Can We NOT Normalize George W. Bush?!

There are a lot of things going on with the wretched administration of Dolt 45.  He's vile, petty, vindictive, and completely unfit to serve.  He may have legitimate psychological problems.  He's a racist, and he previously had a propaganda chieftain for white supremacists serving as his chief adviser.

Some Republicans have completely distanced themselves from Trump, and others have different lines of demarcation that determine when they've had enough.  Some of their "come to Jesus" moments arrive when they realize that Dolt 45's plans, mindset, policies, and the like affect them PERSONALLY.  People like Joe Scarborough are some of the Doctors Frankenstein that helped to legitimize Trump.  And to this day, while Joe rails on about the monster that's ransacking the village, he still has not offered a mea culpa for HIS role in creating monster.

And speaking of monsters, this brings us to the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.  Donald Trump is so awful that people are longing for the bumbling idiocy of Bush.  Today, a former President who was so reviled that he couldn't even campaign for his successor delivered a speech that some are saying makes him one of the "faces of the resistance." 

NO.

Um... NO.  That's not cute.  Never forget.

Do you see this picture?  It's one of the many that is helping to sanitize George Bush's image, and make him palatable and respectable.  And before we go about longing for the carefree days of Uncurious George And The Administration That Couldn't, we need to remember his real track record and "accomplishments."

(Note:  I'm not angry at Michelle Obama for snuggling with that dopey moron of a POTUS, I'm bothered by the memes that this picture generated which helped to normalize him.  So there.)

HURRICANE KATRINA:  Under his watch, New Orleans suffered catastrophic losses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  His appointed Director of FEMA, Michael Brown, had absolutely no experience in emergency management.  As Rachel Maddow put it, Brown's appointment was seen more as a patronage hire than one to bring the best man on for the job.  As American citizens suffered, Bush applauded Brown by infamously stating that Brown was doing "a heckuva job."

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN:  In the aftermath of 9/11, America had a ton of global capital.  The whole world was pretty much with this country.  And what did Bush do?  He created a propaganda machine that led us into war with Iraq who -- and this is important -- HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11.  We went to war against a regime that had done nothing to us, against a leader that, by all objective measures, was secular and kept sectarian violence down.  Taking Saddam Hussein out created a power vacuum, and since nature abhors a vacuum, that vacuum was filled by extremists.  

As for Afghanistan, it was almost an afterthought that turned into a quagmire.  There's a reason why Afghanistan is called "The Graveyard Of Empires."  

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, I wrote this to express my disgust at what 9/11 has become, most of which happened during the Bush Administration.  I also wrote this to express my disgust at the Republican Party's snuff film tribute to 9/11 during the RNC Convention in 2008.  And for God's sake, how can you forget THIS?

Still want him back?!

I could go on, including how he got elected in the FIRST place.  And don't get me started on the fact that his two Supreme Court appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, voted to support Citizens United.

I understand the need for Republican allies.  There are some great ones in the form of Anna Navarro, Steve Schmidt, and others.  But we shouldn't be so bereft of allies that we have to depend on one of history's greatest monsters as an ally, simply because he's a Rhodes Scholar and Elder Statesman in comparison to his Republican successor.  A 16-minute speech does not a real ally make.