Ever since President Herbert Hoover, former chief executives have placed their imprint on history through their own libraries. President George W. Bush certified his own last week at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
At the Bush 43 inaugural, Presidents, past and present, commemorated the occasion small talk and highlights of Mr. Bush’s administration. Jimmy Carter celebrated Mr. Bush’s aid for AIDS in Africa. Handicapped and ailing, papa George H.W. Bush shared a few words to congratulate his son. They were only the second time father and son in Presidential history. Bill Clinton joked and self-promoted. President Obama praised Mr. Bush’s leadership during and after 9/11, followed by his attempt at comprehensive immigration reform in 2006-2007 (which Mr. Bush’s own party and the nation had rejected en masse).
Mr. Obama forgot to praise Mr. Bush’s Hispanic outreach in 2004, strategies he copied to great effect in 2008 and 2012.
Me, in a Library?
Upon taking the podium at last, Mr. Bush poked fun at himself: “Most would think that I wouldn’t have been seen at a library, much less would found one.” Former advisers praise the younger Bush’s unrecognized intellect. Mr. Bush also shared his deeper compassion and patriotism at the pulpit.
He scored plenty of victories. His 2001 and 2003 tax cuts restored respect for the private citizen and for small business. President Obama has made those tax cuts permanent for the ubiquitous 99 percent. Mr. Bush’s Supreme Court appointments of Samuel Alito and John Roberts were superb. Despite upholding ObamaCare, Chief Justice Roberts created an impenetrable hedge around the commerce clause so that future administrations will not force people to purchase anything. Contrary to liberal pleadings, the Citizens United case has diminished dominance of the dollar in politics.
On the Good Side
With political capital, Mr. Bush tried to save Social Security by privatizing it. He vetoed embryonic stem cell research in 2006. On one of his most potent legacies, the war on terror, President Bush showed no moral equivalence. He was not afraid to look evil in the eye and call it by name. He showed masterful resolve going after Al-Qaeda. Mr. Bush had his gaffes, but Mr. Obama is making them, too. If the media had hounded President Obama as they had harassed President Bush, the former would not have won a second term. Under Mr. Obama, Bin Laden is dead, but five attacks in five years have exploded on U.S. soil since Mr. Obama became President. “Bush kept us safe, ” was a favorite mantra. Thank you, President Bush.
Bush had policy blunders, though his blunders do not rival the folly of President Obama.
Cutting taxes, Mr. Bush did not cut federal spending, which exploded during his tenure. The deficits were not as bad as Mr. Obama’s annual trillion-dollar extravaganzas, but Mr. Bush had no excuse for spending recklessly in the first place. His last deficit was $157 billion, give or take hundreds of millions. Yet even Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Westside/South Bay) pointed out that the United States had a surplus in 2000, which fiscal crises vanquished by 2008 because of the housing meltdown. “We have to suspend the rules of the free market in order to save it,” is an observation that will haunt President Bush, a contrary move that discouraged a generation of Republican Presidential candidates in 2008 and 2012.
“No Child Left Behind” leaves children behind. Why would anyone co-sponsor anything with Sen. Ted (Chappaquiddick) Kennedy? Students are drowning in tests, scoring, and paperwork. Red states still seek waivers from that failing, misguided program. Students have resolutely refused to take these tests. Public school advocate Diane Ravitch trumpeted the era of “higher standards through standardized tests” when No Child passed. She even helped initiate the program. Ten years later, she expressed her disillusionment.
Other blunders include the Medicare Part D expansion, which added to deficits and debt (though nothing like the massive divestments of ObamaCare). The Transportation Bill of 2005 was as anti-conservative as it gets. Florida invalid Terry Schiavo should have been left alone to perish, as her husband chose. Mr. Bush's intervention was unconscionable, unconstitutional. His Louisiana flyover during Hurricane Katrina was ill-advised, but his response was rapid and respectable. Geographers, climatologists, and urban planners had warned New Orleans and the state for years about the dangers of a massive hurricane. No one listened.
After 9/11, Afghanistan had to be cleared of Al-Qaeda. Iraq, indeed, was a wrong policy move. Five separate intelligence agencies did report weapons of mass destruction, which Syria’s diminishing dictator Bashar al-Assad may be using against his own people now. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was not lying about WMD, nor was Mr. Bush. Still, to get the U.S. to take down Saddam Hussein was poor policy. To diminish Mr. Bush’s folly, one could surmise that the festering tribal rivalries ravaging the Middle East were inevitable, whether the United States had invaded or not. And President Obama’s apology tour, plus his dubious support for Israel, has only worsened matters.
Mr. Bush has his library, with a legacy to promote, to shape, to justify, or to spare from those who would vilify. Who knows what they will read in future history books. For now, Mr. Bush gets a mixed grade for domestic policies, a failing grade in foreign policy.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer and blogger on issues both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A lifelong resident of Southern California, he currently lives in Torrance. He may be contacted at arthurschaper@hotmail.com, aschaper1.blogspot.com and at asheisministries.blogspot.com. Also see waxmanwatch.blogspot.com.
