What President Bush has done for us

Now, before everyone speculates that I've gone crazy and decided to join the dark side of the Force, bear with me. I'm still of sound mind and body. I still have both feet planted firmly on the ground. I'm still remembering the past while thinking about the future. But I'd like to talk about what the president has done for us.

No, I'm not going to write about how President Bush has sent some of us to Iraq on a war based on lies. Nor will I write about how he left some of us along the Gulf Coast to die while he played the guitar. And I won't spend this space writing about how he has spied on all of us. I'd rather write about the good things the president has done for us.

Believe it or not, there actually have been good things that have happened because Bush took office. Well, more likely, despite the fact he took office. But good things nonetheless, like progressives' increased oversight of the media, or our renewed interest in activism and our more active participation in democracy. Things that will help us turn back all of the hurt this president has caused.

If I learned anything in journalism school, it was the overwhelming importance of becoming an active consumer of media. Not only consuming it - reading, listening, watching - but fighting for its core principles: Honesty, integrity, acting as a check on power. To do so meant writing letters to the editor, contacting reporters directly and leveraging whatever tools are at your disposal to hold bad journalists to account for bad journalism. To do so also meant upholding those principles in your own work, never taking the easy way out, never lying, never forgetting to give voice to the voiceless.

Though it could have come under better circumstances, I feel we've all become active consumers of media living under the Bush administration. We've recognized the problem, that the media have largely traded access for integrity. We've put pressure on the poor practitioners while rewarding the good ones. We've seen the blowback from the Beltway insiders that has affirmed that our actions are warranted.

But, best yet, many of us have become active producers of media, too. We've recognized the revolutionary potential for the Internet and have started our own blogs. We've broken stories and have caught the ones that had fallen through the cracks. We've realized that it's not enough to watch the old-guard journalists struggle at their jobs, that it's vital for us to help show them how to do it. In doing so, we've become experts. We've build communities. We've changed things for the better.

Since Bush took office and systematically chipped away at everything that made America the once-great country it was, we've also renewed our activist streak. Recognizing that powerlessness can corrupt even more corrosively than power, we've started taking it back. We knew it all along: We are the ones we've been waiting for. We went to the trainings. We went to the community meetings. We went to the vigils and protests.

We've refused to give in to the hopelessness and fear. Instead, we've inspired among ourselves a renewed optimism for the future. All politics is local, they say, but we've come to realize that all politics is personal, too. We've fought to make our towns a better place. We've held our community leaders to account. We've pushed for ballot initiatives and beat back others. Outside of Washington, you'll find optimistic people working to achieve ambitious goals. Outside of Washington, you'll see that governing and helping others aren't mutually exclusive ideas.

Like many of us have become active producers of media, an equal number of progressives have become active producers of governance. When I look around, I see countless Americans who have decided that to fight for change means seeking elected office. From school boards to city halls to state houses to the halls of Congress, motivated Americans have fought to personally replace the obstacles to democracy previously holding office. There, they'll fight for the values that make us progressives. The values that built America.

You could argue that much of this would have happened regardless of which party occupied the White House. You could also argue that much of this could have happened without the trauma our nation has sustained. Your arguments would have merits on both accounts, but it's important to recognize what President Bush and his party have done for us. They've given us a common adversary, goals to reach and the desire to reach them. They've even given us hope. Republicans seized power, yes, but they've helped motivate us to take it back. And God help them when we do.

a left-handed compliment?

Nice work.

... or trying to see the glass as half full?

I hate not being able to respect OUR President though, but he doesn't deserve our respect...somewhere in my DU journal here's one of my favorite entries:

the next morning focuses the mind exceptionally'...really bad paraphrase sorry but
it points out that some types of adversity while toning up ones character and all...still
kill you.

in the afterlife?

Thank you Chimpy for waking me up to the importance of being involved in the political system. If it were not for my hated you, I might never of had my vote stolen when I voted against you on your friend's Diebold machine.

but politics is interested in you.....". If that sounds sinister, it is - until we become "political".

and engaging in other forms of self-flaggelation. As far as actually having a voice or prompting change, the American people have never been more helpless. Rigged elections, one-party media, no opposition in Congress to the egregious assault on everything that has made the US great... YEs, we're angrier then ever, but it's pretty useless anger.

into action, you can interpret that whatever way you see fit. But this regime's agenda is going full speed ahead, and we can all see it, they have their guys set up in everything, like on a chess board, now will we make our move????

