Apart for Iraq that is…
I live a long way from the States, and my exposure to US domestic policy is limited.
To be sure, it’s hard from a distance not to form a picture of GWB as bumbling and unintelligent. Sometimes (often) it’s a leap of faith to believe that he’s actually capable of understanding the implications of some of the decisions he’s making. But hey, I’ve never met the man.
Apart from iraq (a big proviso, I grant you), what poor domestic policy decisions has he been responsible for?
I will lay the charge that the cronyism and corruption of his administration lead to the gutting of FEMA which was as a result unable to respond to the Katrina hurricane. Further, there is video evidence of Bush being briefed on Katrina as it approached New Orleans at which time he was informed that the levies might not be sufficient to withstand the storm..
In response to 9/11, Bush created the Department of Homeland Security.
He is a member of the Republican party which previously stood for small government, but the DHS spends $45B a year and employs 200,000 people. The DHS is a bipartisan pork-barrel waste, because nobody can vote against funding it without someone saying “Oooh, he wants another 9/11!” The DHS is responsible for the Transportation Safety Administration - the amazingly inept organization who take baby food from parents trying to fly with their children, illegally seize computer equipment, maintain a mysterious “do-not-fly” list that famously included a Senator’s wife, and generally slow down air travel to the point where driving is usually the better alternative. The DHS continues to come up with innovative ways to curtail freedom and privacy; about once a year they announce a new database initiative that will keep every American’s (fingerprints/shopping habits/criminal records/credit score/phone call lists) in one place so that an incredibly smart AI can decide who has committed thoughtcrime. The DHS will continue to violate Americans’ first, second, fourth, and fifth Amendment rights, as well as habeas corpus – odds are you will see at least one story per year about this every year until the DHS is disbanded or it becomes illegal to defame a Federal Agent in the press.
Add to this his support of black-bagging Americans in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, his disdain for the rule of law in the Guantanamo torture and NSA wiretapping cases, and his aggressive work to put party hacks in key decision-making positions, and you almost have to believe that he wants to turn America into a Republican-run police state.
I’ll leave the church and state issue for someone else to deal with.
There’s his wholesale revival of Nixon’s “imperial presidency.” (Cheney’s idea, really.)
He appointed incompetents - Brown, Gonzalez, and the attempt to put Harriet Meiers on the Supreme Court, for instance. When there were reasonable appointments who turned out bad, like Rumsfeld, he kept them on too long out of loyalty. His slavish adherence to the doctrine that tax cuts for the rich would fix everything delayed the recovery from the 2001 recession. His refusal to acknowledge the problem of global climate change may be devastating to many outside the US. Now he claims he accepts it, but still won’t support any useful solutions. He didn’t go after bin Laden as much as he should have. He supports incompetent dictators. He talks about how democracy will solve everything, then doesn’t accept the results he doesn’t like.
Easier to ask how he didn’t fail. I’m with him on immigration reform, but he couldn’t get his own party to support it. I’m sure there is something else he did right, but I’m not thinking of anything right now.
I think Bush’s biggest failure (although, of course, he never makes any- just ask him!) is in how much damage he’s done to the reputation of the Presidential office, and to the way the rest of the world views America itself.
There was something about a nature preserve or research program concerning the Hawaiian Islands, wasn’t there?
Other than that, I’m at a loss (although I’d hope there’s at least one other thing).
Graydon Carter wrote a good survey book about the harm Bush did to the USA during his first term, entitled “What We’ve Lost”. A fascinating read.
To the above I would add:
Apparent venality at a whole new scale - he harvested enormous money from, for example, pharmaceutical and fossil fuel and financial services industry sources, and his policies appear to have enriched all of these (though I’m not reading many descriptions of the smoking guns).
A manufactured “controversy” to postpone for years responding to the terrible disaster of global warming.
Divisive politicking that systematically disabled and disenfranchised the Democratic Party.
Driving further religiosity in a country that is already embarrasingly and dangerously superstitious.
Setting American education back perhaps decades with a simpleminded program that essentially forces children to do rote learning aimed almost exclusively at passing formulaic tests, to the exclusion of comprehension and even stimulating interest.
Criminality in the White House. Scooter Libby was convicted, and nothing he can do (pardons or acts that seem sort of like pardons) can change that. It certainly looked like the criminality went beyond him, but Bush’s administration stonewalled any further progress.
Increasing the disparity between rich and poor.
The prescription drug bill was a very expensive way for him to buy Florida’s votes.
If we’re all just adding one or two things:
He returned us to the greatest level of debt in US history.
He severely curtailed stem cell research.
The Bush administration has made a big increase in governmental secrecy - the idea that the government has to do things that the public can’t know. There is a legitimate need for some secrecy to protect national security but we have to be able to trust the secret keepers not to abuse their powers for partisan and/or corrupt purposes.
The Bush administration has increased the politicalization of running the country. Bush was elected to be President of the United States. But he always acted as if supporting the Republican Party was as important a part of his job as supporting the United States. He also sought to create a direct link between support of his administration and political party and support of the country.
The Bush administration’s economic politicies have been terrible.
Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional nut. Bush was right about immigration. And he was right about the Dubai port ownership issue and the anti-genocide resolution against Turkey, although he lost on these issues. He did create the Hawaiian Marine Reserve and increased humanitarian aid to Africa.
How has he not?
Definitely on my own short list of things he has fucked up.
-XT
Does this qualify?
How come the government officials of N.O. and Louisiana are never held to the fire for their failures during Katrina?
They were; I’ve heard endless ranting about how it was all their fault, and not Bush’s.
Dispensing with habeas corpus counts as failing us, and in a huge way. But that’s part of a larger pattern of simply ignoring the law (despite his oath to faithfully execute it) whenever it inconveniences him, despite his adherence to the ridiculously unconstitutional “unitary executive” doctrine.
Yeah, they should have sent in the National Guard (oh wait, they were busy somewhere else).
Really? Cite?
There were breakdowns at several levels of government. But I personally never hear much about state and city failures.
There was plenty about that just in this Forum.