Unfortunately, I seem to be one of the few non-Republicans in my entire extended family. One of my family forwarded an email to me today that enumerates a whole list of reasons we should "Blame Bush".
Because of the dangers inherent in traversing such a political divide in one's own family, I usually try to exercise restraint when I get these widely-forwarded right-wing scripts. But today I couldn't help myself; This was just too far over the top. I had to respond.
One of the things that I truly have difficulty understanding is how this corrupt administration has successfully and completely deceived such a vast portion of our US population, many of whom are intelligent, decent people, and some of whom are members of my own family. Perhaps it has to do with their mastery and control of the mass media. Perhaps Karl Rove really is an evil genius. However they are able to do it, it really is quite sad. The history books that my grandchildren (and hopefully my children) will read will not reflect kindly on the Bush legacy.
Take a deep breath. Here goes...
* I want to "blame" Bush for restoring honor to the office of Presidency by being a faithful husband, a good father and a good Christian.
What is honorable about lying to the American people and Congress and sending almost 2000 Americans to their deaths on the basis of those lies?
What is honorable about killing tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians in the name of those lies?
What is honorable about outing an undercover CIA operative in the name of political payback?
What is honorable about engineering and enacting policies that have resulted in the US poverty and infant mortality levels increasing every year of his presidency? Are those the policies espoused by a "good Christian"?
What is honorable about stealing from the poor (and middle class) and giving to the rich? Because that's effectively what he has done with his massive tax cuts for the wealthy, subsidies and giveaways to his corporate friends, etc. We, our kids, and our grandkids will have to pay back the money he has stolen. Bush is the anti-Robinhood.
And if Bush is the model of a good Christian, that must in part explain why I am not a Christian.
Besides, how does anyone know he's actually a faithful husband? We only know he hasn't been caught being unfaithful.
* I want to "blame" Bush for standing up to the terrorists after 9/11 and going after them WHEREVER they may be.
That's baloney. Going after the Taliban and terrorists in Afghanistan was the right thing to do. Pulling troops out of Afghanistan (specifically at Tora Bora) at a critical time when Osama bin Laden might have been captured or killed (so that Bush could begin his build-up in Iraq) was unforgivable.
The terrorists weren't in Iraq before we invaded. Now we've created a big mess there. The terrorists ARE there now, and ... sad to say, we're not going to "win" the war in Iraq. It's a very bad situation that never needed to come about. And I do blame Bush for that.
Through his misguided foreign policies, Bush has made America FAR less safe than it was before he took office.
Americans used to be liked throughout the world. We had many friends and allies. Because of Bush, that's not the case anymore.
* I want to "blame" Bush for running his Presidency on principles and conviction and not polls and capitulation.
Bush's principles and convictions are centered on enriching his cronies, or put another way, on the concentration of the nation's wealth and power into the hands of a small group of elites. Conservatism used to include the idea of fiscal responsibility, but Bush's "principles" don't include that. His principles include policies that ship American jobs overseas, and borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from other countries and saddling future generations with unimaginable debt.
* I want to "blame" Bush for making the military feel as if they deserve honor and they are real people and that they are not to be scorned or treated as plastic G.I. Joes.
Right. I can't say I've met anyone who doesn't honor our military. Those guys and gals over there in Iraq are doing a hell of a job, especially given the fact that their commander in chief is a liar and a criminal. By cutting military pay, sending troops into war without sufficient armor and equipment, by cutting veterans benefits.. That's how he honors the military? Keeping the public from seeing the coffins of fallen Americans that return from Iraq is honoring them?
* I want to "blame" Bush for appointing qualified people some of which happen to be minorities to positions of real power to show that in America anyone can "make it."
Hilarious. I suppose Michael Brown is once such appointee? Michael Brown was qualified to head FEMA: His primary qualification? He was the college roommate of Bush's campaign manager, AKA a crony.
* I want to "blame" Bush for giving tax cuts to EVERYONE with the majority of them going to the lowest tax brackets. My wallet thanks you.
You're right about the "everyone" part, but If you believe that the majority went to the lowest tax brackets, you have really had the wool pulled over your eyes.
