# Was George W Bush Worse than Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126 "2021-09-22T16:53:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/21 "2021-09-22T20:34:47Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I honestly believe that no one, outside of people who are/were actually dictators, are/were worse than Trump. In fact, I honestly believe that, if Trump had the power and opportunity, he would be every bit as bad as any one of them. Brings to mind Alan Rickman in _Quigley Down Under_: [![](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/fa/b1/7cfab1d8ab8f47f47c62e4df19739b07.gif) ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/fa/b1/7cfab1d8ab8f47f47c62e4df19739b07.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/22 "2021-09-22T20:36:50Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I honestly believe that no one, outside of people who are/were actually dictators, are/were worse than Trump. In fact, I honestly believe that, if Trump had the power and opportunity, he would be every bit as bad as any one of them. Then I think you haven’t hung around with some Trump folks long enough. Some of them go far beyond what Trump could or would. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/23 "2021-09-22T21:02:44Z")
True. But what will Trump make possible by having been even worse? ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/24 "2021-09-22T21:05:35Z")
No question Trump was worse in my mind; I guess I was just explaining the damage the Bush did. He might be the last ‘normal’ Republican president ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/25 "2021-09-22T21:11:49Z")
Isn’t it sad that we have come to consider that normal? Now imagine if Trump has a successor some day that makes us consider him normal in comparison. I would then say that this was his fault and responsability. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/26 "2021-09-22T21:14:09Z")
I dunno. In a way, Bush could be seen as more dangerous because he was, on the surface at least, presidential. Our government seemed to be functioning normally under him. And yet, all the lies and war-mongering in order to further the causes of oil corporations, and the military industrial complex, and foreign interests, like the Saudis, and all the world domination scheming of Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld et al. All this passed by the American people because, let’s face it, we just don’t give a damn anymore about dirty politics if we perceive it as normal doings… I think if anything Trump illustrated just how easily we could lose our democracy. He made us pay attention, because we don’t care about anything unless it’s entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/27 "2021-09-22T21:16:37Z")
Imagine if Marjorie Taylor-Greene were president. She’d make Trump seem like a calm and sane adult in the room. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/28 "2021-09-22T21:24:52Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > No question Trump was worse in my mind; I guess I was just explaining the damage the Bush did. He might be the last ‘normal’ Republican president Nah, the last ‘normal’ Republican President was Eisenhower (or Bill Clinton if you want to be snarky about how far the Democratic Party shifted in the 'Nineties). Nixon, Reagan, Bush the Elder, and Bush the Younger all shifted the country away from being a liberal democracy and toward jingoistic exercises of militaristic adventurism abroad and encouraging divisiveness domestically. But at least all of these presidents were actual Republicans. I mean, say what you will about the tenets of Republicanism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos. Donald Trump is a nihilist; he believes in nothing. His family values consist of trying to fuck his daughter, which is why Newt Gingrich likes him so very much. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/29 "2021-09-22T21:27:58Z")
Well by normal I meant last figure not to have a DSM-5 condition. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/30 "2021-09-22T21:49:42Z")
Oh, in that case, I think at least half of the post-WWII presidents were potentially diagnosable. But Trump is truly a smorgasbord of pathological disorders. His nickname in the psychoanalyst community should be “Cluster B”. If he had multiple personalities, they’d just whine about how unfair they all are to each other. Listening to Trump speak for more than ninety seconds is an automatic 1D10 SAN loss. Trump is on his own self-defined “spectrum” of emotional disorders. If Trump had a sitcom, it would be titled, “This F\*ckin’ Guy!”, and it would get a worse critical response than [“Heil, Honey, I’m Home!”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259776/) Thanks, you’re too kind. I’ll be here all week. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/31 "2021-09-22T22:39:31Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Quantitative nitpick: I think it’s highly unlikely that the number of avoidable US COVID deaths that can be attributed specifically to Trump’s mostly stupid and destructive approach to pandemic policy is anywhere near as high as 600,000, or even “most” of the total. > > Analyses [like this one](https://www.businessinsider.com/analysis-trump-covid-19-response-40-percent-us-deaths-avoidable-2021-2) suggest the figure is more like 40% of total deaths, or something under 300,000. Yeah, but the 600,000 is probably a huge undercount. When all is said and done, you have to compare deaths during the pandemic to deaths over comparable periods in the past several year to figure out the real count. