Dear America,
When presidents die in this country, and probably in most others as well, they are essentially beatified rather than eulogized. George H.W. Bush's death was no exception, but you might have noticed that instead of being eulogized with a panegyric extolling vast accomplishments, he was credited mostly with being a kind, decent, nice guy. There were attempts to say more, but somehow they all seemed hollow. When James Baker, who served in a couple of capacities in Bush's Whitehouse, listed what purported to be accomplishments, there was a tepidness to them, and some of them were outright misguided. For example, Bush was credited by Baker with the fall of the Berlin wall, presumably because it occurred during his presidency, and implicitly with freeing the former Soviet Union from communism. But the fact is that the wall started to crumble when Ronald Reagan famously said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" as he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate behind bullet-proof glass. The protection was necessary because Reagan was deeply unpopular at least among a segment of the West German population. The world was looking forward to the liberalizations promised by Gorbachev and Reagan's public pronouncements on the subject of Soviet communism were seen by many as provocations that might serve to undermine Gorbachev, and sure enough, that is what they did. That was in June of 1987, a year and a half before Bush took office in January 1989. From that day on until the day in November 1991 when the wall began to be destroyed, the stage was set for its destruction. Then, in December 1991, Boris Yeltsin became president of the new Russian Federation after Gorbachev was essentially forced to resign. That's what we got as a benefit from the chauvinistic and dogmatic insistence of Reagan and Bush that communism cease to be the rule in the Soviet empire. And since Yeltsin was a corrupt drunk, he was ultimately replaced not by a libertarian like Gorbachev but by Vladimir Putin, a KGB thug and eventually murderous autocrat. Somehow, it doesn't seem appropriate to heap praise upon either of the two American leaders who made the fall of Gorbachev possible.
And of course, there were other Bush "accomplishments" that don't stand up to scrutiny. Republicans had read his lips and believed that there would be no new taxes under the Bush administration. That's essentially the same message that Ronald Reagan made when he announced the tax reduction package that he dubbed the "new American revolution during his administration. Both presidents stood on anti-tax platforms and maligned the Democrats for their resistance, and both presidents reneged...Reagan fourteen times...and raised taxes. But Reagan was smarter than Bush, and he didn't sign the tax reform bill that reduced or eliminated many of the deductions that you and I took at the time--credit card interest was deductible and medical expenses over 2% of adjusted gross income were deductible until Reagan's tax bill ultimately raised the bar to 7%, for example--until the beginning of his second term. And it wasn't until afterward that he realized that his budget was, as Bush called it during the 1980 campaign, "voodoo economics" and the new taxes came on in bunches. The consequence was record unpopularity for Reagan, but he couldn't run again anyway, so what the hell. Bush, on the other hand, had a war that he had to pay for...the war that he thought would guaranty his reelection just like the won his son started for no good reason would do eventually. So new taxes had to be passed during his first term, which turned out to be his only term. There's more too, but the point has been made, and there's no sense in whipping a dead president.
Instead, let's just say thanks, Bush number 41, for bringing us Vladimir Putin. What a swell change he represents. And as for Reagan, let's thank him for "trickle down economics." Because of policies he spawned with that philosophy, the rich have gotten richer and business has gotten bigger. As far as money goes however, that isn't what has trickled down on most of us.
Your friend,
Mike
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