The Bush Legacy: What is It?

For every president there is a legacy. For Abraham Lincoln, it was freeing slaves and keeping the country together; for Franklin Roosevelt it was stabilizing the country after the Depression, and winning WWII; for John F. Kennedy, it was his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis; these presidents and all the rest go into office to serve the public, and leave with a legacy. Sometimes the legacy is less flattering than the president would like, as in the case of Coolidge and Nixon. The current president, George W. Bush, has seen a rough two terms in office, but will see a much tougher legacy in the future.

President George W. Bush began to construct his legacy under distrustful circumstances; the 2000 election. Having smeared respected statesmen such as Nevada senior Senator John McCain to win the Republican Party nomination, offended not only moderate republican voters, but also independents and democratic voters alike. Bush stepped on some toes and disheartened millions when he won the presidency by a mere 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. He started off on a rocky start, and his legacy began to be established.

After breaking the record for longest vacation time of any previous president in the first year, Bush was effectively a lame duck president, struggling to pass measurable legislation through congress. But things instantly turned around for him when terrorist shocked the world with the largest single attack on any nation when they hijacked 4 passenger airliners, crashing two in the World Trade Center towers. The world rallied around a man they had just despised a day earlier, and awaited leadership. The new president's approval ratings shot to the high 90's, and partisanship in the democratic congress seized, giving Bush whatever tools he needed to handle the crisis. Americans of all political stripes offered their blood to the Red Cross, volunteered in the efforts at ground zero, and waited for their president to ask for their sacrifice. To everyone's dismay, he merely asked for them to shop and visit Disney World. The goodwill was tarnished further when the first of five large tax cuts was not revoked, providing the top 1/10th of 1% of Americans with fewer taxes, and the right to avoid in assisting the nations response to a national security breach. Despite these first questionable measures, the world continued its support for the new president.

Unfortunately,, that was not to last. After the attack's, the world markets suffered major losses and took the beating of a much anticipated recession. Amidst responding to this new reality, the world expected logical measures to follow the United State's newly found focus on the Middle East. In his Address to the Nation speech, president Bush destabilized international relations by declaring Iraq, Iran, and North Korea of being apart of the so-called 'axis of evil', for harboring terrorists. And in 2003, Bush ended the weapons inspectors' time short of completion and declared Saddam Hussein uncooperative and guilty of interfering with inspections. The western world was at war in the Middle East, and Bush's legacy deepened its roots in tragedy.

Through the war torn country of Iraq, no nuclear program was ever found, leading to the argument for invasion to change several times. To say the least, the enormous support for the endeavor has evaporated. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the tax payers $1.7 trillion, effectively driving the cry for withdrawal as a corrupt and disorganized Iraqi government struggles to make progressive political strides. Through bad trade policies and a selective tax cut that only benefits the wealthiest few, the previous balanced budget and surplus has become a thing of the past.

Despite the mistakes made in Iraq, President Bush won reelection by proving to voters he was a more of a military hero than Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who served in uniform in Vietnam. Republicans in congress supported Bush, but once they kept the White House, in 2005, that support was no more. Iraq was progressing slowly and even back rolling, leading the public to decide the war was a mistake and proved a distraction from the real goal: catching the terrorists who orchestrated 9/11, and breaking up those organizations they operate in. GOP politicians have found the Iraq War a nuclear issue that can and have killed political careers.

The Iraq war and Bush's unwillingness to support nonproliferation and nuke security has alienated our allies and emboldened rogue states to develop their own arsenal. While Bush has increased foreign aid to $15 billion, the world's opinion of him and America comes from the nuclear instability and Americas perceived arrogance. Supporting Nuclear Nonproliferation would begin to change that sentiment.

While democratic voters have always been displeased by President Bush and his policies, but now it's the Republican Party that is disgruntled and split. This has resulted in an earlier than ever presidential race for 2008. The democrats are eager for change, the independents want a smarter government, and the republicans are split on what their party's platform should be in light of Bush's unpopularity. Bush's party is now debating how far they should distance themselves from him, in fear of losing the next election cycle. Now that congress is no longer the rubberstamp system it once was, the only tool at Bush's discretion is the veto pen. Before 2006, Bush never vetoed a single bill, but now is even going so far as to vetoing the popular Children's Health Insurance Program and increase pay for service members in the military. Bush has been relentless with his one remaining bargaining chip.

The US relations with Pakistan have seen a popular former Prime Minister assassinated by terrorists at a campaign rally. Benazir Bhutto was a moderate who would have been our strongest ally in the hunt for terrorists, but for the past years we have handed the religiously conservative Pakistani military $10 Billion to hunt Al' Qaeda and the Taliban. The result? President Musharraff has come to an agreement with these groups that they can freely govern themselves without intervention in the rural villages of the country. Following the assassination, the country is more unstable than ever. Whether the country goes into all out civil war is yet to be seen, but what is certain is that the nuclear weapons in that country are unsecure. The failure to handle Pakistan will be a big part of George W. Bush's legacy.

It is yet to be seen what this final year will bring, but Bush's legacy has already been written. With his failure with Iraq and the war on terrorism; his failure in handling the Katrina disaster; and his failure to stabilize the international community, will place him as one of the worst presidents in American history. His view of government and its role has hurt millions of Americans, and has damaged America's reputation. There are usually two sides to each issue, but there is only one on this. Bush has failed as president, and the next one will have to work the first term cleaning up the mess, and the second term to make progress.