Even before the inauguration in 2001, George W Bush had begun to have a corrosive effect upon our nation. He made comments extolling the virtues of "the heartland" and condemning the values of those of us who lived on the coasts. He pulled every trick in the book to swing Florida into his column in the election. In the aftermath of 9/11 he spoke of unification of our nation, while attacking Bill Clinton and the Democrats for the attacks. He took advantage of the hightened tensions of post 9/11 America to strip thousands of government workers of thier civil service protections. He pushed through the horrible 'Patriot Act'. He inherited an economy with the lowest unemployment rate in a generation and turned it into a job loser. He took a government that was running a surplus and moved it to one that runs record deficits.
We have witnessed the most partisan Administration of my lifetime, Florida gets protection from off-shore oil drilling, but California does not. Of course we have a war of choice in Iraq, killing thousands of Americans, and hundreds of thousands (or more) of Iraqis. We have entered into a time where it is claimed that American citizens can be held indefinitely in unknown condition without charges, simply on thee word of the president. Our leaders feel that the Geneva conventions are 'quaint'. We have become a nation that endorses torture (we just don't call it that). We have lost irreplaceable time in the fight against global warming. We have set back race relations in America with the criminal conduct during and after Katrina. We are held in low esteem by the other nations of the world. We have verbally attacked our allies in Europe for trying to talk us into behaving rationally while this administration has stood silent as Isreal has pursued misguided policies. Our government has been filled with incompetent managers who have forced well trained government professionals to re-write thier reports to support the political aims of this administration. The outright graft and corruption of this administration has been on a massive scale. So tell me what you feel is the most outrageous act of George W Bush.