total suppression, are attempting to warp the picture of the Bush Years into a hazy, Reaganesque tableau of peace, happiness and prosperity.

We all know that there are natural economic cycles.  But we also know that political forces can add to the length and strength of those cycles.  Under Clinton’s moderate policies, the postwar boom extended longer than most economists predicted, and left surpluses on the table.  Under Bush and the conservative free trading policies of his cronies, that positive economy was hollowed out, preserving the facade of prosperity while sucking all the substance out, sweeping it into the hands of the privileged classes and leaving economic ruin in its place.

Write your legislators and urge them to aid in the efforts to uncover the truth of this last eight years.  We must not only preserve the true picture of these past eight years and the global meltdown that has ensued in the present, but will also demand investigation into how we got here, so those responsible can be held accountable in the courts today and in the public record for future generations.

Investigations.  Prosecutions.  Dispensation of justice.  Preservation of truth.

It’s the only course to a positive path in this New American Century, a century in which America will lead not by domination, but by example.

May the Higher Power of your choice guide us through the difficult days ahead.