Legacy

We're told that retiring presidents become concerned with their legacy. Let's look at the current incumbent's legacy ....

War in Afghanistan, not only with no end in sight, but with the government we installed riven with corruption, opium production skyrocketing, the war increasingly endangering Pakistan's fragile democracy, our enemies emboldened, the Taliban and al Qaeda becoming stronger and Osama bin Laden still free.

War in Iraq, with all the rationales for invasion exposed as lies, over a million dead, deadly violence still common, ethnic partitions hardening, political reconciliation still a distant dream, Iranian influence greater than ever, widespread corruption, hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, no concept of what "victory" might look like, and no realistic exit strategy.

The nation disgraced by torture, Guantanamo, rendition, Abu Ghraib, denial of the most basic human rights, unlawful wiretaps and surveillance, obsessive secrecy, shredding of the rule of law, secret murders and untold crimes against humanity.

Shocking denial of the most pressing environmental threat to ever threaten humanity, and an almost criminal refusal to take even the most basic measures to reduce or even postpone the danger.

An appalling eagerness to take advantage of a national tragedy for narrowly partisan purposes, coupled with a squandering of a global wellspring of sympathy for our national pain so astonishingly incompetent that most of the world now fears us, holds us in contempt, and views our espoused values as hypocritical.

Ruinous energy policies which threaten the collective health of the planet and all its inhabitants, send vast amounts of the national treasure to unstable and dictatorial regimes and quite probably into the hands of our enemies, and do enormous damage to the national economy and our industrial base.

Transformation of an inherited federal budgetary surplus into the largest deficit to ever saddle an incoming president, simultaneously saddling future generations with a mountain of debt and enormous consequences for the ability of the nation to deal with emergencies and other pressing issues in the future.

Massively regressive fiscal, tax and health care policies plus encouragement of appalling corporate excesses which combine to worsen the plight of the nation's less fortunate and exacerbate the gap between the rich and everybody else.

Cynical manipulation of public opinion, the mass media and the political process to divide Americans, foster intolerance and distract the nation from issues critical to its well-being.

Utter contempt for the hallowed principles of the Republic, starting with the antidemocratic machinations which established the incumbent's administration in the first place and leading on to packing the courts with reactionary judges, Congressional maneuvers to undermine the legislative process, dictatorial assertions of unchecked executive power, and both illegal and unethical practices to drive professional judgment out of government and replace it with partisan rancor.

The list goes on and on; readers can surely add many more examples. The sum of it all is not only that this is the worst President this country has ever had, but that succeeding administrations will need to labor heroically for a long, long time to even begin to repair the damage.

Note: this was originally posted on ketches, yaks & hawks 28 July 2008