Posted on 08/10/2008 8:04:51 PM PDT by Gambit
Full Article at Political Capital
Before you read this article, take a couple steps back from your political opinions - because I can already hear the partisan bickering. I want you to approach this and analyze it in an antiseptic, neutral way - regardless of whether you are a Bush lover or Bush hater. I think both camps will find things to love, and hate in this article.
But, reserve judgment please - because this is an article about how history will remember George W. Bush, it is not a political judgment on his presidency. Indeed, you will find several horrible presidents who are remembered fondly by history, and many phenomenal presidents that are largely forgotten. Keep that in mind.
Now, on to the point - I'm beginning to feel as though George W. Bush may (say 20-50 years from now) be the early 2000's Harry Truman. That is, detested when he leaves, warmly remembered as time makes the heart grow fonder.
What could possibly make me feel that way? Well, for starters I happen to understand the political history of this country. When a politician leaves office and no longer spends 24 hours a day making controversial decisions, speaking in macros, and being divisive -and well, political - we tend to warm up to them. That is especially true when circumstances after he leaves make you think back and recognize things about the man that you admire, that you never noticed while he was there.
Consider this particular quote:
As he leaves the White House at the end of his second term, the President has a poll rating of only 23 per cent, and is widely disliked and even despised. His foreign policy has been judged a failure, especially in view of the long, painful, costly war that he declared, which is still not over.Quite an indictment of George W. Bush, isn't it?He doesn't get on with his own party's presidential candidate, who is clearly distancing himself, and had lost many of his closest friends and staff to scandals and forced resignations. The New Republic, a hugely influential political magazine, writes that his historical reputation will be as bad as that of President Harding, the disastrous president of the Great Depression.
Except it isn't written about President Bush - this is a statement made in regards to one President Harry Truman. Scary huh?
Consider the following:
If you were alive and conscious in 1953, you probably hated Truman. Don't play revisionist history - read any newspaper articles about him from the early 50s - you will find people who declared him "the worst president in the history of the United States", people who were certain Truman would be condemned by history, and people that were so thankful for a "fresh start" from him that they were falling all over themselves to support Eisenhower.
Flash forward to 2008 America. Bush faces those exact same sentiments. Those of you who hate him and view his presidency as ineffectual and corrupt probably feel that intense anger inside of you, and are saying to yourself right now that history will be unkind to him, and everyone will feel just like you do in the future. You likely feel like Bush's approval being in the 25% range is generous and is likely to get worse when we can academically look back and view his presidency.
But be careful. One of the lessons of life - not just politics - is that being removed from a situation, and giving it some time makes you re-examine, reflect and re-evaluate things. Sure, maybe you are such a stubborn and militant partisan that you will never take a look back and change your opinion about Bush - but we're talking about the whole country here, not just you. We're talking about history here, not right now.
You don't think that if say, Barack Obama walked into office and suddenly we had four major terrorist attacks in four years that a great deal of the country wouldn't start to think a bit about Bush in a slightly better light? Now, seriously be quiet you rabid partisans, I'm not saying Obama = terrorism - in fact I highly doubt anything like that would happen if he were elected, I'm only using it as an example.
The main point is that time and circumstance has a tendency to change your mind. The people who hated Truman in the 1950s felt exactly the same way about him as you do about Bush - so don't tell me that it isn't possible.
What's that old adage? Absence makes the heart grow fonder? Indeed. I find it not only possible, but probable that when people look back twenty years from now, they'll start to remember some of the things that gave him that 90% approval rating at one point (no, it wasn't all just sympathy). I find it probable that many people will begin to soften on some of the things that gave him the 25% approval. I believe many people will start to warmly remember some of his folksy clumsiness, but at the same time his perceived stern and unwaivering committment to a principle.
Keep in mind that most people who don't like Bush don't like him for reasons of situation - in other words, they feel Iraq is spiraling out of control, the economy is garbage, the government is unresponsive to people's needs, etc. If in the future Iraq is viewed as a success (it certainly is possible), the economy rebounds (say under a McCain administration perhaps) and people begin to forget how crappy they feel right now, and start to look back at the larger issues that effected the 2000s - then his chances to be remembered well are good.
So, we shall see. He most certainly could be remembered as a miserable failure. Its possible he will be regarded by history as a phenomenally horrid president who should be counted among the worst.
