| December 9 2005 |
| Worst President Ever: George W. Bush |
| Recently, I had a fiery debate with my cousin's boyfriend John about George Bush and the state of the nation in general. Arguing with the likes of me is often a daunting task for Republicans and he surrendered fairly quickly, but I wasn't done arguing with him. So now I'm going to take the arguement to the world at large and replace my old GW Bush rant with a new-and-improved one. But where does one start? Which of him numerous mistakes as President should I verbally attack first? I suppose I'll just let this article write itself. I am, after all, simply shadowing things that all of you know already. I suppose I should start by talking about the main arguement that Republicans use when supporting Bush, and then, mention some of the key elements of his presidency that are assuring him the title of "Worst President Ever." Bush Kept us from being attacked again? Oh, did he now? Recently, the 9/11 Commission reported their exit findings, stating that National Security in post-9/11 America would recieve an "F" in most cases. Numerous studies and reports have proven that Airport Security is worse than it was before September 11th. 70% of our ports are un-guarded and our water-supplies are still "protected" by chain-link fencing. In fact, it wouldn't be too hard to argue that Bill Clinton was MUCH better at protecting us against attacks than Bush is. After the first WTC attack in 1993, President Clinton had daily staff meetings about the happenings of Al Quaeda and Osama Bin Laden. He thwarted numerous attacks against this nation by advocating security potency drills and allocating proper funds to our National Guard, the FBI, and the CIA. Now let's examine Bush: He was warned about the 9/11 attacks and did nothing. When he was told the nation was under attack, he sat around and did nothing for seven minutes (compared to Clinton, who immediately scrambled all of his resources and didn't hesitate for even a moment). He has the National Guard, a branch of the US Military designed and designated to the protection of the United States against enemies foreign and domestic, fighting a war thousands of miles away and has left us with basic reserve units to defend the nation. If I may quote a panel member of the 9/11 Comission... "It's a miracle we haven't been attacked again." In other words, Bush has done a terrible job protecting this nation, and if Al Quaeda wanted to attack us again, there's less standing in their way now thanks to him. Iraq First, we were hunting for Weapons of Mass Destruction that Saddam Hussein was going to use against us. Next, we were stopping Al Quaeda, who were funded by Iraq and stationed there. When we found out that there was no link whatsoever between Al Quaeda and Saddam's regime, we were removing an evil dictator from power. When people started asking why we'd go after Saddam when Fidel Castro is 90 miles off our shore and there's so many other people far worse than Saddam currently in power throughout the world, the story changed once more to the coalition forging a democracy in Iraq to stabilize the Middle East. When Bush and friends find out that tossing a Democracy into a country that didn't want one, surrounded by nations and parties of people who've been practicing government under the same systems for thousands of years (pre-dating the U.S. Constitutional Republic and even the Roman Senate), has absolutely no effect whatsoever on terrorism or helping the middle east solve its numerous indifferences, what'll be next? He has "poor" Hiring Practices FEMA. When Clinton's "Travel-Gate" scandal erupted in the media, NO ONE DIED. Bush can be blamed on two counts for Katrina: Count one, he hired an idiot to do a job that a pretty intelligent person should have gotten. Count two, he didn't mobilize the government to assist the victims fast enough. Technically you could charge him with a third count: sending the National Guard to Iraq instead of letting them defend our homeland like they're SUPPOSED TO DO. The George Bush Economy Plan Explain something to me: Bush gives a massive tax break to the wealthy people in this country, and pays for it by cutting programs that help the poor... do you see what's wrong with this picture? The kid I argued with recently said that poor people should go get jobs... well moron, it's not that simple. You see, there are some people who've been hurt by the system so badly that they have no alternative. Not everyone is white and well-to-do... the programs that Bush & Co. are cutting are having a detremental effect on the lower class and are further ensuring that the people who benefit from those programs have no chance at improving their quality of life. I'd like to see a Republican struggle with feeding their children, and see the education budget slashed so their kids are lucky if they can tie their shoelaces, and after they send their spawn off to public school, I'd love to see them walk ten miles in the snow to get to work because Am-Trak's funding was cut to pieces. Yeah, let's see if Bush is their hero after that. With any luck it will happen to people like my cousin's boyfriend John. People who are bigotous and ignorant and have absolutely no concept of what reality is like for some people. -Matt Rock |
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