That’s my Bush!

President Bush must be kind of lonely these days. His staff and aides are jumping ship like mad, and rather than embrace the incumbent’s legacy, the entire Republican field is invoking Reagan, not Bush. I hardly need to mention the torrents of criticism that Democrats are heaping upon Bush and his historically low approval ratings. \nYet, no one has stepped up to take responsibility for Bush’s legacy, and it will be far-reaching. Despite the boondoggles of Social Security reform and comprehensive immigration reform in his second term, it’s tough to remember that Bush’s first term was a huge success, during which he achieved every legislative goal he wanted. Back then, he was everyone’s favorite, and Democrats as much as Republicans enabled his policies. \nNow, Bush is lonely, even though his ideology is firmly fixed as our nation’s ideology. For these shmoes to now turn around and say “It was all Bush’s fault!” represents the most disingenuous kind of politics. Jokers like Peggy Noonan who now decry Bush as a non-true conservative had no problem celebrating him during his re-election campaign. \nPolitics demands duplicity, but to see Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spit fire and brimstone at Bush for his supposed incompetence seems particularly lame. If only this kind of critic had some sort of power in American government, maybe some sort of vote or filibuster power in the Senate. Oh, that’s right! They did have that power and still do. I would feel sympathy for their positions if they were just commentators or pundits, but they’re not. They hold positions of power, and failed to use them in any way to impede the Bush administration.\nIt’s both funny and sad to see everyone now stepping away from Bush as if he were political kryptonite, because the legacy of the Bush administration comes from our own actions. The war in Iraq, the failure to address climate change, the destruction of our international goodwill – these are as much Bush’s work as our own. Until our elected leaders truly embrace their complicity in this administration’s crimes, we can’t expect anything to change in a new administration.\nI’m not trying to make this some sort of giant liberal guilt-fest. Guilt is really what we’re best at, but still, I’m not asking for feelings of guilt. I’m asking for feelings of acceptance that we got exactly what we asked for.\nWe wanted the war in Iraq, and now we’re dissatisfied but unwilling to change. Recent polls show that Americans are now split over military action in Iran. Unless we accept responsibility for our actions in the past, we can’t be surprised when we make the same mistakes in the future, nor can we bellyache about the consequences. \nBush is not some specter who got his power through magic. He’s the representative for what Americans wanted, and his legacy will be ours, as well his.