"Barack Obama! Change! Wooooo!" A recent episode of South Park featured Randy, Stan Marsh's irrepressible dad, celebrating Barack Obama's electoral victory by drinking himself into a stupor. The episode highlighted a certain trend lately of people blindly supporting the first black President. The flip-side to this, of course, is a massive chorus of scorn for the still-current president George W. Bush. The most commonly used slur against W is that he's dumb.
Dumb? Please. The man has an MBA from Harvard and a bachelor's degree from Yale. Call him a failure, misguided, a son of privilege or even a puppet, but 'dumb' isn't a term you can use for a guy who got himself elected to the White House. Twice.
Take a look at the positive side (yes, there is a positive side) of W for a moment. If there's one good thing to be said about him, it's that he kept America safe from further terrorist attacks. Yes, the cost was heavy. To achieve this goal, he employed several dubious and often illegal means such as mass wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, torture and two bloody wars. Nevertheless, the end result was seven terror-free years of security.
Even Bush's harshest critics cannot discount his leadership in the battle against the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. After witnessing the tragic horrors that the virus has visited upon the region, he backed up his words with cash - this year alone, he authorized $39 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS, on top of the $15 billion he authorized in 2003. Because of American investments, nearly two million people today have access to anti-retroviral drugs and millions of orphans have received life-saving treatment and care. The United States is the leading donor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This is all W's doing.
On the timely issue of immigration, W went against the most fervent, xenophobic elements of the Republican Party and opposed the detention and deportation of millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. Instead, he offered a path to citizenship and integration into society for undocumented workers. Though the bill was defeated in Congress, his stance on the issue saved the country from a potentially disastrous attempt to deport over twelve million people.
At the least, W returned basic dignity to the office of the President. Bill Clinton's philandering had besmirched the institution of the Presidency when W came to office in 2001. Many of us can recall the incessant jokes about interns and the President on late-night TV.
These days, while it's oh-so-hip to be an Obama-lovin,' W-hatin' leftist, in politics, there is always more to the issues than one-sided ideology. The awful truth is there had to be a George W Bush before there could be a Barack Obama. Don't mistake my position. From Iraq to the Patriot Act, climate change to Palestine, there's just no defending most of his decisions as President. My point is though you may never agree with George W. Bush, one day, you just might forgive him.
=//Turnquest
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