Sorry, whacked idea.

I don't disagree that there has been some push-back and necessary circling of the wagons by progressives. But overall, the state of public discourse and journalism and democracy and diplomacy and education and enlightenment and progressive idealogy has been eroded over the last six years and is not close to being in better condition than the last decade. We are still in a deep hole, with low approvals giving people a false sense of hope before the real battle even begins.

I refuse to thank Dear leader for anything. He's made the last 6 yrs. a nightmare. It will take the rest of our lives to fix what this gang has done. That's if we can ever get back to some semblence of sanity? I'm not optimistic that the DC DEMOS have yet even realize how far gone our old republic has slipped while under the ruthless rule of these pigs. God help us if we cannot stop this man's juggernaut because he and his buddies care nothing for popular opinion , consent of the governed or even the Law.

proved completely wrong so often on this board, you prophets of doom have become very predictable.

But I would rather do without the common adversary to bring us together to make positive change.

It's kind of like thanking the British for making Gandhi great.

although still a powerful force, is losing viewers in the case of TV news and circulation in print. CNN lurched right in a futile attempt to regain viewers who went to Pox News. It didn't work as those who went to Pox didn't return, and the remaining viewers became alienated. We've established liberal radio on Air America. O'Really's ratings are down and Olbermann's are up. The fact that Bush has lowered living standards for most Americans is having an effect. The thirty percent still supporting the junta are zombies without hope. If they haven't learned by now it's too late. No hope for Bush/Davidians. Repubes are doing what they do best, taking money out of circulation. We have to hope The Decider will pardon all the crooks and traitors, thus exposing the lying scumbags and war profiteers. Deadeye Dick is about as popular as poison ivy toilet paper. The Bush dynasty is over.
Where would DU be without the junta as a motivator?
Thank Zeus I'm a Democrat.
And if Giuliani runs for office the clip of him saying "thank God George Bush is President" in response to helpless victims jumping from the World Trade Center must be played until people understand the Republican Party is a dangerous cult, bent on destroying America from within.
I wouldn't have become involved if some Bushbots didn't call me a traitor for opposing the Iraq attack. When my country called I put on the green suit, the boots, picked up an M-16 and spent a year in rice paddies and rubber plantations while the Bushbots stayed home being cheerleaders for another war some 38 years ago. These cowards following the marching orders from other cowards lit a fuse under my ass and I see it as my duty to stop the illegal junta that shreds the Constitution many of us defended with our lives.

I've been a follower of presidential politics for many, many, years. But for a long time, it was just that. I'd snooze along the rest of the time, not really paying much attention until the next presidential cycle.

You're right that Bush changed all that. For the first time in my life, I do feel part of a larger cause...I've been deeply into the goings on around me at all levels since the 2000 election. Since 9/11, I've been even more aware of the missed opportunities and just how badly off track this melagomaniacal idiot has led us.

So yes, I suppose in being the "uniter" (all of us against him and his policies, probably not what he had in mind) I guess a wee bit of good can come out of the Bush "presidency". Now if only we can stop the corrupt fascists from stealing the next election, maybe something can happen.

to see the writing on the wall, not until the 2000 election I noticed something was really wrong,and got involved or being just aware of the political climate. God, bless my father who has passed now, the first time he saw Bush, he said, I don't trust that beady eyed bastard, geez, he was right. I am glad my father is not here to see all this, all this he fought for in the war, stationed in New Guinea. But now I feel the outrage, and want to do something/anything to get these bastards out but it will take our determination and strife to see our goal accomplished. that's my rant.

GWB *did* do one good thing for me. His tanking of the whole economy drove down interest rates to the point where I was able to refi my house, cut years off my mortgage, eliminate all of my credit cards, and pay off the last of my wife's student loans as well as our cars.

Of course, on the other side of the scale is the tens to hundreds of thousands of people killed in Iraq, 9/11, Katrina, the antrax killer, $3/gallon gas, a tanked economy, almost complete erosion of our civil liberties, ...

So while I wouldn't say it was worth it, I have to be fair and give credit where credit is due. So "Thanks, George!" Now get the hell out of town and let the real grown-ups govern for a while.

