In America, we tend to naively consider politicians to be pure embodiments of either good or bad forces. We seldom view their acts as the products of fallible humans. One bothersome side effect is our personal selective editing of the legacies of every President depending on our political allegiances.
For those Presidents we like, we tend to overlook the harm they did and the mistakes and expedient compromises they've made; for those we don't like, we tend to ignore any positive actions they've taken and focus only on the harmful.
For instance, though I like Clinton a great deal, and think that his effect on the nation was a net positive, it is sometimes hard to criticize some things he did without other Democrats considering me to be some sort of crypto-Republican. NAFTA, Welfare "Reform", his half-hearted integration of gender differences in the military, his creation and promotion of the DLC as a force within the Democratic party, his many personal ethical lapses come to mind. And, of course, the gift who keeps on giving: Hillary. They are all part of Clinton's legacy, and they are decidedly not (wholly) positive.
And on the other side, while I despise Nixon, I have to admire and laud his passage of the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air and Water Acts, and his proposal for a guaranteed minimum income for every American. He may have been a terrible person who was dangerously unsuited to Presidency, but some good work got done on his watch and he played a role in making some positive changes for the nation.
Politicians are people, not demiurges of good or evil. In the interest of historical perspective and to counter the far-too-frequently leveled allegation that we on the left are just "bashing Bush" when we criticize his policies, it behooves us to reflect and dig down deep and find some examples of Bush actions and initiatives that we applaud and support, or at least don't despise.
Take the perspective of a historian 50 years in the future, if you must, to find some aspect of the Bush legacy that one can fairly praise. Your praise doesn't have to be unequivocal, and the issue doesn't have to positive beyond any debate, just search for things that are arguably and/or mostly positive.
I'm not saying this will be easy - I am hard pressed to come up with any myself - that is why I am writing this. This is a project that clearly requires a group mind to do it justice.
Here's a few of my own poor contributions:
Though the bill and it's implementation are severely flawed, the No Child Left Behind act established a bi-partisan precedent for addressing poor school performance (a traditionally state function) on a national level.
The speedy and flexible response to 9/11 in taking down the Taliban in Afghanistan was a model use of special forces to punish a rogue regime, despite the flaws in execution that allowed Al Qaeda to escape largely intact.
And a few far less backhanded examples from comments on a previous diary:
Bush was the first U.S. President to explicitly endorse a separate Palestinian state.
Bush's attitude toward undocumented workers was the most progressive in his party and set the boundary of the debate for the GOP to include legalization and guest worker visas.
The Milleneum Challenge Corporation is a federally chartered corporation (like the FDIC, PBGIC, Freddie Mac, etc.). It's first Chairman was Colin Powell. MCC administers an annual grant program of $1 billion (down from the original $3 billion) to help fund third-world countries development if they can demonstrate to the MCC board's satisfaction a sufficiently stable government reflecting democratic principles and an adequate absence of corruption.
Bush signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Admendments Act that cleared the way for space tourism operations to begin operations without crippling liability issues.
Bush designated a large tract of Hawaiian marine environment a nature preserve. The Northwestern Hawaiian preserve is the largest marine preserve in the world, equaling the size of the state of Montana and exceeding in size the Australian Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. It will protect 70% of America's shallow water corral reefs.
Now, you give it a try. What can you find to praise about the Bush Administration? Help create a list that liberals can use to prove that we are open to acknowledging all of Bush's legacy, not just the overwhelmingly evil super-majority. The man is never going to stand for office again, we can afford to be magnanimous.