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/32 "2021-09-22T23:18:39Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > If he had multiple personalities, they’d just whine about how unfair they all are to each other. That’s actually pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/33 "2021-09-22T23:33:27Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Listening to Trump speak for more than ninety seconds is an automatic 1D10 SAN loss. Outstanding Call of Cthulhu reference. 😃 “Iä! Iä! Trump fhtagn!” ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/34 "2021-09-22T23:57:25Z")
Trump is worse. Tried (and still trying) to destroy American democracy. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2021, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/35 "2021-09-22T23:59:59Z")
We also started seeing the authoritarian creep during the Bush admin. Cheney isn’t Trump, but he had Nixonian tendencies. I believe Cheney and Rumsfeld are both Nixon legacies so it’s not like Trump’s authoritarian impulses were somehow new for the GOP. And I blame John McCain for giving us Sarah Palin, which actually allowed the GOP to see the future of their party as a bunch of know-nothing anti-intellectual populists. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/36 "2021-09-23T00:09:12Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > And I blame John McCain for giving us Sarah Palin, which actually allowed the GOP to see the future of their party as a bunch of know-nothing anti-intellectual populists. If it wasn’t Palin it would have been some other mannequin to appeal to the far-right pols. McCain was hardly the “maverick” he was promoted as being, but he was essentially honest (as far as politicians go) and a reliably center-right Republican in the Senate. The GOP leadership would have self-immolated rather than let McCain run a campaign that ignored the Tea Party contingent. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/37 "2021-09-23T15:17:14Z")
Bush was terrible, but I don’t think he intended to harm the country. He was wrong on so many things but he never tried to end democracy. There is absolutely no comparison between Bush’s incompetence and Donnie’s non-stop criminal behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/38 "2021-09-23T15:21:45Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Bush was terrible, but I don’t think he intended to harm the country. Well, except for trashing the economy on his way out so Obama would have to deal with that mess. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/39 "2021-09-23T15:27:52Z")
Yes terrible but proven to be fixable. What Trump still intends to do could not be fixed without a revolution. A legitimate revolution. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126/40 "2021-09-23T15:31:12Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > I dunno. In a way, Bush could be seen as more dangerous because he was, on the surface at least, presidential. Our government seemed to be functioning normally under him. And yet, all the lies and war-mongering in order to further the causes of oil corporations, and the military industrial complex, and foreign interests, like the Saudis, and all the world domination scheming of Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld et al. All this passed by the American people because, let’s face it, we just don’t give a damn anymore about dirty politics if we perceive it as normal doings… But that’s how it always was. Lyndon B. Johnson was absolutely, unquestionably just as awful. Vietnam was the greatest military catastrophe in American history, and the fiasco in southeast Asia killed MORE people, by far, than the Iraq War. LBJ was the man primarily responsible for that - plenty of blame can be assigned to JFK and Nixon, but it was Johnson who really set Vietnam into motion to be what it was. And yet you never see anyone ask if Johnson was the worst president ever. To some extent that’s because of his stance of civil rights I guess, but Vietnam was what it was, and every word you typed is just as true of him and his administration, save the fact “oil” wasn’t a factor in Vietnam and you have to replace “Wolfowitz” and “Rumsfeld” with other names. The USA has for much longer than you or I have been alive been an aggressive, scheming military power. Its performance in the Philippines during and after the Spanish American War was absolutely criminal and disgusting by any measure and that was over a century ago. Bush was nothing new at all. Trump was something new. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > Well, except for trashing the economy on his way out It is ridiculous to suggest Bush trashed the economy _on purpose_. It borders on ridiculous to suggest he trashed the economy at all. The seeds for the 2008 crisis were planted before Bush was President, and there is no reason at all to believe it would have been any different with another President. After Bush there was a Democratic President for eight years and nothing substantive was done to fix the causes of 2008. It’ll happen again soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-george-w-bush-worse-than-trump/951126.md?page=3)