It's barely even close. Everything that was horrible about Trump was presaged by Bush. He unleashed far more harm on the world than Trump did.

  • Tatoes [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Agreed, and I'm really fucking tired of the "cool" points incredibly online (mostly white) leftists who try to score lefty points by saying Bush was worse. This country quite possibly wouldn't have survived another 4 years of Trump. It may not survive 4 years of Biden because of the incredible damage that Trump has caused.

    Bush = Bad because he expanded the imperial footprint while assaulting civil liberties that paved the way for Trump era no-fascism to emerge

    Obama = Bad because he didn't roll back the Bush era excesses of forever war and corporate handouts, and allowed the simmering white nationalism to reach a boiling point

    Trump = Literally the guy the first two presidents paved the way for, but is somehow not worse? How does that work?

    If you are going to argue that person A is bad because he leads to person B, then IT STANDS TO REASON that person B must be worse, otherwise why even be upset about person A leading to person B? So Bush was worse because he led us to Trump, who, turns out, wasn't really that bad? Is that it? That the argument you wanna go with?

    Every Republican president in our lifetime has been worse than the one before. Each one of them laid the groundwork for their successor to run further to the right. That trend didn't suddenly stop with Trump.

    Trump let almost half a million Americans die because he couldn't be bothered to give a shit about a deadly pathogen, which also cratered the economy like Bush (possibly worse, remains to be seen). The percentage of Americans who are unemployed and currently facing eviction or being forced to steal from grocery stores does not bode well for the economic rebound.

    And it's not like he didn't try to start foreign wars. He literally supported a coup in Venezuela, droned more than Obama, and ASSASSINATED a foreign leader in Iran. He doesn't get dove points just because he didn't succeed. Iran proved to be a more rational actor than the US, and that's honestly the only reason why we weren't dragged into an unwinnable regional conflict.

    Oh, and white nationalism and the militia movement actually increased during a Republican president for like the first time ever. They usually increase during democratic presidencies and usually recede during republican presidencies. But this time they actually increased during Trump. I'm sure that will just simmer down though with absolutely no consequences whatsoever. Sure. A significant portion of our country has been brainwashed to sincerely believe in repackaged nazi propaganda but I guess that was just a goof? Trump successfully convinced half of the country that the other half shouldn't be allowed to exist. How's that gonna work out, you think? Oh, are they suddenly going to go back to believing in democracy? The group of white supremacist small business milita cops who attempted a lethal autogolpe in order to establish minority rule by force. Those guys. The ones who have been primed to desire an authoritarian ruler. You think they're just going to go away?

    Do you guys even care about the things you pretend to care about? How can you be so insightful deconstructing the inevitable damage Bush caused and yet be so blind to the damage that Trump has and will continue to cause after his presidency?

    • Sunn_Owns [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Leftists say it because Bush has been re-habilitated as some kind of okay President. He wasn't. Trump and Bush were both disastrous.

      • Tatoes [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Right, but the reflex to project out all the things that Bush paved the way for without also projecting out all the things Trump just paved the way for is intellectually dishonest at best, fascist apologia at worse. Bush was tragedy. Trump was farce.

          • Tatoes [none/use name]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Every fucking leftist worth his or her salt correctly saw the roads paved by the Bush administration and were appalled by what was surely to come. The Trump administration proved most of them to be correct. I'm telling you now what has been paved by the Trump administration and you're giving me 8th grade level philosophy in return.

            • Sunn_Owns [none/use name]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Every fucking leftist worth his or her salt correctly saw the roads paved by the Bush administration and were appalled by what was surely to come. The Trump administration proved most of them to be correct.

              I agree.

              I’m telling you now what has been paved by the Trump administration and you’re giving me 8th grade level philosophy in return.

              I get where your frustration is coming from. Trump's abasement of the norms will become the new normal, as it was under Bush. If we were to apply a historical materialist lens to Bush and Trump, the future should be obvious (Republicans will become more aggressive in enacting minority rule and continue hoarding capital).

              I just didn't get all that from your first post.

              you’re giving me 8th grade level philosophy in return.

              Seems unnecessary.

      • Tatoes [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        no idea why my posts above were all removed. I linked the rise of white nationalism and mass gun violence with the rise of the militarized police state and noted that the cry of "blue lives matter" and "law and order" has always been a way of vocalizing a rising fascist desire to rid the country of minorities. A significant portion of the population has been primed to deem their political opponents as illegitimate while also viewing acts of political violence as being a viable way of getting what they want. They have expressly formulated that they believe the role of the state should be to use the monopoly of force against minority communities and are willing to agitate violently in order to achieve this.

        But I guess I didn't dunk hard enough on liberals so I they got removed.