(Cross-posted at My Left Wing and my blog)
With the exception of the living Presidents who can be asked, the question of how other Presidents and great Americans would judge George W. Bush is a matter of pure speculation.
Or is it?
Make the jump and find out.
I work in a politically charged climate and industry. I won't explain how or why (because it's so politically charged!!) - suffice it to say that when one even
dares to betray their politics and finds a sympathist on the other side, it's
wonderful.
In October of last year I was running all around town with my Kerry/Edwards flag on my window. I used the flag instead of a bumper sticker for the precise reason that it's considered, at a minimum, unseemly to announce one's politics when one has some kind of tangential relationship with the Federal government, and, at worst, it is an act of professional suicide - the flag let me be political except when entering strict business surroundings.
I had pulled up in front of the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC with my flag still firmly in place. ((Gasp)) One of my colleagues came up to the car as I was giving the keys to the valet and looked at the flag I was removing and looked at me. I was busted. She looked at me, I looked at her... She looked at the flag and I looked at the ground... THEN... She asked where I got it and how she could order bumper stickers. Bingo. :-D
It was THAT friend and collegue who sent me the list which shows how other Presidents and great Americans, since departed this Earth, would judge George W. Bush:
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."
-- President George Washington
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
-- President Thomas Jefferson
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
-- Benjamin Franklin
"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from the government."
-- Thomas Paine
"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
-- President Abraham Lincoln
"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
"We need not fear the expression of ideas - we DO need to fear their suppression."
-- President Harry S. Truman
"Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed."
-- President John F. Kennedy
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
-- President Theodore Roosevelt
So you tell me... Can we judge what they would have said about Ol' George the 43rd??
