Bush’s Monument
November 19th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
St. Paul’s Cathedral is one of the great buildings in Christendom. It is impossible to walk through it and not feel the presence and the glory of God. Its architect, Sir Christopher Wren, is buried there, and over his tomb is this inscription: Si monumentum requiris, circumspice: “If you seek his monument, look around you.”
The Texan departing the White House need not spend tens of millions on a monument to himself and his philosophy at SMU. If you want to see the monument to the conservative philosophy of governing – the philosophy followed so faithfully by George W. Bush — look around you. Men and women who followed the conservative philosophy of President Bush were the architects of so many of the crises we face. The Republican Party has controlled the White House for the last eight years, controlled the Congress for 12 of the last 14 years, and dominated our federal courts. So it is fair to ask folks to look around.
Look at the greed on Wall Street. It was fed by a Bush-conservative architecture of greed and de-regulation, of government siding with quick-buck artists that goes all the way back to the Savings & Loan crisis of the 80’s.
Look at our unemployment woes. Unemployment hit a low of 3.9 percent under President Clinton’s progressive economic policies. It is now 6.5 percent and climbing. Or look at our rising poverty rate, our record rate of home foreclosures, our skyrocketing numbers of bankruptcies.
Look at our pathetic dependence on dangerous and dirty foreign oil. It’s the result Bush-conservative energy policy that subsidized oil companies and de-funded the alternative energy sources that could have made us free.
Look at the debt and deficit. They have skyrocketed because of a Bush-conservative philosophy that rewarded those at the top of the economic pyramid while punishing those who were working hard to climb their way up.
Look at the millions of American families who have been turned down for health insurance, and the millions of small businesses who have been priced out of the market — all victims of a Bush-conservative philosophy that protects big insurance companies and hammers working families whose only sin is wanting to see a doctor when they’re sick.
And then look at what is infecting all of it: a culture of cronyism and corruption under conservatives that has given us government of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists and for the lobbyists.
Most tragically, look at the lives lost, the limbs severed, the families shattered because of this unjust, unwise, unwarranted war. Look at the military families struggling to stay together under the strain of deployments that are too frequent and last too long. Look at the unappreciated heroes battling traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder. Look at the untold thousands of Iraqi families whose tears are never seen and whose cries are never heard.
This is the monument to Bush-style conservatives. They are its architects. Look around you. See what the Bush-conservative philosophy has done to the country we love. The sooner we take a wrecking ball to that monument the better.
It will take time, but I am convinced that President-elect Barack Obama is committed to building something new. Something beautiful and strong. Something that, like that great old cathedral in London, will welcome everyone in, raise their spirits, lift their sights and remind us all that - as President Kennedy said - “here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”
–Paul Begala
November 20th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I agree with this premise. I heard someone speak one time about the topic of “what will you do with your dash.” Basically, if you walk through a cemetery and see (i.e) 1930-2000. . . it’s amazing how quickly our “dash” will blow right by us.
What will our peers say when they walk by our monument one day?
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
What he said.
November 30th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
This is a shallow analysis and not worthy of TO. To say the current financial crisis is solely due to Bush, conservatism, Texas, whatever is so simplistic as to be infantile and not worthy of reading. You know better (or you should), and if you don’t, leave the analysis that to more sophisticated minds (see Michael Lewis in Conde Nast).
Further, Bush, like his father, never held nor practiced core conservative beliefs. They actually believe in government, as long as they are in charge. This is just kicking the loser in the ass as he leaves. It contributes nothing to the discussion.
I don’t agree with many of TO’s positions, but the reporting and analysis is at least well researched. Do your work or say nothing.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
How about the 30 miles of debris from Ike that STILL remains along the Texas coast for a monument? Bush deserves a pile of debris as a monument for his relentless undermining of competence in governing.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
” Bush’s Monument ” answers the question, “How did a liberal, black candidate win the Presidency when most voters are neither black nor liberal.” The fact is, Republicans like Bush, Cheney, Phil Gramm, et. al. promised what most voters wanted, then delivered something entirely different. As President Bush so eloquently said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, well, we won’t be fooled again.”