The Senior Bush's Legacy

I'll get to my criticisms of Ronald Reagan soon enough. But for now, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, I offer a scorecard of the reasons why George Bush, Sr. was bad for the United States. Drum roll, please!

The 1988 presidential campaign. Bush conducted one of the most shallow and nasty presidential campaigns in American history, lambasting his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis, over non-issues such as Willie Horton, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the American Civil Liberties Union. He refused to address issues such as health care reform and the budget deficit while ridiculing Dukakis for even trying to bring up such important issues. Bush's campaign tactics even offended Barry Goldwater. Bush won anyway, because Dukakis was too much of a gentleman or a wuss, depending on who's making argument, to respond in kind to such attacks. It helped set the negative tone in Washington for years to come.

Poor job growth. At the 1988 Republican convention, Bush promised thirty million new jobs in eight years. In fact, millions of people, including my mother, lost their jobs under George the Elder. Given the rate of job creation on his watch, he would have had to remain President until the middle of the thirty-fourth century to meet his goal.

Lack of a domestic policy. Bush's only domestic policy was to veto every piece of legislation the Democratic Congress passed, including easier access to abortion and family leave. He also tried (without success) to hold the minimum wage down, and he refused to endorse an economic strategy to help American industry ("The government shouldn't be in the business of choosing winners and losers") at a time when manufacturing was in the dumps.

Dan Quayle. Shortly before he announced his choice for his vice presidential running mate, Bush declared, "Watch my decision - it will tell all." And it sure did!

John Sununu. Bush's first White House chief of staff was the reason nothing got done domestically under this administration. Sununu's job was to block any proposed Democratic change to the Republican laissez-faire economic policies that gave us a tripled national debt and resulted in massive layoffs in 1990 and 1991. For his negative approach to dealing with Congress, Sununu earned the sobriquet "John Su-No-No." Sununu was forced to leave over ethical problems.

Race-baiting. First Willie Horton, then affirmative action. Bush derided affirmative action, meant to give women and minorities a fair chance at getting a decent job or admission into college, as a "quota" system, implying that white males were unfairly victimized by affirmative action - even though white guys had the best jobs with the best pay, and evidence of racial discrimination in the workforce was everywhere from Denny's to Texaco.

The Gulf War. No doubt; the Persian Gulf War was Bush's finest hour. When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and thus violated the sovereignty of an independent nation, Bush rose to the challenge of defending Kuwaiti independence by establishing an international coalition, expressing outrage of the story of Kuwaiti babies being taken of incubators by Iraqi soldiers, forcing Saddam's hand by building up a defensive force in Saudi Arabia, then giving him an ultimatum - withdraw from Kuwait or face the consequences. Despite charges that it was all about cheap oil for American consumers, the United States got only twelve percent of its oil from the Persian Gulf, and Iraq's control of Kuwaiti reserves was far worse for Germany and Japan. So Bush went ahead and prosecuted a successful war. Well, what was wrong with all that?

Several things, actually. For one thing, the United States had been helping Iraq build up its arsenal throughout the 1980's as a counterweight to the Islamic fundamentalist government in Iran, making Saddam's war machine possible. It seemed Orwellian that Iraq, our friend in 1989, suddenly became our enemy in 1990 when we could no longer control Saddam's actions.

Secondly, Saddam might not have even invaded Kuwait if the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, had not given him the impression that the U.S. government wished to remain neutral about a border dispute and didn't care one way or another what he did about Kuwait. The policy of coddling Saddam Hussein, started under Reagan and continued under Bush, even infuriated Forbes magazine. "Why is the U.S. befriending this tyrant?" it asked in December 1989, eight months before the invasion.

Thirdly, Iraq's control of twenty percent of the world's oil after the invasion still had a negative impact on the economy at home, given the recession already in progress at the time, and it also affected oil profits - something Bush, an oilman, was acutely aware of.
Fourth, a lot of innocent Iraqi people were killed or left homeless by our bombs.

Fifth, the incubator story was made up.

Bush's transportation policy. Bush sent a transportation package to Congress aimed at building more highways, cutting aid to mass transit and new transit projects, and shortchanging Amtrak, the nation's intercity passenger rail service, which has been on the verge of extinction since 1981. Bush's proposals essentially would have made us more dependent on - surprise! - oil. Congress rebuked Bush and passed the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, which enabled states and metropolitan areas to expand mass transit service and kept Amtrak alive.

Clarence Thomas. The last, but by no means the least serious, crime of George the Elder I will list here. A black ultraconservative who helped the Reagan administration emasculate the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, Thomas was an undistinguished federal judge when Bush appointed him in 1991 to replace the revered Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court's first black justice. "The fact that he's black," Bush said of Thomas, "has nothing to do with this appointment; he is simply the most qualified person for the Supreme Court at this time." The fact that Thomas was black had everything to do with it; it was meant to drive a wedge in the black community and make Democrats look churlish should they grill Thomas about his judicial views, which we now know are appalling. Also, many law professors would have told you at the time that there were several more qualified Supreme Court candidates then Thomas; some of them were even conservatives! :-p

I must confess something; I actually supported Thomas's appointment despite the (likely true) sexual harassment charges brought forth by Anita Hill. Why? It was actually for a very cynical reason; I was afraid that if Thomas didn't get on the Court, Bush would choose someone even worse. As I later found out, though, from reading Thomas's opinions against affirmative action (even though he was the beneficiary of affirmative-action programs) and his support for torture in prisons, I realized that choosing someone worse than he for the Supreme Court was impossible.
Thomas was confirmed by the Senate, 52-48 - the highest negative vote ever received by a confirmed Supreme Court justice. (Thomas went on to cast the deciding vote that gave Florida and the 2000 election to George W. Bush, the 41st President's ne'er-do-well son.)

Is this a bad record? Really bad. Happy birthday, Mr. Bush!