I admit that I did not follow politics very much until fairly recently. Not so economics because I was a practicing economist for awhile. I always had mildly center left positions about economics. I was not terribly partisan and pretty accepting of leadership from both Democrats and Republicans. I never really questioned that our political parties (and their Presidents and Presidential candidates) had the best interests of the country at heart.
George W. Bush changed that for me. Honestly, I didn't see him coming. I figured he would be another rather average conservative President like his father. I mildly listened to the 2000 campaign, voted for Gore, but wasn't terribly concerned when Bush emerged. He campaigned as a "compassionate conservative" and said he would be the "education President" I basically took him at his word. His father was a serious man, I figured he would be similar. I admit to being a bit naive in retrospect. I had heard he didn't pay much attention to death penalty cases in Texas. That seemed callous, but it really didn't get me thinking. I attributed it to typical Texas politics and didn't delve further.
It didn't take long for me to wake up, and it started over the Bush tax cuts. As we all know , Clinton left a budget surplus. Like all good neo-Keynesians I thought it was a good idea to pay down or pay off the national debt while the economy was growing robustly. I knew that the Bush tax cuts would prevent this from happening and I thought it was foolish. Again, no three alarm fire, but I was beginning to think this guy wasn't quite right.
Then 9/11 happened. At the time, I frequently traveled to NYC for business. My second anniversary was spent at the restaurant (Windows on the World) at the top of the World Trade Center. Like many Americans, I was angry and cried like a baby. I was traveling for business in Washington DC and was only a few miles from the Pentagon. I remember flying home for Dulles the following Monday and standing for hours in the line with all the understandably somber fellow travelers. The sadness was palpable.
I listened to Bush tell us that the terrorists were going to hear from us, and I thought Good!
When I got home, I was appalled to hear some of his advice. On one hand, I liked that he said our institutions are strong and the government would be providing normal services. I was worried when I read he felt we should go to Disneyworld and start shopping. No, I don't think we should live our lives in fear and not continue to enjoy our country and our lives, but I expected Bush to ask for sacrifice. I figured he would explain that we would need to have more money for national security and the military and that we might need to conserve energy. I figured there would be discussion about a new draft and plans to sell bonds to rebuild the WTC and fund a possible war effort. I was ready to do my part (I was/am too old for the military) in some way through both deed and money (I figured taxes would go up and I was happy to pay more for a good cause) After all, we are Americans and humans which means that sometimes we are asked to do more in an emergency and the aftermath of an emergency. Bush asked for none of this, and I was now profoundly skeptical about the man in the White House.
I watched the news carefully, and was happy when US troops quickly took down the Taliban government and it looked like we were striking directly at Al-Quada. I cheered when I heard we had Osama Bin Laden cornered in Tora Bora and thought we were on the verge of stopping their terror movement cold. Of course, I knew just getting Osama Bin Laden wouldn't end "terrorism" (a pretty common military/political tactic) but I figured once he was gone, they would quickly dismantle the rest of their network and the threat would greatly recede. Then Bin Laden got away...
Around that time I started hearing rumors that some officials in the Bush administration thought we should remove Saddam Hussein and that he was somehow involved in 9/11. I knew that he was not involved in any way with 9/11, so I was not in favor of invading Iraq. We were also starting to hear about WMD's. I was immediately skeptical because I knew we enforced a no fly zone over Iraq and that we frequently used air reconnaissance to track Hussein's activities. Because we were watching closely, I figured it would be hard for them to develop WMD's right under our noses.
In the run up to the war the Bush Administration left most Americans with the perception that Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 and that he was bent on striking the US with a WMD. Polls at the time indicated that most Americans believed Hussein was involved in some way with 9/11. Now I was really appalled. Could the President really convince the Congress and the American people to attack the wrong country for 9/11? We all know the answer.
The second round of tax cuts in the midst of a new war buildup and new expenses for homeland security seemed nuts. Then things went badly wrong after the Iraq invasion and it looked like it was seriously bungled. The 2004 election was a cynical mess. I still wasn't energized like now (busy as hell with business) but by then I thought Bush was a terrible leader. Hurricane Katrina put the final nail in the coffin for me about this man. His response was callous and we heard "good job Brownie" in the midst of a chaotic disaster. My views hardened and my judgement was that he was the worst President of my lifetime. I concluded that in 2005 in the wake of Katrina, and things didn't improve. I don't hold him entirely responsible for the financial crisis, but feel he and his party didn't help the situation much.
So here we are in 2012 and the Republican Party can't seem to move beyond defending this man and his disastrous policies and mindlessly attacking his successor. Instead of re-evaluating and attempting to work with Obama to fix the nations problems, they somehow felt the need to destructively project Bush's problems to Obama. Suddenly Obama created the big budget deficit. Obama "didn't understand the economy" Obama was a misguided socialist to attempt to reform our flawed health care system. Obama Obama Obama was ..... somehow the irresponsible big spending liberal when all he was trying to do was lead from the center and fix issues. He was / is refreshingly truthful about our prospects and this was treated with contempt.
Now we have Romney. Instead of promoting a new conservative vision it seems he wants to double down on many of Bush's bad policies. More tax cuts for the wealthy? Really? We should start another war in the Middle East? Really? We should go back / repeal Obamacare? Okay, and replace it with what? Our old system was broken and we still haven't implemented a new one. What is Romney's plan? He sure isn't saying much. Then there is his full throated support for the Ryan Budget. Do Americans really want to tear down the social safety net that improved the lives of so many (and with responsible management, we could / can afford it, remember we were on track to pay off the national debt while easily paying for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the most power military in the world) In essence, where is the new vision? Instead of trying to move beyond the Bush disaster he seems to want to double down on some of his worst policies and forget what living with those policies was like. I am not impressed!
This is the worst of Romney's problems, but certainly not his only serious problem. Not only is he an obvious and terrible flip flopper (do you even need to argue this in post Etcha-a-Sketch world?) but he is a cynical liar. His comments about the auto bailout being his idea and that he would have done what Obama did concerning Bin Laden after saying he wouldn't go into Pakistan are nothing but eye brow raising lies.
Is this the best we can do? Is this the best he can do? I already think he is a disgrace and can't imagine how bad a President he might make. I don't think it is unfair to call him the Liar in Chief if he were to be elected.
As a result of all this I am fully engaged. When I can, I now work on a local congressional campaign. I post on here and talk to my friends to make sure they are paying attention. I will not ignore again. I want our nation to succeed, thrive and to be there for future generations. This takes more commitment than I realized. I don't want to forget GWB, I want to make sure we never see his like again.
