Did Bush Leave Us Bankrupt, Corrupt, Ungovernable?

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.truth-out.org/did-bush-leave-us-bankrupt-corrupt-ungovernable/1312205569

When you sell the farm, the farm's gone.

Is it already too late for America? I'm starting to think that the anti-tax, anti-government conservative movement that started in the mid-70s, elected Reagan and led to the terrible Bush Presidency may have effectively destroyed the country, leaving it bankrupt, corrupt, ungovernable, ruled by a wealthy elite -- and we're only now just starting to realize it. To cover tax cuts we stopped maintaining the infrastructure and started borrowing. To satisfy their hatred of government we increasingly stripped away rule of law, regulation, and belief in one-person-one-vote. We are seeing the consequences of all of that coming back to roost now.

Reagan left us with massive debt and ever-increasing interest payments. Bush left us with $1.3 trillion deficits and a destroyed economy that would force further increases in the borrowing for years - to be blamed on Obama. The "free marketers" gave away our manufacturing base that will take decades and massive capital investment to recover. Obama can try, but it may just be too late to do anything about the borrowing. We need massive investment in jobs and infrastructure, and a national economic/industrial plan. But, with their own Reagan/Bush debt as ammunition, conservative ideologues continue to block every effort at investment to get out of the mess we are in.

The conservatives destroyed the regulatory structure of the government. They removed the inspectors, administrators, regulators and replaced them with corrupt cronies.

The conservatives killed off, contracted out or sold off - "privatized" - so much of our in-common resources and heritage of public structures. Water systems, oil and mineral leases, government functions, elements of the military, etc.

The conservatives destroyed the rule of law, leaving behind public perception of rule by cronyism, favoritism and mob.

The conservatives destroyed public understanding of democracy, leaving behind a one-dollar-one-vote system that their Supreme Court just formalized, along with a corporate media that works to keep people uninformed. And to make matters worse, now the telecoms can argue before Federalist Society judges that their "speech rights" are violated by rules making them carry labor and progressive websites over the internet lines they control. And forget about the idea of them ever letting anti-corporate-rule candidates raise money on "their" internet.

[get the red out]

1. yes

:puke: I agree with you completely. Unfortunately. The domination of right wing propaganda media has been the conduit for it.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. No, we, the people, left us corrupt and ungovernable. n/t

[liberal N proud]

3. Oh, NO! It's Obama's fault

He couldn't turn around in 2 years what Bu$h and his crooks took 8 to destroy, so in the mid-terms the teabaggers showed up and acted like terrorist with a bomb attached to their chest.


The spin will always be that it was Obama's fault that America crumbled even thought this decline was started with Reagan and Bush was the nail in the coffin, leaving Obama to turn out the lights.

[peace13]

5. Obama refusing to hold * accountable has left us with a nation of no law.

The Constitution a piece of paper and thieving, lying fools in control. And by control I exclude Obama.

[grasswire]

12. excellent point

Not laying down a marker for history was wrong.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Bush laid the blueprints for future with bankruptcy, corrupt, and inability

legislate through bipartison compromise.

All you need to make it happen are a few willing participants in Congress.

The play has been written, the theater leased, and the actors are on stage.

[madrchsod]

6. no....this started in the late 70`s

[CarrieLynne]

10. but didnt it kinda start in..what 1913 with the creation of the federal reserve?

I agree that this power and wealth grab has made leaps and bounds in the last 30 years no doubt...but it seems like some of this stuff wouldnt have come off so easy if it werent for the BS that occurred during the great depression,.....

i dunno...im feeling overwhelmingly like everything we fought for our independence for is happening again....

[drakonyx]

7. The answer is yes

And as you rightly point out, the problem goes deeper than Bush. It's a flawed Republican approach to economics and governance that has left us in this mess. Is it too late? Barring a huge war or some other major game-changer, I'd say yes. Political tinkering won't get us out of this one.

[Enthusiast]

13. Huge war? Do you suggest a huge war as a

solution?

Why not just increase taxes to levels that would pay for the two fucking wars we already waged?

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, sinkingfeeling.

[Fearless]

9. We have kept on the neo-con path afterward.

It is the current politicians faults. Vote them ALL out.

[shanti]

11. that's what the teabagger's said

and look what that got us.

[4dsc]

14. 30 years of failed conservative economics come home to roost.

Good read.