How will the *administration be remembered in history?

[whirlygigspin]

I think it should be called "the Anthrax Presidency"
or "the 'glitch' Presidency"

what say you?

[mikehiggins]

1. As the prelude to empire and the death of the republic n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Crooked and illegitmate; a banana republic dictator

Bush will be remembered as the man who stole the election of 2000, used tax cuts to reward hia corporate cronies and used the September 11 attacks as a pretext to trample on the Bill of Rights and start colonial wars.

Worst of all, Bush will be remembered as the man who lied about reasons for invading Iraq. If there is a greater betrayal of public trust, I can't think of what it would be.

[HawkerHurricane]

3. Whelp...

The history text books, which are written to avoid any controversy, will just say his years in office and what happened ("And America united behind him after 9/11...). Textbooks are notorious for presenting only 'happy feel good' images.

Now, the professional historians, they'll have a field day, even more than the FDR and JFK conspiracy investigators!

[Maccagirl]

4. At the end of the day

2001-2005 will be regarded as one giant clusterf*ck. God help us if it continues till January 20, 2009.

[DivinBreuvage]

5. Judging from how we "remember" everything else...

Assuming this administration is an aberration rather than the herald of things to come, my guess is that it will go down like the Hoover or Grant administrations. Future generations will refer to it vaguely as a period of scandals or economic mismanagement, but without any real understanding or concern about what happened. Bush might even end up as a James K. Polk, another president who lied the US into a war of aggression for economic profit, the fruits of which were to reap horribly dire consequences for the country; but nobody knows or cares about James K. Polk today. James Madison got the US into a war with Britain and came close to losing the whole star-spangled enchilada, but he and the War of 1812 are even more of a nothing to the American people than Polk and Mexico.

Assuming this administration is the herald of things to come, Bush will probably be even more completely forgotten; there's no reason to presume that the party that dumbs down and wrecks the educational system of every state it takes control of is going to be teaching anyone about presidents who've been dead for a hundred years. I suppose it's possible that they'll select someone as a Washingtonian or Lincolnesque icon, but my bet is on Reagan, the lovable old "Great Communicator", the Washington of our glorious "It's Morning in America" revolution.

On the other hand, I suppose it's possible that Bush could go down as a Julius Caesar; not an emperor himself, but the man who made the empire possible. Future occupants of the White House will take the title "Bush", just as the Roman Emperors took the name "Caesar" as a title long after the line of the Caesars was extinct.

Françoise

[onebigbadwulf]

6. Most desctructive and corrupt presidency

since Grant

[DivinBreuvage]

7. I rest my case. n/t

[kodi]

9. history will record it as the worst & beginning of the end of the republic

there has not been a more corrupt and morally banckrupt administration.

[Cat Atomic]

8. The Corporation Administration.

And possibly the end of the Republic. On the bright side, empires and dictatorships do seem to have much more interesting hats.

[LoZoccolo]

10. Depends on how far back you're remembering.

I'm thinking of how it will be covered in high school history classes. In 100 years, if there's still such a thing as American history books, I think it'll be looked on with the same kind of disgrace as stuff that happened 100 years ago from now. But a ways into the near future I think we'll hear a lot of complaining about "liberal bias" in treatments of this subject in school curriculums

[economic justice]

11. The single worst administration in HISTORY....by far <eom>

[opihimoimoi]

12. Inducted into the Hall of Shame

These guys know what they are doing. Its INTENTIONAL. They don care. Its arrogant behavior and they know it. "Let them eat shit"

By far, the worst. and Possibly, the beginning of the end as we deplete our precious resources not for our childrens future but for their greed and selfishness.

[waywest]

13. That, by comparison,...

gave new respectability to the infamous Nixon administration.

[DivinBreuvage]

14. The names "Condoleeza Rice" and "Donald Rumsfeld"

will be on every schoolchild's tongue, just as the names of Seth Thornton and William Marcy are today.

Françoise

[maggrwaggr]

15. well, if they win, they're gonna be like Abe Lincoln or G. Washington

they'll be heralded as the fathers of the revolution.

If they lose (which we all hope), they'll be derided as the low point in Americna history.

They are scum.

[Yupster]

16. If a president is lucky, he

gets one picture of his time in a history text.

For Bush there's no doubt to me the picture will be the burning towers. Maybe people jumping off the towers if the times have gotten more open to such things for high school texts.

Therefore the one paragraph about him will talk about the largest terorist attacks in history on US soil. The rest depends on whether he's successful at being reelected or not.

A couple of samples...

"In 2000, George W Bush, the son of the 41st President George Bush was elected in one of the closest elections in US history. His term was dominated by the attack on the World Trade Center buildings in New York City by radical Islamic terrorists (see photo, left). The result was a running battle against terrorist groups which took place throughout his and the following president's term in the US, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, southeast Asia, and much of the rest of the world."

"In 2000, George W. Bush the son of the 41st President George Bush was elected in one of the closest elections in US history. His term in office was dominated by fighting Islamic terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001 (see photo left). President Bush launched a far-flung counterattack against radical Islamic groups which ended with the overturning of despotic governments throughout the Middle East."

Either way, the picture of the period will be the World Trade Center. His tax policy or defecits will not be in the first few paragraphs. Who remembers if President Cleveland was a tax cutter or tax raiser? or whether there was a surplus or defecit under President Taft?

PS -- I am the author of a sixth grade history text (teacher's edition only) of a major textbook company. However, that was 15 years ago, so they are probably all out of circulation now.