Like him or not, George Bush has done something never before done in human history by anyone I can think of -- bring democracy to a faraway country that didn't have it by force of his own will (because there's no way this would have happened had he not been elected). No one, not even Roosevelt, can say as much.
Any competent historian can quibble with Simons' point, but his larger implication, that Bush is one of the truly great presidents, is becoming more apparent as time goes by. The man just keeps growing and growing and his critics keep getting smaller and smaller.
A lot of things would not have happened if Bush had not been elected. One thing that would have happened was 9/11. One measure of Bush's accomplishment is how small and superfluous his opponents seem in retrospect. Can you seriously imagine Gore or Kerry reshaping the world and America's role in it as Bush has done? Can you imagine either of them imbuing us with the sense of national purpose that Bush has done?
2 comments:
Believe it or not, I can. I can easily imagine Gore or McCain or Kerry or any of a great number of other leaders being both strong and smart in response to the attacks.
Frankly, I don't believe Bush has "grown" all that much, except in the sense of growing comfortable with an easy strain of rhetoric. And he's gotten better at picking sycophantic operatives.
Here we will just have to agree to disagree. Neither Gore nor Kerry inspired much confidence in me. Neither did Bush at first, but he has grown mightily in my estimation.
Post a Comment