Here are some real numbers from a CBO (Congressional Budget Office) analysis in 2004:
INCOME AVERAGE AVERAGE SHARE OF
(PERCENTILE) INCOME TAX CUT OF TAX CUTS
----------- -------------- --------------- -----------
bottom 20% $16,620 $250 2.1%
21-40% $38,140 $800 6.5%
41-60% $57,430 $1,090 9.2%
61-80% $84,310 $1,770 14.7%
81-90% $116,630 $2,660 11.4%
91-95% $154,520 $3,420 7.6%
96-99% $243,150 $8,400 14.9%
top 1% $1,171,030 $78,460 33.6%
----------- -------------- --------------- -------------
TOTAL 100.0%
Here's another way of looking at these same numbers:
INCOME AVERAGE AVERAGE SHARE OF
(PERCENTILE) INCOME TAX CUT OF TAX CUTS
----------- -------------- --------------- -----------
bottom 90% $56,625 $1,164 43.9%
top 10% $203,740 $12,916 56.1%
----------- -------------- --------------- ------------
TOTAL 100.0%
So I am not sure, given actual facts (which Bush et al don't much bother with), how anyone can conclude that the majority of the tax cuts go to the lowest brackets. On the contrary, the majority is going overwhelmingly to the top 10% bracket, and fully ONE THIRD of the tax cuts are going to the top 1% earners. Put another way, one third of the tax cuts go to people who earn more than $1 million a year. By the way, guess where most of that $1.1 TRILLION dollars for his tax cuts is actually coming from? Not from spending cuts, which is how fiscally responsible conservatives used to pay for their tax cuts. Rather, he's paying for those tax cuts by borrowing, adding massive amounts to the already huge national debt. Which incidentally will have to be paid by us, our children, and our grandchildren for who knows how many decades to come.
* I want to "blame" Bush for caring more what middle America believes than the Hollyweird crowd.
Not sure who the "Hollyweird crowd" is. I suppose they must be the people who voted for Hollywood Arnold Schwarzenegger. But based on the numbers above, it's pretty clear that Bush cares more about the top 1% income earners than anyone else. Or, to quote directly from Bush: "What an impressive crowd: the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite, I call you my base."
Straight from the horse's mouth.
* I want to "blame" Bush for daring to believe that Middle-Easterners might actually be capable of having democracies and freedom.
I don't blame him for that. I believe it also. In fact, there's one Middle-Eastern country called Israel that actually has a pretty good democracy going.
However, I do blame him for lying to the American people in stating that imposing democracy was his reason for invading Iraq. And even if he wasn't lying, I blame him for misusing and expending the resources and lives of the American people by invading Iraq. It's not our responsibility to impose democracy on the world. Ultimately though, anyone who believes that we didn't go into Iraq so we could control their oil is in a serious state of denial.
Oh yeah, I also blame Bush for eroding democracy right here at home by supporting and benefiting from two consecutive rigged presidential elections.
* I want to "blame" Bush for freeing the world of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein.
Um... the latest reports I've been hearing is that the Taliban is alive and well, and enjoying quite a resurgence in Afghanistan. As for Saddam Hussein, well, we all know by now that he was fully "contained" through UN sanctions and actively enforced "no-fly-zones" in the north and south of his country. He was a bad, bad man, but he was no threat to the USA.
* I want to "blame" Bush for ridding the world of Saddam Hussein's two thug sons who were really Weapons of Mass Destruction.
I doubt if anyone is sorry that those two guys are dead, but again: they were no threat to the USA. Let's get real: the only reason we're interested in ANY country in the middle east (including Iraq) is to protect our access to their precious oil. It really is all about oil.
And why aren't we focused, as a nation, on eliminating our dependency on oil? Oh right, because Bush and Cheney are steeped in the oil industry, and oil companies such as Exxon are enjoying the highest profits in their history. Hmm.. I wonder if there's some connection?
But I digress.
* I want to "blame" Bush for stepping in and saving New Orleans when it's Mayor and Governor wouldn't and/or couldn't.
The dust has yet to settle on this one, and I'm sure the NO mayor and LA governor have plenty of responsibility for the bungled response as well as Bushie. Hopefully we'll get an independent, nonpartisan commission (similar to the 9/11 Commission) to investigate and find out. But in any case, no city or state government has the resources to deal with a catastrophe on this scale, and that is precisely why organizations such as FEMA and DHS exist. Bush didn't even bother to end his vacation until days after the hurricane, and even then he went to California to play guitar instead of getting to work on helping the hurricane victims. He screwed up by appointing an unqualified, incompetent crony to head FEMA, and he screwed up again by not firing him as soon as it was apparent that he was in over his head. He himself has taken responsibility for it (for a change), so why not blame him?