Bush’s fallacy

Twenty-three months. That’s a long time. Twenty-three months ago I was embarking on my college career, preparing to trade in the comforts of my spacious home for a 10-by-10 square with bunk beds and a gothic roommate. Twenty-three months ago people everywhere were awestruck to learn that Pluto is not a planet after all and that “my very elegant mother just served us nine pizzas” would never again have the same connotation for fourth graders. Twenty-three months is also the amount of time that George W. Bush’s approval rating has been less than 40 percent.

It’s true. The vast majority of the American people have dubbed our 43rd president a failure. The natural reaction of the presidential candidates has been an attempt to distance themselves as much as possible from the current administration. This is especially crucial for McCain, whose relations with Bush could hurt him as much as Wright has harmed Obama, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll. The poll found “38 percent of likely voters saying McCain’s association with Bush makes them less likely to vote for McCain, while 33 percent say Obama’s association with Wright diminishes their likelihood of voting for Obama.”  Rejecting Bush’s policies seems to be an obvious and necessary strategy for both Republican and Democratic campaigns at this point.

However, while I am certainly the last person to defend Bush’s presidency, I do think it is key to realize he got a few things right, especially over the more recent portion of his presidency, and that if Obama or McCain aren’t careful they could wind up committing the same major fallacy that Bush did. It is easy to look back over the past seven years and point out Bush’s major mistakes. Regardless of your opinion of the Iraq war, it is hard to argue that it was waged correctly from the beginning; we invaded with too few troops, took apart the Iraqi army and state and alienated both Sunnis and Shiites with the occupation. Additionally, Bush has been the most fiscally irresponsible president in American history, converting surpluses equal to 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product to deficits equal to 3 percent (that’s $4 trillion).  That’s just to name a few obvious blunders.

However, many of Bush’s mistakes were made early in his presidency and were rooted in his determination to unthinkingly repudiate any and all things Bill Clinton. Before he even examined or evaluated Clintonian policies, he knew they had to be rejected. The next president cannot afford a similar mindset. It is absolutely pivotal that the good policies of the Bush administration are recognized and continued; blanket criticism is simply not constructive and ignores that many of Bush’s most radical policies have been altered or discarded. The next president is not taking office in 2001; they will not be able to fix Bush’s errors. They will inherit the world as he shaped it. It is of the utmost importance they do not repeat Bush’s fallacy and critically evaluate all policies before rejecting or reversing them on a solely ideological basis.