In His Opinion

The Worst President Ever

Paul Cummins
Mirror contributing writer
  
   Though some may think it an exaggeration, liberal sour grapes, or egregious disrespect, I must say it: I believe we are experiencing the worst presidential regime in American history.
   Leaving aside the massive corporate scandals -- for which this administration cannot be fully blamed, but about which it has been deafeningly silent -- leaving this aside, we have witnessed the most rapidly accumulated and highest deficits in American history, the most blatant and ignorant assaults upon the environment in American history, and the “achievement” of the most widespread hatred abroad of the USA ever.
   Further, in spite of all the President’s men’s obsessive rhetoric about waging “war on terrorism,” we are – I believe – less safe since this war was launched.
   The “preventative,” “pre-emptive,” invasion of Iraq was not justified according to the reasons given to the American public: Iraq was not an “imminent danger” to anyone. “Weapons of mass destruction” were at best an illusion, at worst a fabrication; the Iraqi arms were a non-existent joke.
   But what is not a joke is the further and growing hatred of the U.S.A. engendered by this arrogant, aggressive action taken by America. We declared the UN to be “irrelevant,” and we said, in effect, that “might makes right;” that we are the U.S.A. and what we do is, by definition, good. Much of the rest of the world disagrees, and now terrorists everywhere have new reasons to hate us. Bush has squandered the sympathy that many in the world felt for us on 9/11.
   I believe that future historians will look back on the past three years with disbelief and utter disdain. They will acknowledge not only the squandering of international goodwill and the engendering of world-wide disgust with the U.S. arrogance, but they will bemoan the overturning of decades of environmental protection and conservation programs. These future historians will regret also the economic opportunities lost as social service and educational possibilities were abandoned – as more and more funds went into a non-cold-war-pit of military-industrial deficit spending.
   Future historians will also point out that during the one Reagan and two Bush eras, democracy gradually faded -- perhaps permanently -- into oligarchy as monopolies, multi-national and national corporations gained final control of the country. They will point out how the vast disparities of wealth were frozen into law with governmental support and how the New Deal social services were obliterated in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy and deficit defense spending.
   It is, to be sure, a depressing scenario, and what I find particularly amazing is how Republicans can support Bush’s outrageous assault on the environment. Do conservatives think that the oceans are a liberal domain? Do they believe that somehow their future will not be diminished by a compromised, degraded, and declining environment?
   Are they so focused upon economics that they cannot see how tragic it is, for example, to cut down 200 and 300 year-old majestic trees for a quick profit? I cannot fathom how partisan politics can lead to such devastating myopia. Marya Mannes said it well over forty years ago: “The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future.” Those who turn a blind eye to this administration’s incessant, environmental deregulation, relaxing of conservation standards, refusals to join the world in stopping global warming -- and the list goes on and on -- those who turn away are robbing their children and all future generations of the blessings providence has bestowed upon us.
   President Bush must be stopped in these violations of the public trust, and responsible Republicans, along with awake Democrats, must stop him.