George W. Bush of the Dead

Posted by Paul J. Amore on 04.28.2009

Sometimes I forget that I don't write for 411 Movies

Even though George W. Bush is out of office now for months, we're still debating his legacy and doubtless will for years to come, though with decreasing relevance. So before he goes the way of Dick Nixon and we don't have him to kick around anymore, let's get a few things on record.

With the solitary exception of tax cuts, GWB was a statist president. Statism is the opposite of libertarianism. He increased government spending, advanced the power of the military, and worked from the social conservative point of view.

Even if you agree with the multi-front war and with the anti-terror tactics he advocated such as torture and imprisonment at Guantanamo (which I do), there's plenty of room for questioning his tactical wisdom, or at least that of his advisors. And if nothing else, it's a virtual certainty that he had no clue how to sell the war on terrorism. When you're criticized every way under the sun, and part of the criticism is that you don't allow criticism, you have no control.

And yet. . .



Right in the middle of GWB's administration a hilarious movie came out called Shaun of the Dead. You've probably seen it, but if not, go do so; it's great. Part of the premise concerns three roommates, Shaun, Ed, and Pete. Pete is gainfully employed and fairly responsible. Ed is unemployed, lazy, and does nothing all day but drink and play video games. Shaun is employed, but is friends with both of them, and doesn't mind a session on the couch or at the pub. Now here's the curious thing: when Shaun and Ed are together, Shaun's not above criticizing Ed for his sloth, but when all three are together, Shaun usually takes Ed's side against Pete.

Well, George W. Bush is Ed, I'm Shaun, and you're all Pete. I could, in moments of candor, and with other people who I knew shared my basic ideals (to some degree; I have as yet found no one who agrees with me completely), give solid complaints about Bush the man and Bush the policy. But when I went online and saw the vitriol spewed against him, when I watched the television news and the papers go after him with a vengeance, when I saw protestors in the street hold up effigies of Bush with devil horns and Hitler mustache, I would defend him as a good man and a good president. And to this day, I say he was better that history judges him. The two things he got right—lower taxes and aggressive foreign policy—are the two most vital things to get right in a government.

And when the Daily Mirror asked, upon his reelection, how could 59,054,087 people be so dumb, the last word in all caps and large type, I took it personally. If not for me, after all, it would have been 59,054,086. I voted for Bush over Kerry, and I do not regret it.

George Bush ran a bad government, but a far worse government would have held sway if the forces aligned against him had had free rein. Bush grew the bureaucracy, but not as much as Barack Obama, and probably not as much as John Kerry would have. He staved off the explosion in government that we're now seeing by four or perhaps eight years. Bush acted against terrorism by an unpleasant method, but any method other than that involves sacrifices I don't care to see.

There was another movie, made a little earlier, that also sums up my attitude toward Bush and his critics. When Warren Beatty played the eponymous Dick Tracy, he was confronted both with a criminal mob and a vigilante working against the mob for personal reasons. Sitting in a car, thinking about the vigilante, he reasons out: "Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? No, the enemy of my enemy is my enemy." So too with Bush. He was the enemy of freedom, but Bush-haters were an even greater worry.