The Sad Legacy of George W. Bush

The legacy of the Bush years is a sad one-more for us than for him. He leaves office with America's position weakened in most ways, some more consequential than others.

George W. Bush came to office promising us that he was a "uniter, not a divider". In that he was ironically correct:

"A president who laboured to produce Republican hegemony ended up dramatically weakening the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is now in a more powerful position than it has been at any time since the second world war. In the Senate, the Democrats have a majority of 59 seats to 41 (including two independents who caucus with the Democrats); in the House, they hold 256 seats to the Republicans’ 178. Americans who came of age during the Bush years identify with the Democrats by the largest majority recorded for any age cohort since the second world war."

The Economist January 15, 2009

The Economist (generally considered a reasonably conservative publication) article is an in-depth look a the two-term Bush reign.

"How will Mr Bush be judged in the light of history? “Many historians”, says Princeton’s Mr Wilentz, “are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.”

The entire article is here: The frat boy ships out