But I doubt it. Perhaps its because I am approaching his administration by intentionally separating myself from "now" and taking some steps back to see the good and the bad. Perhaps because any president who gets elected twice usually isn't put at the bottom of the list (there are a great deal of historians that count the Nixon presidency as a success, and he was much more hated than Bush is now). I don't know - its just a gut feeling.
Put this article in a time capsule, and open it in exactly 20 years. Then, lets see if my hunch is right, and he is remembered at least somewhat warmly, or if the hate filled partisans who can't see five minutes past their nose are on to something.
President Bush will be reflected well in histoir when its not reported by ABDNC. The war Victory will be a shining trophy.
Pray for W and Our Troops
His leadership through 9/11, and his steadfastness and clarity on the war in Iraq and the WOT will earn him a high place in the rank of US Presidents as time wears on.
His SCOTUS appointments will conservatively shape the court for years.
That his ratings are low now is the nation’s problem, not his.
“that his historical reputation will be as bad as that of President Harding, the disastrous president of the Great Depression”
Don’t they mean President Hoover? Harding served from 1921 to 1923, befor the depression.
Bush needs to take on the "do nothing, good for nothing" Democrat controlled Congress.
There was a bit of a recession under Harding, followed by the seven years of plenty before the crash of 1929...so they must have meant Hoover, not Harding. The downturn under Harding is never called the Great Depression.
This comparison of Bush to Truman is bogus. Most historians follow a very liberal ideology. It was just a matter of time before they got around to historic revisionism and the Truman legacy. I seriously doubt the same consideration will be given to Dubya, at any future date.
Yeah, our current approach sucks. I remember how in WWII we invaded Europe, Africa and every Japanese held island at the same time. Oh, and I almost forgot how we invaded Russia because they were undemocratic.
So you really believe that Truman was a roten president?
So you really believe that Truman was a rotten president?
BTTT for the BS
Lets see. Truman was a liberal and he favored FDR`s New Deal. Even promoting his own Fair Deal, which included nationalized healthcare -— AKA. socialized medicine. Harry and Bess both hated Jews and blacks.
Truman got us involved in Korea. Then, instead of running for reelection and finishing the job he started, he cut and run. Lets not forget, Truman followed FDR’s lead by handing eastern Europe over to the Soviets, which began the spread of communism.
And dropping the bomb on Japan was a no brainer. Any POTUS would have done it.
At best, Truman was average. IMO, he was below average.
It is difficult to express in words how good this current President is.
It is somewhat more easy— though still quite difficult to express in words how stupid and in fact deadly his critics are.
The reactionary culture globally and here in the United States that has grown up around President Bush since 2003 is largely an indication of the President’s principaled and statured reasoning. When you look at how the American public loathed Truman for allowing more than 30,000 Americans to be killed in combat for South Korea, it boggles the mind that 4,000 combat deaths later critics feel entitled to make an analogy.
wow! The audacity of stupidity. —Or is it self serving egoism of an American culture desperate to not be distracted by a dangerous world.
It rarely matters that the truism of BushHate can be so easily refuted. As a normative culture, BushHate is something one can reference as a steady reality despite its lack of grounding.
The Iraq war was a catastrophic and mitigated failure. No one dares to challenge the public sphere on this point. Presumably, Saddam Hussein was one of the world’s most noble citizens and certainly one of the great leaders of the 21st century. Saddam exuded honesty, integrity, sensitivity, anti semitism [oh wait is that a vice], respect for human rights, respect for the rule of law, and a magnanimous sense of overall civility. Sadly, he is now dead after being put death. He received a lengthy trial from his fellow citizens which seems strange given his rather superior judicial methods which were so much more expeditious.
Sorry— I had to vent.
Well vented!
I'm a Truman hater.
You'd run for re-election with a 22% approval rating?
The Iraq war is won in spite of naysayers and idiots like you. Go to war against Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most idiotic statement ever.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Amen. I was only a teenager when President Truman was in office but I always liked him and thought highly of him, just as I do President Bush. Mr. Bush is REAL. He loves this country and the people in it. If he’d had a decent Congress throughout his administration, he would have fixed Social Security through his good plan and done a lot more, but he was cursed with Pelosi and friends and too many RINO’s. I thank God for him, a man for this time in our country’s history.
I see you had no comments on the rest of my post.
Guess you agree with me about Truman.
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