Why George W. Bush was the Worst President of My Lifetime
A Note on President's Day
I started writing this on President’s Day, when most historians, scholars, and politicos spent time reflecting on whether Washington was better than Lincoln or vice versa. And while I have a few men who I believe were genuinely great presidents, like Calvin Coolidge, George Washington, and Grover Cleveland, most don’t deserve nearly as much praise as they earn.
After a hectic week where I was delayed in writing this piece, I got to think about what makes a great president. It’s those who rise to a moment of crisis, like Lincoln during the Civil War, but also those who promote peace, liberty, and prosperity. The action not to grow the government or go to war is more noble. So, while historians may look fondly at men like FDR, who extended the Great Depression by increasing the federal government and setting up the blueprint for PAX Americana, they should recoil at the notion that he prevented us from ever returning to being a normal country.
In the 241 years of our country, there were a lot of bad presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, James Buchanan, and Franklin Pierce, to name a few. Yet none were as bad in my lifetime (I was born in 1987) as George W. Bush.
But Ryan, what about Obama and Biden?
I can already hear some people talking to me through their computers.
First, about Biden, while I think there are some policies of Biden that I can point to that I agree with, like promoting semiconductor production within the United States, I do think he’ll go down as a failed president. His open racist policies against white Americans are a giant step back for race relations in this country. Then there’s the invasion at the border, how he exited from Afghanistan, and so on and so on.
Nonetheless, I do not believe in ranking presidents who are still in office because they’re not done with their terms, and I think it’s unfair.
I believe it takes five to ten years until a president leaves office to judge how their presidency changed the country. Look at Trump; his remaking of the Supreme Court had far more significant changes on the country after he left office than while in office. If Trump gets a second term till 2028, I don’t think judging his time in office till 2035-2040 will be fair.
So that takes me to George W. Bush and why I believe he was the worst president of my lifetime… even worse than Obama.
The Legacy of George W. Bush
When Bush put his hand on the bible to become the 43rd president of the United States, the country was in a decent place, but it was the last light before a very dark tunnel.
His predecessor, Bill Clinton, with the help of the Republican Congress, had ushered through welfare reform; Congress also passed new measures to crack down on illegal immigration, which steadily grew under Clinton’s presidency from 1.2 million border apprehensions in 1992 to 1.7 million in 2000. The U.S. hit a budget surplus of $230 billion by 2000. We were on track to pay off the debt by 2012. Race relations were better than they had been probably ever as Americans increasingly grew tired of appeasing white guilt following the OJ trial. Crime across the country fell by nearly half from 1991 to 2000, with the decline coming especially from major cities like New York and Los Angeles. Even teenage pregnancy and abortion were on a steady decline, while the overall fertility rate remained at a healthy 2.06 children per woman.
It certainly wasn’t perfect, but America was in a decent place, and Bush became the first Republican President since 1928 to begin his term with a Republican-controlled Congress.
In the blink of an eye, he squandered all of it.