Zak Babcock

To the editor:

From early in his first term, we have been told that President Bush is very focused on his legacy and his place in history. He has suggested that though many of his decisions have been unpopular in the present day, 50 or a 100 years from now, people will view him and his time in office very differently.

Now I am certainly not a palm reader, oracle, or time traveler, yet, I find this concept preposterous. Time and again, this President and his advisors have chosen the benefit of a few to the detriment of the many. His social policies have sought to exclude people and to eliminate important and necessary social support programs in the name of easing the tax burden for the richest five percent of the citizenry. His economic policies have forced his government to borrow trillions of dollars from strategically-questionable foreign countries such as China. His job creation programs have really been a thinly-veiled maneuver to justify sending millions of skilled-jobs overseas in exchange for many exciting new opportunities for our working and middle class at Wal-Mart. His education plan — the “No Child Left Behind Act” — is a smoke screen trying to force privatization in government funded education which would only serve to widen the gap between those who have and those who have not and furthermore, would greatly reduce the accountability that has ironically been the focus of every education speech the man has ever given. His environmental policy has been a combination of major oversight reduction and standards devolution at a time when basically every credible scientist on the planet has told him that action must come now to stymie the devastating effects of global warming. His foreign policy has been nothing short of disturbing to anyone who wishes for this country to co-exist with its peers rather than attempt to control them with the tip of a neo-con bayonet. Ignoring many diplomatic opportunities, he has pursued a totally unnecessary and unwinnable war in Iraq based on false and ever-changing justification that has led to the deaths of thousands of American troops and Iraqi citizens, the creation of a true terrorist breeding ground in the Middle East, a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites, and the loss of billions of dollars in missing no-bid contracts. And finally, the Bush propaganda machine has made huge strides in trying to convince the general citizenry that patriotism is found only in those who blindly follow their leaders never questioning the decisions that are made and certainly never protesting them. Though our founders wanted each citizen to be a free thinker and a leader, our current leaders call for the exact opposite. They deride any doubts expressed about their policy maneuvering despite the demand from our founders that questioning the leaders of this country be not only the citizen’s right but also his responsibility.

As a young teenager, I recall watching the funeral of President Nixon and feeling confused about how positive a reception the man was receiving by the entire nation given the indiscretions of his presidency. It became clearer to me as I further studied his years in office and came to realize that though in many ways his legacy was that of Watergate and a failure to achieve success through escalation and “Vietnamization” of the war in Southeast Asia, many could fondly remember him for his roll in the opening of China and other such less-discussed achievements of his presidency.

I am struck by how fundamentally different the case is for our current president. Bush’s legacy will clearly be one of utter failure, greed, pedantic ignorance of reality, and devastation to the country he claims to love so much. I believe his place in history will be one of infamy that can only grow with time as the decisions and policies of his presidency continue to negatively impact so many aspects of our lives for years to come.

Zak Babcock

Tilton