The following list is, in my opinion, the Bush legacy.
It is offered without footnotes, without elaboration or argument, but simply as a list. Perhaps by gathering together these twenty disparate (yet, I believe, related) items, the legacy will be seen for the mean-spirited, unenlightened, arrogant, plutocratic-cronyistic agenda that it is.
Never in American history, I believe, has such a disastrous set of principles been enacted.
Each of the twenty has far reaching, negative consequences.
1. Tax cuts leading to massive, unprecedented deficits.
2. Preemptive wars against non-aggressive nations.
3. Sanctioning of torture.
4. De-regulation of environment protections.
5. Weakening of the separation of church and state.
6. Exempting the gun industry from lawsuits.
7. Weakening of individual privacy protections.
8. Rejection of international organizations – U.N., World Court, etc.
9. Increased hatred of the U.S.A. in Islamic countries.
10. Increase in terrorist attacks since 9/11.
11. Neglect of poverty in the U.S.A. and abroad.
12. Shifting the tax burden from wealthy corporations and individuals to wage earners.
13. Reducing (hoping to abolish) estate taxes thus are creating “a permanent aristocracy” in America.
14. Furthering anti-intellectualism – a president who admittedly does not read and is embarrassingly inarticulate.
15. Increased military spending; hostility to spending for social services.
16. Increased number of Americans without health care.
17. Rejection of minimum wage increases – five consecutive years.
18. Applying the principle of awarding lucrative contracts to crony companies without competitive bidding.
19. Attempts to privatize Social Security.
20. Four consecutive years of increases in the percentage of Americans living in poverty.Fortunately, the American public seems to be waking up, and perhaps the nation will begin to reverse the Bush assaults upon reason, sustainability, equity, and posterity.
