Blame Where Blame Is Due
Posted on November 20th, 2008
by Daniel Larison |
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Ericka Andersen is unhappy:
Perhaps world leaders are taking a hint from an America who [sic] refuses to give any credit to the guy who has been our leader. It’s easy to blame everything that goes wrong on the President, here and abroad apparently. I wonder how quickly America will do that to the new guy.
That’s all very well, but his critics by and large don’t give him much credit because he has not been very successful on his own terms, and many of his preferred policies have been simply calamitous. War opponents don’t give him credit that his war is now not nearly as destructive and horrifying as it once was–he started the war! Critics of his NATO expansion policies don’t give him credit for that because it was a terrible idea that contributed to the outbreak of the war in the Caucasus. Critics of recognizing Kosovo independence don’t give him credit for that, either, because once again it was a terrible idea that also contributed to the outbreak of the war in the Caucasus. He does not get credit for the loose monetary policy that helped to create the present crisis, because that is not something to be praised. His deliberate efforts to increase homeownership in reckless ways are not praised because they were misguided and have come back to bite us. Which policies, exactly, merit appreciation and respect for Mr. Bush? The illegal use of wiretapping, or the use of torture, or perhaps the shredding of 4th Amendment protections (with a big assist from the Congress), or maybe declaring U.S. citizens and foreign nationals enemy combatants without real cause and then holding them without charge for years? If you are concerned about AIDS in Africa and homelessness, by most accounts Bush administration policies in these areas have been reasonably effective. In most other respects, his administration has been a disaster. It is difficult to see what it is we will be thanking him for in the years to come. Many of his critics don’t blame him for everything that has gone wrong–they hold him accountable for the things that he and his administration did wrong, including many things that take away any right to expect the respect that is properly accorded to his office. Mr. Bush frittered away that respect with the decisions he made, and in the process he diminished the respect shown to our country.
Filed under: politics
It’s never the fault of the republican president. He’s always a Great Man and history will bear this out. Even if history has to be revised. This is not snark. Bush will put on a pedestal and all his failings will be washed over.
At the sametime those people are revering Bush they will rake him over the coals when they defend conservatism. A conservative president with conservative republicans owning both houses of congress enacting any and all legislation they want but conservatism is NOT a failure.
Great post, Mr. Larison. I found you a while ago and have been lurking around. I really enjoy your writing style and honesty. Please keep up the good work. I don’t come from the same place as you, but you seem like the sort of person with whom a man can have an honest disagreement. In this case, however, I am in total agreement: President Bush earned the scorn he now receives. With a compliant press and Congress, nearly all of the policies that now are causing us problems are his (though he merely kept the ball rolling on some of the economic and immigration policies). The American people would be celebrating him if he were successful; we’re right to blame him for his failures. The buck stops in the Oval Office. A wiser man could have done some good things in the past eight years, but on all of the big issues, he has dropped the ball. Thanks again for a smart, lucidly-argued blog. It’s great reading for this agnostic, centrist, moderate independent. Cheers.
But but but….he kept us SAFE for 7 years!
(And that *was* a snark.)
I do find it curious that those who bray loudest about the need for “personal responsibility” accept zero responsibility themselves for the country’s state of affairs.
One of the things I did find appealing about McCain was that he freely admitted that, yes – the GOP screwed up. But isn’t this one of the chief reasons the base hated him?
Fine and good.
Now please explain why his vice president hasn’t been impeached?
Given Cheney’s belief in plausible deniability, I’ll let the buck stop there. He should be in prison for his many crimes, like the men ordered released yesterday after YEARS in gitmo; listening to my phone calls (overseas journalism calls will trigger that, you know, bet they’ve listened to yours, too,) snooping my bank records, MILLIONS of innocent Iraq and Afghan citizens killed. . .do I need to go on?
Thanks for this bit of comfort, Daniel.
Sorry for the hyperbole, make that more then a million, not millions in the above post.
gsmart, on November 21st, 2008 at 8:53 am Said:
“I do find it curious that those who bray loudest about the need for “personal responsibility†accept zero responsibility themselves for the country’s state of affairs.”
It’s not surprising – ‘personal responsibility’ is something for others to have, not themselves, nor any of their cronies or supporters.
Well, now it *is* also their supporters, who are generally expected to take it up the, ah, ‘nether orifice’ after 8 years of Bushnomics.
But never themselves, nor their cronies.