Isn’t Life Strange?

I was saving the epitaph for later but here it goes…

I willingly and happily supported George W. Bush in both the 2000 and 2004 elections. I still believe that he was the better of the choices in those elections although given the past four years I cannot see that he has done much if anything that can be counted as a positive for America, save his tenacious belief that our nation needs to continue investing in the security of the Iraqi people. In fact, I believe his utter lack of leadership ability and poor decision-making has placed our nation in a precarious and uncertain situation.

Many of us who voted for him did not do so because we love war or believe it is our duty to spread the American dream throughout the world. We voted for Bush because we thought he believed in free-market capitalism and a smaller, less intrusive government. We thought he would stand his ground against the push for more social engineering, and big-government schemes. I don’t know if he has changed or if we were fooled, or if perhaps the circumstances of the times demand a different solution. Suffice it to say that I cannot be more disappointed in any politician who has received my vote than George W. Bush.

Now I don’t believe all the nonsense we’ve all read in viral email messages or on fringe blogs. I don’t believe George W. Bush is a moron being controlled by the evil and diabolical puppet-master Dick Cheney. I don’t believe Bush is an evil man who only looks out for his rich oil buddies, controlling the price of gasoline to make them richer. I don’t believe he sent American soldiers into Iraq so that they could die in order to make his rich oil buddies richer either. I hear these things all the time - but I rarely hear people recall that it was the Clinton administration that decided it was the policy of the United States to seek regime change in Iraq, a fact conveniently ignored by the Bush-haters and the media. Truth it seems is always inconvenient to those with an agenda.

No President since Abraham Lincoln has been as openly hated and despised as George W. Bush. No President has had to deal with as many crackpot accusations and rage-filled attacks as the current President, whom I believe is basically a good man deserving of the respect his office entitles. He’s done nothing to shame himself or our nation in his time as President, nor has he done anything that has weakened America in the eyes of our friends and allies throughout the world. There have always been those who hate the wealth and freedoms we have enjoyed here in America. It is foolish to assume that those same people will suddenly love America when a different President assumes office.

As much as I defend President Bush, I also must say that I am glad his time in office is nearly finished. Bush has hardly been the principled leader many of us voted for. Too often he signs bloated spending bills without challenging Congress to do better. He rarely stands in defense of his own principles, allowing the media and political rivals to vilify and demean him whenever it is convenient for them. His few earlier efforts to work in cooperation with Democrats (”No Child Left Behind” for example) have only resulted in him receiving all the blame for the failure of the programs resulting from that cooperation.

Just weeks ago, Bush pushed forward and signed a seven hundred billion dollar bailout of banks and lending institutions nearing the point of failure due to loans they made to customers who couldn’t possibly repay them. This problem would not have existed had Congress not strong-armed those institutions into doing it in the first place, but rather than fix the source of the problem - the penchant of Congress to delve into social engineering - he simply decided to spend more of our hard earned money on those who were irresponsible in the first place. The far-left leaders of Congress were happy to oblige him, and while they enjoyed the spotlight for a week or two they took the opportunity to falsely place blame for the problem on - you guessed it - Republicans.

There is plenty of blame to go around and although I am not at all happy with our soon to be outgoing President, I am even more disappointed in the deck of cards in Congress. The current crop of Republicans and Democrats should all be replaced, and many of them should be investigated for possible criminal activities.

As much as I believe that neither of the two candidates for President are going to fix the problems America faces today, I also believe that George W. Bush did more to create them than prevent them. His lack of leadership and his failure to curb runaway spending have put our nation in a weak position leaving many to wonder where we go from here. When he leaves office in January our nation may be more secure than it was in 2000, but he also leaves us with a government that is in greater debt, more bloated, and more intrusive in our lives.

I believe I have learned a great deal over the past eight years. The truth is that I have little faith in government to do anything that is right anymore. Corruption rules and people like you and I are forced to finance it.