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Fickle History - The Bush/Nixon/Conservative Legacy
Dalboz
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
While I can anticipate that such a discussion will likely be heavily slanted in this forum, I felt that a discussion based on this thread may warrant its own discussion, not to mention El Jeffe's request not to discuss this in that thread.
As Rent put it, will Bush be Truman'd by history? Twenty, thirty, fifty, or hundred years down the line, how will the last eight years be remembered (assuming that 99942 Apophis doesn't kill us all before then)? My opinion is that he won't be vindicated without a severe rewrite of history. Truman basically finished a war that is considered by many to be the U.S.'s last just war, despite the other problems of his administration. Bush, on the other hand, started a war under false pretenses, severely eroded privacy and freedoms that the U.S. is supposed to stand for, and presided during more than one serious financial bust, nor has he done much in the way of policy to create a good legacy behind him either.
Previous presidents' records are fair game in this discussion, especially when being used as examples of how Bush might be remembered, so I'll bring up the Nixon discussion from the other thread here as well.
Nixon generally had a pretty good policy track record. Most of the problems and the bad stuff were more under-the-table or hidden, but Watergate was the flare that drew attention to all the backroom stuff and the uglier side of the Nixon administration. In a parallel universe where Watergate never happened, I think it's quite possible that Nixon could have gone down as one of the greatest U.S. presidents of the 20th century.
This more about history rather than the future, so please try to limit discussion on the future of conservatism as it pertains to its legacy up through 2008.
As Rent put it, will Bush be Truman'd by history? Twenty, thirty, fifty, or hundred years down the line, how will the last eight years be remembered (assuming that 99942 Apophis doesn't kill us all before then)? My opinion is that he won't be vindicated without a severe rewrite of history. Truman basically finished a war that is considered by many to be the U.S.'s last just war, despite the other problems of his administration. Bush, on the other hand, started a war under false pretenses, severely eroded privacy and freedoms that the U.S. is supposed to stand for, and presided during more than one serious financial bust, nor has he done much in the way of policy to create a good legacy behind him either.
Previous presidents' records are fair game in this discussion, especially when being used as examples of how Bush might be remembered, so I'll bring up the Nixon discussion from the other thread here as well.
Creation of the EPA, OSHA, NOAA, Amtrak, the first federal affirmative action plan, indexed Social Security to inflation, democratization of the draft, the abandonment of the draft and creation of the modern professional military, opening up relations with China, arms control treaties with Russia, endorsement of the ERA, and an attempt at universal health care that's actually kind of close to Obama's current proposal.
Nixon generally had a pretty good policy track record. Most of the problems and the bad stuff were more under-the-table or hidden, but Watergate was the flare that drew attention to all the backroom stuff and the uglier side of the Nixon administration. In a parallel universe where Watergate never happened, I think it's quite possible that Nixon could have gone down as one of the greatest U.S. presidents of the 20th century.
This more about history rather than the future, so please try to limit discussion on the future of conservatism as it pertains to its legacy up through 2008.
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