Paul Krugman wrote an excellent editorial about hoe Republicans are trying to resurrect the failed Presidency of GW Bush.
For a couple of years, it was the love that dared not speak his name. In 2008, Republican candidates hardly ever mentioned the president still sitting in the White House. After the election, the G.O.P. did its best to shout down all talk about how we got into the mess we’re in, insisting that we needed to look forward, not back. And many in the news media played along, acting as if it was somehow uncouth for Democrats even to mention the Bush era and its legacy.
The truth, however, is that the only problem Republicans ever had with George W. Bush was his low approval rating. They always loved his policies and his governing style — and they want them back. In recent weeks, G.O.P. leaders have come out for a complete return to the Bush agenda, including tax breaks for the rich and financial deregulation. They’ve even resurrected the plan to cut future Social Security benefits.
But they have a problem: how can they embrace President Bush’s policies, given his record? After all, Mr. Bush’s two signature initiatives were tax cuts and the invasion of Iraq; both, in the eyes of the public, were abject failures. Tax cuts never yielded the promised prosperity, but along with other policies — especially the unfunded war in Iraq — they converted a budget surplus into a persistent deficit. Meanwhile, the W.M.D. we invaded Iraq to eliminate turned out not to exist, and by 2008 a majority of the public believed not just that the invasion was a mistake but that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into war. What’s a Republican to do?
You know the answer. There’s now a concerted effort under way to rehabilitate Mr. Bush’s image on at least three fronts: the economy, the deficit and the war.
On the economy: Last week Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, declared that “there’s no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.” So now the word is that the Bush-era economy was characterized by “vibrancy.”…
…On the deficit: Republicans are now claiming that the Bush administration was actually a paragon of fiscal responsibility, and that the deficit is Mr. Obama’s fault. “The last year of the Bush administration,” said Mr. McConnell recently, “the deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product was 3.2 percent, well within the range of what most economists think is manageable. A year and a half later, it’s almost 10 percent.”
But that 3.2 percent figure, it turns out, is for fiscal 2008 — which wasn’t the last year of the Bush administration, because it ended in September of 2008. In other words, it ended just as the failure of Lehman Brothers — on Mr. Bush’s watch — was triggering a broad financial and economic collapse…
…Finally, on the war: For most Americans, the whole debate about the war is old if painful news — but not for those obsessed with refurbishing the Bush image. Karl Rove now claims that his biggest mistake was letting Democrats get away with the “shameful” claim that the Bush administration hyped the case for invading Iraq. Let the whitewashing begin!
Again, Republicans aren’t trying to rescue George W. Bush’s reputation for sentimental reasons; they’re trying to clear the way for a return to Bush policies. And this carries a message for anyone hoping that the next time Republicans are in power, they’ll behave differently. If you believe that they’ve learned something — say, about fiscal prudence or the importance of effective regulation — you’re kidding yourself. You might as well face it: they’re addicted to Bush. [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Many days, I feel almost as angry at Democrats as I do at Republicans. I’ve seen bigger balls on a mouse. But I temper that anger, because of something Benjamin Franklin said in 1787. Asked what form of government our new nation will have, as the Constitutional Convention closed, he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Today, our government is more representative of a corporate plutocracy than a republic. The last vestiges of our Republic stand threatened. We weathered the Fourth Reich only because it lasted just eight years. If Republicans are allowed to establish a Fifth Reich, our republic will not survive.
We desperately need to drain the Democratic Party swamp, but right now, our spineless Democrats are the only thing standing between us and a complete loss of representative government.
Every Republican in office is one Republican too many!
16 Responses to “Krugman: Addicted to Bush”
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Darn, I can’t find anything to disagree with you about. I do have one suggestion: Democrats need to start emailing their congressmen and the WH and expressing their thoughts about those issues which are most important to them. We’re pretty much speaking to the choir here; to be effective we have to g to the source.
Hint: Angry emails are a turn-off.
Leslie, I email them regularly and call them regularly.
I really wish Democrats would start hitting the mat with full force. In my opinion, they always seem to prance around while the conservatives are fighting with gloves off…
The right-wing noise machine is so organized and structured, Democrats need to become more forceful – that is why I like Alan Grayson…
Kevin, I agree. I wish Grayson were Senate Majority Leader.
I agree with Kevin K. – if the Dems behaved as the Repubs do, we’d win every election from here to the end of time. Time for them to take the gloves off and start fighting back.
Good point, Lisa.
President Obama has to take responsibility for a lot of the “wimpy Democratic” leadership.
If Americans are dumb enough to believe the fairy tales of the Republicans, then Democrats need to pound home their message harder and louder.
The President needs to use his Congressional majority and the power of his office more forcefully.
If the people are in their bunkers of delusion; and Republican politicians are sticking to their false facts, then it’s time to smoke them out, so all Americans will see. What will be left, is the 23% of hard core conservatives who cannot do anything with that low of a public approval.
Tom, I agree with using the power of his office more forcefully, but the Senate’s problems are the Senators’ fault.
I’m an antagonistic sort of Guy, I would like the lily livered to be called out and dealt with an extreme measure. First on my list Would be Ben Nelson, then Lieberman and who ever held up any of the things President Obama was trying to do. He can’t do it all by himself. What happened to the Democratic National Committee. Why don’t they speak up and against all the naysayers and attacks from the slime on the right.
I don’t think Obama has to react himself to every accusation being made. He seems like he’s out there on a limb, all by himself. I don’t think he should go after turncoat Dems., but someone should. Honestly I thought Rahm was going to be that Guy. Guess Not.
Tim, if he reacted to every accusation, he’d have no time to be President, but he needs to react whenever a GOP lie gets media traction.
Interesting sidebar that your photo (Goosestepping Into the Third Reich) brought to mind: It’s a picture from CNN of Palin doing her own “Sieg Heil” wave at the RNC convention back in 2008. It’s in a slideshow that CNN put together, and it occurs at the 0:09 mark (they count down). The lighting of the platform even created the stylized “SS” lightning logo (Shutz Staffel – for Secret Patrol).
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/conventions/multimedia/rnc.day3/index.html
Thanks, Nameless. The only thing missing was the uniform!
You know my opinion of the Jellyfish Jackass party.
I will say this, if the Jellyfish Jackasses don’t figure something out in the next 6 to 8 months, it won’t matter one iota who is sitting in the seats of government, the leadership of this country will be cemented with the rich and powerful.
The Jellyfish have allowed everything proposed to be watered down to get votes that they don’t get anyway. Given that, what difference will it really make? It will just take a little longer for the Nazi Fatass party to get what they want. I think that they are proving that anyway.
I know that angry letters don’t work, but anger is all that I have left. The next tool I am going to use is a suitcase to go to Canada. I am getting to the point that I don’t love my country because it not only does not love me, but is out to get me, and I don’t have a voice to stop it. Not even with a ‘majority’. (That word. They keep using it. I do not think it means what they think it means. – paraphrased from Princess Bride)
Otis, I understand your frustration. I’ve been back in full-blown activism since 11/2000.
Democrats are still in the minority. They are way outnumbered by the Republican Party, and the Republicrats in their own party.
Dave, I disagree. Even adding the DINOs to the GOP, we still have a majority, but just a majority is not enough.