Comments on: George Bush–Modest? http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/11/25/george-bush-modest/ Essays on politics, culture and ideas about Israeli-Arab peace and world music Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:36:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Zhu Bajie http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/11/25/george-bush-modest/#comment-56433 Zhu Bajie Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:25:18 +0000 http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/11/25/george-bush-modest/#comment-56433 A year or two ago, the members of the American Historical Association voted that GWB was the worst president ever -- that's not a modest achievement! Note, too, that historians tend to be conservative by temperament, however they may vote. My real concern is, what will future presidents do with the autocratic powers he has amassed, the autocratic example he has set? We've gone from "Imperial Presidency" to "Autocratic Presidency," and I doubt we will go back. Zhu Bajie A year or two ago, the members of the American Historical Association voted that GWB was the worst president ever — that’s not a modest achievement! Note, too, that historians tend to be conservative by temperament, however they may vote.

My real concern is, what will future presidents do with the autocratic powers he has amassed, the autocratic example he has set? We’ve gone from “Imperial Presidency” to “Autocratic Presidency,” and I doubt we will go back.

Zhu Bajie

]]> By: Daniel Millstone http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/11/25/george-bush-modest/#comment-56154 Daniel Millstone Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:14:07 +0000 http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/11/25/george-bush-modest/#comment-56154 What an embarrassment that article 1s. Shouldn't the NY Times paste "Steno Journalism" warnings on puff pieces like that? Mr. Bush's heritage on the domestic front includes fewer health-insured children (from his SCHIP veto), less food for lower income people as rising food prices erode the value of food stamps and empty food pantry shelves (from his opposition to the nutrition provisions of the Farm Bill) and colder homes as heating assistance is cut (at his direction) while oil prices soar and shifting the burden of paying for his multi-trillion-dollar war in Iraq from wealthier to lower income people. What a compassionate conservative! Yet the reporter, caught in Bush-spun psycho-fantasies, mentions these harms not at all. What an embarrassment that article 1s. Shouldn’t the NY Times paste “Steno Journalism” warnings on puff pieces like that?

Mr. Bush’s heritage on the domestic front includes fewer health-insured children (from his SCHIP veto), less food for lower income people as rising food prices erode the value of food stamps and empty food pantry shelves (from his opposition to the nutrition provisions of the Farm Bill) and colder homes as heating assistance is cut (at his direction) while oil prices soar and shifting the burden of paying for his multi-trillion-dollar war in Iraq from wealthier to lower income people. What a compassionate conservative!

Yet the reporter, caught in Bush-spun psycho-fantasies, mentions these harms not at all.

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