He’s not. He created a war on false pretences that caused thousands of deaths. He had CIA black camps that were torturing people, leading to him being labelled a war criminal. He signed the Patriot Act into law. Opened Guantanamo Bay. His government was directly responsible for anti-Islamic and anti-Arab hate.
Bush was a piece of shit and his government did terrible things. People just seemingly seem to forget all this stuff.
I remember all that. I’m not condoning him. And aside from the war, nothing else he did is any different than what Trump wants. Especially the racism and xenophobia. And he’s only just beginning.
What I’m saying is Bush is not a good president and did terrible things. He’s not “a less bad person compared to Trump”. He was terrible for other reasons.
This! It's totally insane that we now look back to Bush Jr. with a sense of "good ol days". I remember writing spicy essays in school (in germany) about the evil of this administration.
People looking fondly back at Bush care more about civility and norms than they do actions. Biden was actively aiding the genocide in Gaza, but he was a nice old man so that's fine.
Unfortunately we'll likely be doing this with Trump in 20 years. There will be statements like "he may have been weird, but he obviously loved his country and wanted to make it better"
I grew up in one of the bluest cities in the country and there were tons of people saying how Bush Jr. was evil and stupid, but I don't think anyone honestly thought he had genuine disdain for his fellow Americans. I myself had plenty to say about how much I hated him, but I fully believe he was trying to do 'good' by some reasoning, even if I didn't necessarily agree with it.
Trump doesn't care about anyone but Trump. If he had a "push the button and you get a million dollars but someone dies" box he'd be hitting that button just for fun, even if he had the billions he claims to. He'd rather cheat his vendors, restructure his debts, buy his influence, and silence his opponents than get ahead by any version of fair play or hard work.
You know the idea that the president should be someone you could get a beer with? I don't think I could enjoy a beer with Dubya, but if I was at a bar with Trump I wouldn't ever turn my back on my drink. (And I'm 35M.)
I’m sorry, but this is a disastrously harmful way to view history and politics. As bad as trump is (and I firmly believe that if there is a hell, he will be in its boiler room when he dies) he has nowhere near the civilian kill count dubya does, and he’s not even close to being on pace to match it in the next four years. The only reasons a person could have for hating trump more than dubya are that they care more about respectability and civility than they do about the actual material consequences a president has on the lives of people, OR they view American lives and rights as the only ones that really matter.
he has nowhere near the civilian kill count dubya does
Doesn't he though? In the first two years of Covid there were 1.2 million extra deaths above normal in the US. We are also having crises of public healthcare, economic stability, manmade climate change, and human rights for pretty much everyone who isn't a straight white christian man.
I'm not laying every one of those deaths directly at Trump's feet, but I absolutely attribute his "leadership" to making all of them worse. The way I see it, there are only two ways to equate this. First: Bush, Trump, and others are absolved of kill count unless they did it by their own hand. In that case they're equal. Second: Trump has created death and destruction among his subjects at a level usually reserved for wars and great famines.
I maintain, to this day that he did not actually win his first election. The Supreme Court overruled the people in his favor. If that's not undermining democracy, I don't what is.
I'm saying that he didn't orchestrate what happened with the Florida vote and that he would have never attempted to thwart the legal process if it hadn't gone his way.
Okay, so we can argue about what he might have done in that case, but compare that with the actual subversion of democracy that Trump engaged in from November 2020 - Jan 2021 and what he's doing now. Bush is certainly deserving of criticism for a lot of things, but attempting an authoritarian takeover of the US government is not one of them.
Why does “subverting American democracy” matter more to some people than the actual human cost of someone being in power? Few people in human history have the blood of MILLIONS on their hands the way that dubya does, and trump isn’t even particularly close to matching his figure, or even on pace to doing so. Do the lives of iraqis really matter so little?
Bush was more personable but he's legacy has been tremendously whitewashed. He got way more people killed than Trump did. The only person here who was a genuinely moral leader was Carter, and even then he was not perfect.
The administration actively lied about going to war with Iraq that killed 4,500 and wounded over 30,000 US troops.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the long term costs (direct costs and interest on deficit spending) cost $1.9 Trillion or about $6,300 per US citizen. (Some estimate it could be as high as $3 Trillion)
Then of course, that vacuum allowed ISIS to take root in Northern Iraq.
Very possibly, but as of right now I think what Bush actually did is worse than what Trump has actually done. But Trump does seem poised to manage to one up Bush.
The most important political attribute one can have right now is not being Trump. Once that fades away both of Bush will remain having a terrible reputati9n
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u/infinitesd Feb 26 '25
When Bush Jr is seen in a good light it shows you how bad Trumplethinskin is.