Politics, Bush, Has he done a good job in office? Options

[Nothing]

Since we have a large variety of people in our clan. I would like to know what all of your thoughts are on Bush. Please give some examples of why you think the way you do on him.

[Leadmagnet]

unfortunately, the traditional stereotypes (Democrats: Big Government vs Republicans: Big Business) is not to applicable today. 30, 40 years ago, there were two distinct parties, each one with its own color spectrum from Radical on the left to Reactionary on the right. Today's political reality, thanks in part to instant global communication (vis a vie the internet) is: Liberals versus Conservatives. During the 80's and 90's, many of the Democratic Party's conservative membership embraced Republican values, especially with the Clintonian views on the Military. The disappearance of the Moral Majority (a big wheel in the 80's) combined with shared party views on topics like Pro-Choice (women's right to abortion or other options) have weakened both parties in my opinion, only because rather than voting for a platform (the traditional view) it is now voting for a particular person (and with our society thats means a very expensive Beauty contest). Plus, candidates and members often change their positions like the wind changes direction (look at Hillary for that one....."mining the jewish vote in NY, gets elected, then is seen giving Yasser Arafat a huge hug in public"..... so nothing is clearly defined within the party structure, except for the fact that it is a two party system, and will be for the forseeable future.


Any incoming President has two immediate dilemma's: The Previous Administrations policys and directives, and the BUREAUCRACY. Classic example of the first part is JFK and Bay of Pigs invasion. The Eisenhower Administration, and the powerful republican-big business behemoth behind them (this is an era that defined the current stereotype view of the GOP) had begun, at the end of Eisenhower's Presidency, a move to oust the Fledgling Castro from Cuba (coincidentally, our government was playing both sides in the Castro-Batista struggle....check out the history channel for more info on that...).

In those days you had a popular president, an unpopular but intelligent vice-president (Nixon) and one of the most powerful cabinets of the 20th century (the Dulles Brothers). The CIA was in their heyday: complete Executive level support, and the president could, through the use of executive orders, overthrow two-bit commie dictators without support of the congress at will (Dominican Republic, our involvement in Nicaragua, etc.) Castro seized power in 1959, and then declined our "assistance" with his new government, and joined with Stalin and the USSR. Commies right next door. Thus, in 1960, a plan to oust Castro was formed and readied for action. The 1960 election was actually very very close....Kennedy had a lot of "skeleton's in the closet" (his Dad made a ton of money from Prohibition bootlegging, his dad was also Pro-Nazi too.....) A fateful debate between a very ill from a combination of a bad cold and jet lagged- Richard M Nixon, [who unfortunately also opted for "no makeup" at the debate] who had just finished the first (and only, to this date) ALL 50 STATE election tour and his opponent, a Youthful, camera mugging smooth talking orator John F. Kennedy, the debate made people reconsider voting for "Tricky Dick". Anyways, the Nation's first Catholic President was elected, and installed into office in Febuary, 1961, right before Bay of Pigs was set to start.....what would you do in his shoes?

So each new administration is faced with previous administration's actions and ongoing operations (like Vietnam, for instance) and has to find its own way. But it takes time. Our Government is run by Career Bureaucrats (think of them as tenured professors in Universities or even Supreme Court Justices). Presidents, Congressmen, Senators, they come and go (some of them at least) but the government worker, the staff, is hired, and typically stays until they die or retire. Bureaucratic mindset is monolithic, and therefore, very very resistant to change, though it does occur slowly....

The Clinton Administration and their Pro-active ACLU stance made racial and ethnic profiling taboo.....much to the chagrin of our National Watchdogs, like the FBI, NSA and NRO, (CIA handles, traditional inter-national, not INTRA-national intelligence). Poor communication and outright "red-tape bureaucratic garrote's" strangled any chance of stopping Bin Laden and Company from preparing for "9/11".

So Bush had a similar situation to the one that faced Kennedy, except that, due to the nature of the bureaucracy in 2001 and the deteriorating/debilatating effect of ACLU policies on Intelligence gathering within our borders, and the total breakdown of communication between said Intel Organizations, Bush has had to think on his feet with regard to current world status from that point on. Tough job to do.





Leadmagnet.