Well said and very important!

:patriot:

if * doesn't kill us all. Otherwise, I'm afraid, it will only be a lesson to those translucent aliens that like to chip cities out of icebergs.

Have a super day.

Never have. since he stold the election in 2000 and the Supreme Court annointed him. Some of favorite newscasters followed suit. Ever since has used dictorial powers to remain in office. I just call him George Bush. Does not deserve the so called honor.

I don't think that the Bush regime has caused the press to lie down and play dead.

I think that the whole Bush phenomenon is a result of the press lying down and playing dead.

Though not a journalist myself, my father was, and a rather distinguished on at that. He was
a past president of the Gridiron Club of Washington, and worked out of his office in the
National Press Building at 14th and F for 50 years. I grew up with half my childhood
accompanying him to Press Galleries on Capitol Hill, and thinking he knew a lot of guys
whose first name was "Senator." He decried the insanity overtaking his profession during
the Monica Lewinsky obsession in the late 1990s, and saw his noble calling going downhill
already then. When he died in late November, 2000, it was an evil omen, foreshadowing the
installation of the loser of the election in the White House, something he never thought
happen. That was one of his rare wrong calls. He believed in the ultimate good of the nation.
What happened since to his profession might have killed him if his cancer had not.

A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with an old friend of ours, Helen Thomas,
who has been mentioned on this board before. We were talking about this very issue.
It's sad, it's maddening, but it is not yet getting better. Yes, Jeff Gannon is out. But
the likes of Neil Cavuto are not. Roger Ailes is not.

So much of the electronic media has been bought up by right-wing interests that I don't see much
hope of reversing that any time soon. Only a mass outcry among the people, threatening to boycott
advertisers who support biased media would work, and I just don't see it. The pre-programmed
electronic voting machines are in place, and every time they are shown to be defective and/or
manipulable, they are not scrapped--oh, no, they are sent in for repair. And by whom? The very
foxes who raided the henhouse the first time! EVERYone knows they are not reliable, and yet
they are in use in dozens of states. What does that say about us?

What Bush and his handlers have shown us is the depth of our national sickness.

I do not yet see that he has inspired a cure.

Just another avenue of profit. Since the electronic media became our major source of news, intrepertative journalism has suffered. COuple that with conglomerate ownership, only concerned with profitability and market share. The news disemination is not a profit oriented industry. Newspaper ownership is now often concentrated by the powers that own our TV.
So the point. Journalists now have to be entertainers, give the audience flash, which hard news is not. The includes the White House Press Corp.

let's not lay back when the Democrats get in power. Corruption and stupidity and greed are not party-specific.

"Nor will I write about how he left some of us along the Gulf Coast to die while he played the guitar....."
BUSH DOESN'T PLAY THE GUITAR!!!! Thats another of Bush's phony photo ops!! Bush doesn't play the guitar, he picked up that guitar and gave it a few strums. Bush doesn't, to public knowledge play ANY musical instrument
His Dad had a famous photo of him with a guitar that said "Prez" on it--that was phony too, GHWB doesn't play the guitar either
Just want to keep the facts straight and guess what--there's other phoniness in the BUsh administration.

I might add he does a rather bad job at it also ! When you think of all the long hard days of work our last great President did for us ,now being reversed by the spoiled son of another lousey president. Imagine just how well our country would be doing if this idiot never took office ,the waste of resources and life is something that takes a long time to get back( the lives are lost forever). Why President Clinton ,is so friendly with this group that tried everything they could to get him out of office ,I guess just shows what a good person he is ,he is willing to forgive his opposition ,and forget the rude actions spoke and taken by them .I hardly believe they would do the same for him ,now which one was it thats a good Christian ? bush or President Clinton ,for a man who's favorite book is the good book ,he sure does not know much about the basic premise of being a good Christian !

Then Howard Dean should be president.

(I traded Leo Kottke riffs with him at a thing we were at in South Carolina a year or so ago.
I'm better, bu5t he's no beginner!)

You're right of course, but I don't think you have much to fear on that
score. The press skiinned Bill Clinton alive every time he was accused
of littering, let alone anything else. If they had been as easy on him
as the had been on Bush Lite, the country would still not know how to
spell Lewinsky.