A Lost Decade
“It’s sad to say, but we really went nowhere for almost ten years, after you extract the boost provided by the housing and mortgage boom. It’s almost a lost economic decade.” –Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, and an informal adviser to John McCain’s campaign.
That epitaph is as good as any for describing the eight-year nightmare called the Bush Administration, as we finally count down the seconds where we see him board a plane, turn around and wave good-bye one last time. The Bush years witnessed, like no other in recent memory, a strong America brought to its knees by corrupt ideology, economic incompetence, and the complete destruction of its image around the world. That’s what happens when you run this nation like a third-world despotic regime.
From pre-emptive invasion to torture, from “Mission Accomplished” to “heck of a job, Brownie,” from foisting an “ownership society” of McMansions on janitors to de-regulating a corrupt Wall Street to oblivion, from gutting environmental laws to ignoring global warming, from hundreds of billions in surplus to trillions in debt, from tax cuts for those who need it least to 500,000+ monthly job losses–in every single issue of importance to this nation and its people, George W. Bush and the years over which he presided will go down in history as the worst EVER to afflict our Republic.
It has been a profile in arrogance from a leader who could sincerely see no wrong in anything he did–a harsh lesson on the limits of a hyper empire that saw the post 9/11 world in harsh tones of black and white, good and evil, you’re either with us or against us. It has been an exercise in humiliation, as we have witnessed the destruction of America’s economic might and the consequent destruction of wealth all over the world as a result of our own government-pimped profligacy, our deluded belief that we could have it all without sacrifice–guns, butter, 25% of the world’s oil, an SUV in every garage.
No president since Herbert Hoover has left his successor with so many profoundly difficult problems to solve. Yet in spite of Bush’s incompetence he hands Obama an opportunity. If he plays his cards right Obama will have carte blanche to fix much of what ails America, providing jobs to renew our decaying infrastructure, fix our schools, upgrade our broadband capabilities to compete with the rest of the world, and eliminate our energy dependence on countries that despise us. The tab will be enormously expensive, and there is no guarantee of success–but it will be a down payment on an investment that will yield many times itself in future dividends if done right. That’s a much better use of money than handing it over to a financial industry that’s more like a black hole that swallows up every dollar, never to be seen again.
As the Age of Obama dawns amidst great hope and uncertainty, the world is happy to throw a huge collective shoe at Bush’s rear end as his plane’s door shuts behind him. Good riddance, and never may we see your face again.
