As a quick disclaimer: Though he seems like a swell guy, I am not a strong supporter of the Bush administration. For all practical purposes, Bush was a socialist (I am a radical for capitalism). He frequently used free market language, but in reality the country under Bush saw heavily regulated markets (in agriculture, telecommunications, banking, healthcare, transportation, education, aviation, automobile manufacturing, and just about every other industry that operates in the US) and heavily redistributed wealth.
But looking back on the past 8 years…was it so bad? I took a little time to reflect on some of the claims I heard about Bush and what would become of the country if he served two terms, I would like to post a few tidbits of information.
Below I’ve identified a few issues that popped up over the last 8 years. Now that the time has passed, we have the data available to assess the accuracy of many accusations and dire predictions surrounding the Bush administration.
Abortion
Dire prediction # 1 - FALSE
This is probably the one I heard the most about. In discussions I had in person, saw on television, on the Internet, just about every place imaginable, I heard thousands of claims projecting that Bush would overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that legalized abortion. Following, I heard that this would be a major blow to women’s rights and many women gave this issue such importance that no other political issues mattered save this one.
Eight years later, this is safe legislation. Bush never did anything to come close to touching this issue. It’s still legal and can be preformed instantly on request. In many cases, it is even paid for by the government…even by teens without even needing their parents consent.
Gay Rights
Dire prediction # 2 – FALSE
Many claims were made that Bush administration would damage LGBT rights in the country and create a hostile social environment for gays.
The opposite turned out to be true. The Queer Nation should be mindful to notice that though their cause is greatly opposed by the socially conservative branch of the Republican Party, this branch makes up a small percentage of the party overall.
In actuality, the acceptance of homosexual lifestyle has flourished under the Bush administration. The past 8 years has seen the widest acceptance of gay people in the history of the world—even more so than the ancient Greeks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Ancient_Greece). Under the Bush administration countless pop culture outlets have not only accepted homosexual lifestyles, but actively promoted this lifestyle as desirable. These pop culture outlets have included magazine, film, and television—including even a show, Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, where the homosexual libido was actually admired and emulated by straight men.
Legally, LGBT issues also advanced during the Bush years. No constitutional amendment was made to federally restrict homosexual marriage as predicted by the TV. In fact, all homosexual acts became legal in 2003 with the Lawrence vs. Texas case in the Supreme Court (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas).
The first country to ever legalize same-sex marriage was the Netherlands in 2001. Six countries have followed this trend, along with two US states—Massachusetts and Connecticut. For a brief period, California also legalized same-sex marriages. During this time, though not legal across the entire country, the United States boasted the largest population able to legally wed the same sex in the entire world (46.7 million, #2 was the Netherlands at 16 million people. Without California, Netherlands is now #1 and US is still ranked #2 at just over 10 million.)
A special caveat: President Clinton, a democrat, has passed the most damaging legislation against LGBT rights when he signed the DOMA into law on 9/21/1996 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act
An American Dictator
Dire prediction #3 – FALSE
Although I would normally not diginify such ridiculous claims by acknowledging them, I will make a special exception to highlight the silliness of the claims that many people made comparing Bush to Hitler (who led the National Socialist party of Germany acronymed as "NAZI" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi). They claimed that Bushed was either a dictator himself or was trying to establish some sort of political dynasty.
As of 12 Noon yesterday, this was proven false. President Bush politely and without military intervention handed power over to President Obama in the same fashion that all other 42 presidents had before him.
Halliburton
Dire prediction #4 – FALSE
Many claims and accusations were made that Bush and Cheney were in cahoots with corporate America. Much of which was symbolized through a portrayal that they were scoring lucrative contracts to benefit oilfield services giant Halliburton. This Halliburton relationship was then projected to symbolize an overall connection to shady government deals, etc.
In reality, Halliburton turned a less than 2% margin on its work for the government in Iraq. Its stock has underperformed the market (^DJI and S+P500) and its stock price (NYSE: HAL) is down over the period starting with the day Bush/Cheney took office and ending the day they left. (Opening bid 1/20/2001 ~ $20.65; closing bid 1/20/2009 ~ $16.61. A decrease of 20%) Not a good sign of war profiteering (or actually any profiting)
All data from Yahoo! Finance:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=HAL#chart2:symbol=hal;range=20010122,20090120;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined
The World Hates the USA
Dire prediction #5 – FALSE
Although one could argue that this is impossible to qualify, the best I could do is point to a few indicators—namely immigration and tourism. Foreign tourism in the US during the Bush administration reached on all time high, as did US travelers vacationing aboard. The only people that seem to hate the US are Islamic terrorists and trendy European hypocrits who actually are obsessed with America and are trying to fit into the popular anti-US sentiment perpetrated by our own media and celebrity culture.
Immigrants also poured to our shores during the Bush years. People seem to love America and the whole world wants to live here. We saw a spike in immigrants seeking permanent residence under the Bush administration, seeking temporary work visas, and students studying here aboard. The US higher education system hosts the most international students of any country (for both undergraduate enrollment and study aboard enrollment)
Official stats: http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/publications/yearbook.shtm
Notice on the chart, not only did Bush have more people wanting to move to the US than under Clinton (Bush beats Clinton without even adding his 8th year), but more people increase during the later years—that is after each had several years to “shape” American life.
Immigration data for the Clinton and Bush administrations:
Education
This isn’t the refutation of a dire prediction, but an interesting element I thought I’d throw in. During the Bush years, more people started school, graduated high school, enrolled in college, graduated college, enrolled in post-graduate education, and completely post-graduate education.
Gradeschool:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/schoolboom.htm
Most in college, most college graduates, most post-graduate degrees:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school/cps2006.html
In summary, the Bush years weren’t so bad and to most people these years were probably really great. Chances are you have enjoyed the past 8 years immensely and I would guess for most people reading this, they have been, to date, the best years of your life.
Other things originating during the Bush years
These are things Bush obviously had no participation in and I am completely disinterested in several of these things so I’m not promoting them. I’m merely identifying the fact that our country has celebrated a pop culture frenzy in the past 8 years and many of the things that shape our current pop culture have originated during the Bush administration.
Introduction of: Facebook, Gmail, Digg, iPod, Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, Chappelle's Show, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Tiger Woods dominates PGA, Coldplay’s “A Rush of Blood to the Head”, American Idol, Tory Burch, Roy Williams replaced Matt Doherty, OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” (regarded as the most diversely accepted singles of all time receiving record airplay from rap, hip-hop, alternative, adult contemporary, rock, and even country stations), Ali G comes to HBO, Mozilla FireFox/Apple Safari (both 2003), flat screen TV (at least ones that are consumer feasible)
Not invented, but proliferated: DVD player, digital camera, cable internet, ebay
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